Our Staff & Faculty
NYC office
Rebecca Voorwinde (BYFI '97)
Co-Director, Director of Strategy
& Community Engagement
An alumna of the program, Becky served as a volunteer member of BYFI's Alumni Advisory Board before taking the full-time position of BYFI's Director of Alumni Engagement in 2008. Becky's professional experience includes work in the Corporate Responsibility Group at Ernst & Young LLP. Becky spent several years in Melbourne, Australia, working at a non-profit human resources consultancy, Diversity @ Work. There, she advised public and private sector employers on how to increase the inclusion of diverse workers. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Barnard College with a B.A. in American Studies. Her senior thesis explored Jewish identity and involvement in the 1968 New York teachers' strike. Becky serves on the Advisory Board of InterfaithFamily.com and she is a Task Group member on Interfaith Inclusiveness for UJA Federation of NY. In 2009, she facilitated the "Networks of Purpose" track for the international Jewish leadership program, ROI. Becky resides in Brooklyn with her husband, Michael.
becky@byfi.org
Rabbi Mishael Zion
Co-Director and Director of Education
Mishael grew up in Jerusalem, also spending time in Silver Spring, Maryland and Cleveland, Ohio. Mishael served in the Israel Defense Forces and studied at Yeshivat Maale Gilboa and Hebrew University, graduating Summa Cum Laude. He co-authored the celebrated A Night to Remember: The Haggadah of Contemporary Voices (English, 2007) and the Israeli best-seller HaLaila HaZeh: Haggadah Yisraelit (Hebrew, 2004). With roots in both the Israeli and American Jewish communities, Mishael is dedicated to pluralistic Jewish identity and community building in both Israel and North America. He served as faculty at the Shalom Hartman Institute and the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem, was the Director and National Coach of the Israeli Debating Society, and worked for Israeli TV’s popular Channel Two. In 2008, he moved to New York and later received his rabbinic ordination from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, an open Orthodox rabbinical school. Mishael has been a faculty member at the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning and Yeshivat Hadar in New York and in 2010 was invited to serve as a Scholar at NYU School of Law’s Tikvah Center. He has been featured as a scholar-in-residence in diverse North American communities and has written for the NY Jewish Week, the Jerusalem Post and Yedioth Ahronot. Mishael and his wife Elana, a neuroscientist, are committed to furthering inclusivity and broadening women’s roles in synagogue and Jewish life. They have played an active role in partnership minyanim in Jerusalem, New York and Melbourne, Australia. Mishael and Elana live on the Upper West Side with their two daughters.
mishael@byfi.org
Naamah Paley (BYFI '02)
Senior Program Officer
Naamah Paley (BYFI '02) is excited to join the BYFI team as the new Senior Program Officer. Prior to this role, she worked for two years at the New Israel Fund as the Special Assistant to the Chief Operating Officer. There, she worked to increase the performance of NIF's national and international staff and researched the question of how to engage young Jews with Israel. While at NIF, Naamah was also a member of the BYFI Alumni Advisory Board, serving as the chair of the Events Committee.
Naamah graduated with highest honors in Middle Eastern and North African Studies from the University of Michigan in the spring of 2008. She studied extensive Arabic, including a semester abroad at the American University in Cairo and a summer at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. After graduation, Naamah spent a year living in Haifa on a Dorot Fellowship. This summer will be Naamah's seventh or eighth Bronfman summer: she was fortunate to participate in the program as a young child while her father, Rabbi Michael Paley, served as a BYFI faculty member.
naamah@byfi.org
Albany office
Ava Charne
Administrative Director
Ava has been part of the BYFI team since the fall of 1987. Ava serves as the liaison to applicants, Fellows, parents and alumni, and manages the logistics of the BYFI Fellowship and BYFI programs and events. Ava is very proud to say that she personally knows all 623 Bronfmanim. In addition to being BYFI's Administrative Director, Ava served as the executive director for the Capital District Women's Bar Association from 1987 through 2010. Prior to 1987, she was the Training, Safety and EEO Specialist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Veterinary Services. She holds her BA in political science and her Masters Degree in Public Administration from the State University of New York at Albany.
ava.charne@byfi.org
Rachel EsonAdministrative Assistant
Rachel has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the College of Saint Rose. She joins us from Empire Vision Centers where she worked as an optical assistant/contact lens assistant. Rachel is a freelance graphic designer and photojournalist, and has also been employed as a videographer. She brings with her a range of web and technical skills as well as a strong customer service background. In addition, in 2007 Rachel participated in the "IsraelExperts" Birthright Israel trip that had a profound impact on her Jewish identity.
rachel.eson@byfi.org
Heather Smith Accounts Manager
Heather has managed all financial operations for the organization both in the US and Israel since 2001. She received her Accounting degree in 1997 and is a Notary Public licensed in New York State. Outside BYFI, Heather serves as the Treasurer of the Battenkill Conservancy, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the Battenkill River where she resides, and does various freelance accounting jobs for local small businesses in the Albany area. She also holds a degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management which she received in 1991.
heather.smith@byfi.org
Israel Office
Matan Barak
Director of Amitei Bronfman
Matan lives in Tel Aviv and has a BA and MA from Hebrew University in Jewish Thought and Jewish Studies. Matan has been working in formal and informal education settings for 12 years and is an alumnus of the Revivim Program for enhancing Jewish studies in secular schools in Israel. Matan develops the educational vision and curriculum for the Amitei Broonfman Fellowship and manages the program. In addition, he works to build and strengthen the alumni community. When not working for Amitei Bronfman, Matan creates high school level curriculum.
matan@byfi.org
Klil Atad
Amitei Bronfman Office Manager
Klil currently lives in Jerusalem where she is studying for a BA in African Studies and International Relations at the Israeli Open University while working for Amitei Bronfman as office manager. In the monthsbefore starting work for Amitei Bronfman, Klil worked as an interviewer for a foreign workers' rights research project funded by the European Union.
Before returning to Israel 6 months ago, Klil lived and worked in Nepal for two years as project coordinator for an Israeli-Jewish NGO, Tevel B'Tzedek. Klil has also worked as a "Youth at Risk" guide for the Nature Protection Society in Netivot.
amitim@byfi.org
Avital Engelberg
Amitei Bronfman Educator
Avital lives in Jerusalem and has a BA from Tel Aviv University and is working towards her MA in Talmud and Halacha from Bar Ilan University. Avital is an alumna of the Halacha program at Midreshet Lindenbaum Seminary and has worked as a group leader and educator for various pluralistic Jewish education programs. Avital is the Amitei Bronfman group leader and develops the group's educational content and seminars.
avital@byfi.org
Daphna Ezrachi (Amitah '05)
Amitei Bronfman Alumni Project Associate
Daphi, an alumna of Amitei Bronfman, was born and raised in Jerusalem. She is a graduate of the Reform Movement's pre-army Mechina program in Yaffo and served in the Israel Defense Forces. Since returning from travels in South America in September 2010, Daphi has worked for BYFI, first as office and communications manager and currently as alumni project associate. She is in her first year of her BA at Ben Gurion University studying Jewish Studies and History.
daphi@byfi.org
Alex Roitman
Amitei Bronfman Educator
Alex was born in Kishinev and made aliyah in 1989 to Rehovot, Israel, where he was active in the youth movement there. Alex received his BA and MA from Hebrew University in Bible and Jewish Studies. He has worked as an educator in formal and informal educational settings for many years and has led different groups for Hillel and Beit Midrash Elul. In addition to working as an Amitei Bronfman group leader and developing the group's educational content and seminars, Alex teaches in Hadash College and in the Rene Kasen High School. Alex is actively involved in promoting theater and culture in Israel.
amitim2011@gmail.com
Bronfman Youth Fellowships in Israel - 2011 Faculty
Rabbi Andy Bachman is the Rabbi at Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn. This will be Andy's fourth summer on faculty. Born in 1963, Andy was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Educated in public schools in the northern suburbs of Milwaukee, he studied history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Andy was ordained in 1996 by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. As a rabbinical student, he served as Educator at Congregation Beth Elohim, overseeing the religious school and adult education, and working as a student rabbi. After his ordination in 1996, Andy served as Rabbi Educator until 1998, when he became Executive Director of the Edgar M. Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life: Hillel at New York University. In 2003, Andy and his wife, Rachel Altstein, along with several friends, founded Brooklyn Jews, an innovative outreach program for the many unaffiliated Jews who have made Brooklyn their home in the past decade. Rabbi Bachman was on the Newsweek and Forward 50 list. He blogs daily atwww.andybachman.com. Andy's wife, Rachel, and their three daughters, Audrey, Lois and Minna will join us this summer in Israel.
Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld has been with BYFI since 1993. She has been the Dean of the Rabbinical School at Hebrew College since 2006. Prior to assuming this position, she served as an adjunct faculty member at the Rabbinical School and then as Dean of Students. She graduated from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1990, and subsequently spent 15 years working in pluralistic settings as a Hillel rabbi at Tufts, Yale and Harvard. She is the co-editor of two volumes of women's writings on Passover, The Women's Seder Sourcebook and The Women's Passover Companion. Sharon, her husband Shimmy, and their two children will join us in Israel this summer.
Rabbi Josh Feigelson joined the Fiedler Hillel staff at Northwestern University in 2005 after ordination from YCT Rabbinical School in New York. A native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, Josh majored in music at Yale University, where he played tuba in the Yale Symphony and conducted a student orchestra. Josh is an Eagle Scout (really), and at age 19 served as the top elected youth officer in the Boy Scouts of America. (Click here for a nifty pic of Josh in his uniform.) After a year studying at a seminary in Jerusalem, Josh worked for an arts management consulting firm before finding that the rabbinate was his calling. Josh is a leading thinker about Jewish life and higher education, and is pursuing a PhD in the Northwestern Department of Religious Studies in that area. He is a founder of www.askbigquestions.com, and he writes regularly at his blog, www.rabbijosh.com. Josh and his wife Natalie, and their young sons Jonah and Micah, will join us this summer in Israel.
Ilana Kurshan (BYFI '95), will be serving on her third summer as faculty. She is an alumna of the program. Ilana graduated from Harvard, where she studied nineteenth-century British phrenology. After college, she spent a year in England studying British Romantic poetry at Cambridge and has been working in book publishing for the last eight years, first at Random House in New York. Five years ago Ilana moved to Israel and began her current job at a literary agency, where she sells translation rights to publish books in Hebrew. (The first book she ever sold was by a Bronfman alumna: Dara Horn's The World to Come, now available in Hebrew.) In addition to her work as a literary agent, she also serves as the Books Editor for Lilith Magazine, a Jewish feminist quarterly; and she writes study guides about Israeli fiction for the Sochnut (the Jewish Agency). When not working, she spends most of her free time studying Jewish texts. She learns Daf Yomi (a page of Talmud a day) in a local synagogue, and for the past three years she's been working on a project to write one limerick or sonnet corresponding to each page of the Talmud. Ilana is also involved in an egalitarian minyan called Kehilat Kedem, where she reads Torah most Shabbat mornings. She enjoys swimming laps in Jerusalem every morning before work. Ilana lives in Jerusalem with her husband, Daniel.
The Rotating Faculty
The Rotating Faculty includes educators associated with different movements and perspectives within Judaism. All of them have spent long periods in Israel and have extensive experience working with young people.
Rabbi Jethro Berkman teaches Hebrew Bible and creates experiential education programs at Gann Academy: The New Jewish High School of Greater Boston. In 2007, he graduated from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC). Jethro was a Wexner Graduate Fellow and was a recipient of a Dorot Fellowship in Israel.
Rabbi Dianne Cohler-Esses has been with BYFI since 1997, most recently as Senior Educator. She received her ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary, and is currently a Scholar-In-Residence for UJA Federation of New York.
Rabbi James Diamond has been with BYFI since 1997, was Executive Director at Princeton University Hillel and serves as a consultant to Hillel's Schusterman International Center.
Rabbi Laurence Edwards has been with BYFI since 1995, was ordained at Hebrew Union College and received his PhD at Chicago Theological Seminary. He was Executive Director of Hillel at Cornell and is the Rabbi of Congregation Or Chadash.
Rabbi Shimon Felix is the Executive Director Emeritus of the program. He was born in New York, and has lived in Jerusalem since 1973. Rabbi Felix has been associated with BYFI since 1991. He received his rabbinic ordination from Yeshivat Hamivtar, where he served as educational director. Rabbi Felix has worked in a wide variety of educational programs including Michelelet Bruria, the Israeli school system and Yakar. He headed The Jewish Agency's Bureau for Cultural Services to Communities and also served as assistant to Dr. Jonathan Sachs, the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain.
Rabbi Claudia Kreiman was born and raised in Santiago de Chile. After spending many years in Israel, during which she received her ordination from Machon Shechter, the Conservative movement's Rabbinical School, and served as the Rabbi of Camp Ramah Noam in Israel, she now lives in Boston, and is about to take up the position of Assistant Rabbi at Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, MA.
Rabbi Audrey Marcus-Berkman, currently serves as the Rabbi of Shir Hadash, a Reconstructionist havurah in Newton, MA. She also serves as the Jewish Chaplain at a hospital in Newton, and teaches in communities throughout the Boston area. Audrey earned a Masters of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School. She was ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 2007 where she was a Wexner Graduate Fellow.
Rabbi Michael Paley was the program's Founding Director, and is presently the Executive Director of Synagogue and Community Affairs, UJA Federation of New York.
Rabbi James Ponet is the Jewish Chaplain at Yale University and Director of the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale.
Rabbi Avi Weinstein, Executive Director Emeritus, has been associated with BYFI since its inception in 1987, and is presently Director of Jewish Studies at the Upper School of the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Washington, DC.