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, Elie Kaunfer's forthcoming book.

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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 and rosh yeshiva at Mechon Hadar and chair in Jewish Thought. He served as scholar-in-residence at Kehilat Hadar, taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and is a Jacob Javits fellow in religion at Harvard University. A Wexner Graduate Fellow, Shai was director of education and conservative rabbinic advisor at Harvard Hillel. A graduate of Harvard, he has taught for institutions such as the Drisha Institute, Hebrew College, Meah, UJACJP, and the Rabbinic Training Institute.

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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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Alyssa Frank

Alyssa Frank is the Director of Community Engagement of Mechon Hadar.  She received her BA from Barnard College, her MPA from NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and is  completing an MA in Hebrew and Judaic Studies at NYU as a Taub Scholar.  Prior to her role at Mechon Hadar, Alyssa has held development and marketing positions at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the NYU Child Study Center, and the JCC in Manhattan. A long-time board member of Kol Zimrah, she has also presented her workshop "Fundraising for Grassroots Jewish Organizations" at a number of Jewish communal conferences, including Mechon Hadar’s Independent Minyan Conference.

Avram Sand

Avram Sand is the Program Coordinator of Mechon Hadar.  He recently graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in East Asian Studies.  He ws a fellow at Yeshivat Hadar in 2008.

Jaclyn Rubin

Jaclyn Rubin graduated from Barnard and the Jewish Theological Seminary with B.A.’s in English and Talmud, respectively. Jaclyn holds an M.A. in Talmud from the Jewish Theological Seminary, and completed a year in the Drisha Scholar's Circle. A fellow in the first summer of Yeshivat Hadar, she is now learning there full time.

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