Mechon Hadar Guest

Rabbi Elie Kaunfer

Rabbi Elie Kaunfer is co-founder, rosh yeshiva and executive director of Mechon Hadar and on the Talmud faculty at Yeshivat Hadar. A graduate of Harvard College, he was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he also completed an MA and is pursuing a doctorate in liturgy. A Wexner Graduate Fellow, Elie is a co-founder of Kehilat Hadar and in 2009 Newsweek named him one of  the top 50 rabbis in America. He was selected as an inaugural AVI CHAI Fellow, and is the author of Empowered Judaism: What Independent Minyanim Can Teach Us About Building Vibrant Jewish Communities (Jewish Lights, 2010).

Click here to learn more about Empowered Judaism: What Independent Minyanim Can Teach Us About Building Vibrant Jewish Communities.

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Rabbi Ethan Tucker

Rabbi Ethan Tucker is co-founder and rosh yeshiva at Mechon Hadar and chair in Jewish Law. Ethan was a faculty member at the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education, where he taught Talmud and Halakhah in the Scholars Circle. Ethan was ordained by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and earned a PhD in Talmud and Rabbinics from the Jewish Theological Seminary and a B.A. from Harvard College. A Wexner Graduate Fellow, he was a co-founder of Kehilat Hadar and a winner of the first Grinspoon Foundation Social Entrepreneur Fellowship.

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Avital Hochstein

Avital Campbell Hochstein is rosh yeshiva at Mechon Hadar and teaches Talmud at Yeshivat Hadar. She is the former rosh kollel at the Pardes Institute. A research fellow at Mechon Shalom Hartman, she has taught Talmud for several years at both institutions and was rosh beit midrash at the new Hartman High School for Girls. She is the co-author of The Place of Women in Midrash (Yedioth Ahronoth 2008). Avital is also a founder of Kehilat Shirah Hadashah in Jerusalem.

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Rabbi Shai Held

Rabbi Shai Held is Co-Founder, Rosh Yeshiva, and Chair in Jewish Thought at Mechon Hadar. Before that, he served for six years as Scholar-in-Residence at Kehilat Hadar in New York City, and taught both theology and Halakha at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He also served as Director of Education at Harvard Hillel. A renowned lecturer and educator, Shai is a 2011 recipient of the Covenant Award for excellence in Jewish education. He has taught for institutions such as Drisha, Me'ah, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, and the Rabbinic Training Institute, and currently serves on the faculty of the Wexner Heritage program. Shai has a PhD in religion from Harvard; his main academic interests are in modern Jewish and Christian thought and in the history of Zionism.

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Aryeh Bernstein

Aryeh Bernstein is the Director of Recruitment and Assistant Director of the Halakhah Think Tank of Mechon Hadar.  He has taught at the Drisha Institute and Jerusalem's Hartman High School for boys, and was a co-founder, teacher, and Rosh Kollel of the Northwoods Kollel and Beit Midrash Program at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin, where he has also served as Staff Educator.  Holding B.A.'s in Psychology from Columbia and Talmud from the Jewish Theological Seminary, he studied for seven years at Yeshivat Ma'ale Gilboa, as well as at Yeshivat Hamivtar and Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, and has partially completed the rabbinic examinations of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate.  Aryeh is an M.A. candidate in Talmud at Yeshiva University, and was a MeORoT Fellow.  He was a founding Co-Editor-in-Chief of Columbia's student journal of Jewish scholarship, Iggrot Ha-Ari, has been published in The Jerusalem Report, and has taught  and numerous communities and Hillels around the U.S. and Israel.

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Jason Rubenstein

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Amanda Pogany

Amanda Pogany is the fellows' project coordinator at Yeshivat Hadar. She teaches 8th grade Judaic Studies and Hebrew language at the Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan where she is also the middle school student life coordinator. A trained mentor through the Jewish New Teacher Project, Amanda mentors for the Davidson School at JTS, the Pardes Educators program, and the Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan. Amanda is a graduate of the Pardes Educators Program, has a Masters in Jewish Education from Hebrew University and a BA from Barnard College. She is co-founder of Altshul, an independent egalitarian minyan in Brooklyn.  She lives in Brooklyn with her husband Aaron Bisman and their son Asher.

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Mindy Schachtman

Mindy Schachtman is Director of Institutional Advancement at Mechon Hadar. Prior to joining the Mechon Hadar team, she served as the Director of Institutional Advancement for Yeshiva University High Schools and Yeshiva University's Program for Jewish Genetic Health. Mindy's experience in fundraising also includes positions at the Brooklyn College Foundation and as a consultant for Community Counselling Service LLC. Mindy holds Bachelors Degrees from Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary.