Rabbi Zachary Truboff is the author of Zionism In Crisis: Jewish Power and Moral Responsibility After October 7. He serves as the Director of the International Beit Din Institute for Agunah Research and Education. His first book was Torah Goes Forth From Zion: Essays on the Thought of Rav Kook and Rav Shagar. Before making aliyah, he served as a synagogue rabbi in Cleveland, Ohio for nearly a decade. He lives with his wife, Jen, and four children in Jerusalem. 

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Rabbi Yonatan Neril founded and directs the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development (ICSD), which reveals the connection between religion and ecology and mobilizes faith communities to act. ICSD's Jewish Eco Seminars branch engages and educates the Jewish community by revealing the powerful connection between Israel, ecology, and Jewish values.  Yonatan is a member of the World Economic Forum's Faith In Action working group. He authored the bestselling book Eco Bible: An Ecological Commentary on the Hebrew Bible. He speaks internationally on religion and ecology, including at the World Economic Forum in Davos, multiple UN climate conferences, and the Parliament of World Religions. Through his work at ICSD, he engages on the cutting edge of digital storytelling on faith and ecology together with Nas Daily's 1000 Media, a top-tier video production firm. Since 2024, they have created 80 videos, which received over ten million views. In 2023 he initiated and co-organized the first-ever Faith Pavilion at a UN climate conference (COP28 in Dubai), which included 70 sessions with 325 speakers. Yonatan has also co-organized twelve interfaith environmental conferences in the U.S. and Israel. Raised in California, Yonatan completed his M.A. and B.A. from Stanford University where he conducted research on renewable energy in India, and on genetically modified corn in Mexico. He received rabbinical ordination in Israel and lives with his wife, Shana, and their two children in Jerusalem. He enjoys hiking and being in nature.

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Avidan Freedman is one of the founders and the director of Yanshoof, an organization dedicated to ending Israel's arms sales to human rights violators, as well as an educator at the Shalom Hartman Institute. He is also an activist who has offered a religious voice on issues relating to Israel and its moral responsibilities. He received semicha from the Israeli chief rabbinate and from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, and lives in Efrat with his wife and their 5 children.

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A descendant of seven generations of Danish Rabbis, Rabbi Melchior was born in Denmark, is an ordained Orthodox rabbi and immigrated to Israel in 1986. He serves as the Chief Rabbi of Norway and as Av Beit Din of the Scandinavian Countries and is the rabbi of a vibrant orthodox community in Jerusalem. He was elected to the Knesset in 1999 and served for 10 years in roles including: Minister for Social Affairs and World Jewry; Deputy Minister of Education & Culture; and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. In addition, he was the founding chairman of Birthright Israel.

Rabbi Michael Melchior is the founder and chairman of The Mosaica Center for Religious Conflict Transformation in the Middle East and The Jerusalem Center for Mediation and Consensus-Building. This Initiative aims to discreetly respond to and alleviate crisis situations behind the scenes while also cultivating a web of relationships between religious and political leaders to advance religious peacebuilding. By acting as an “insider religious mediator,” Rabbi Melchior has made strides in helping to advance a warm ‘religious peace’ in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as conflicts around the world. This work includes mitigating violence in mixed Jewish-Arab cities in Israel as well as helping to facilitate religious rulings that promote human sanctity and dignity. 

In addition to founding Mosaica, which actively works to build a religious peace between leaders of all religions in the Middle East and  offers professional mediation services adapted to the particular needs of a wide range of sectors, populations, cultures, languages, and religions in Israel Rabbi Melchior has founded Meitarim, a network of over 170 inclusive Jewish schools and communities in Israel enabling diverse populations on the Jewish – Israeli sequence to live together and to study jointly in an optimal educational climate that allows each and every one to devise their identity. The network assists in establishing and accompanying mixed communities and inclusive educational frameworks. 

Another organization Melchior founded is The Citizen's Accord Forum, which promotes the building of bridges of coexistence and justice between Israeli Jews and Israeli-Arabs.  

Rabbi Melchior is also an internationally renowned Jewish leader, thinker and activist and a leading advocate for social justice in Israel, interfaith dialogue and a voice for peaceful co-existence.

http://www.rabbimichaelmelchior.org

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Recorded on May 5, 2026
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Sources used in today's class:
Agunah.odp: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1okwvvpqrQfwjJg1UMwoqW2MvRXUAZQ87/view
Agunah We have a Solution.pdf: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nmvmMDJIheFNgUeAgTHuS2rqvvZsUBDK/view?usp=sharing
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Rabbi Haim Ovadia, born and raised in Jerusalem, was shaped by strong Zionist ideals and a rich Sephardic rabbinic tradition that values Tanakh, Hebrew poetry, and the sciences alongside the study of Talmud and Halakha, and promotes a humane, inclusive approach to Judaism. He was ordained by Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, studied Talmud at Bar-Ilan University, and earned an MA in Hebrew Literature from UCLA. Over more than thirty years, he has served as a community rabbi in diverse communities across Israel, South America, and both coasts of the United States, and has been a faculty member at the Academy for Jewish Religion of California since 2002. Alongside his rabbinic leadership, he has been active in social advocacy, promoting inclusion and practical, empowering halakhic solutions, and has reached thousands worldwide through teaching, podcasts, YouTube, and distance learning. He is currently teaching at Ramaz High School in Manhattan.
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Rabbi Aaron Leibowitz is a Jerusalem-based rabbi, activist, and institutional change-maker whose work has reshaped the landscape of religious life in Israel. He currently serves as CEO of Chuppot, the pioneering Orthodox wedding organization he founded in 2018 to provide halachically rigorous marriages independent of the Chief Rabbinate - an initiative that has now served over 2,000 couples. He is also a member of the leadership team of Rabanut Yisraelit, the groundbreaking pluralistic rabbinic training and network program at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, where he teaches weekly.

Rabbi Leibowitz has spent his career building alternatives to institutional monopolies in Israeli religious life. In 2012, he founded Hashgacha Pratit, Israel's first independent kashrut organization and the first to employ women as supervisors - a project that broke the Chief Rabbinate's exclusive hold on kosher supervision and was later transferred to Tzohar. In 2018, he launched Chuppot on the same premise: that Israeli couples deserve a dignified, high-quality religious marriage outside the Rabbinate's jurisdiction.

Ordained by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin and Rabbi Chaim Brovender in 1996, he serves as the Rabbi of the Va'ani Tefillah community in Nachlaot, Jerusalem. From 2015 to 2018, he served on the Jerusalem City Council, representing the pluralistic Yerushalmim party and holding the education portfolio.

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The Reverend Aaron R. Dunn serves as Associate Rector at Grace Episcopal Church in Silver Spring, MD and as Ecumenical and Interreligious Officer for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. He is a graduate of Virginia Theological Seminary where he earned a Master of Divinity degree and a certificate in Muslim-Christian Studies through the Washington Theological Consortium. His thesis, “Constructive Problematizing Dialogue: A New Model for Abrahamic Exchange,” has since been published by the Journal for Interreligious Studies. In 2024, he was awarded the Anglican Communion Prize through the Center for Anglican Communion Studies at VTS in recognition for his “dedication to international Christian mission and theological understanding across cultural and theological difference.” Aaron has been involved as a discussion facilitator for interreligious organizations such as the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies and the Rumi Forum. In 2022, he participated in the ICJS Emerging Religious Leader’s Program, focusing on Muslim-Christian Dialogue, and in 2023 he completed training as a Scriptural Reasoning facilitator through the Rose Castle Foundation. In 2024, he participated in the inaugural Congregational Leaders Workshop through the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and is currently a participant in the CUIC Institute on Ecumenism. 

Prior to beginning his ordination, Fr. Aaron served as the Vocal Music and Theater Teacher at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, MD., and before that as voice faculty and Director of Opera Workshop at Lincoln University. Fr. Aaron additionally holds a Bachelor’s of Music in Vocal Performance from Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music, a Master’s of Music from the University of Tennessee, and has worked nationally and internationally as both a vocalist and stage director.

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Rabbanit Karen Miller Jackson is a certified Meshivat Halacha, Jewish educator and writer known for her contributions to Torah studies and educational initiatives, including at Matan Institute for Torah Studies. She is a member of the second cohort of Sacks Scholars and a Matan Kitvuni Fellow, currently writing a book on aggada in Talmud Berachot. Karen is also the creator of #PowerParsha, host of the Eden Center podcast Women & Wellbeing, and is the founder of Kivun l’Sherut, a guidance program for religious girls before sherut le’umi or army service. She lives with her family in Ra’anana, Israel.

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Source sheet from this class: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11He-AsNYYvxyZZ285i_-Mj2WdfFu1lJEw7w5cIpPglI/edit?tab=t.0

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Rabbanit Sharona Margolin Halickman was the first Congregational intern and Madricha Ruchanit at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale (1997-2004) where she provided religious education and spiritual direction for the community. She is a graduate of Yeshiva University (BA and MS) as well as Matan’s Eshkolot (Tanach) and Hilkheta programs. Sharona is the founder and director of Torat Reva Yerushalayim and she writes a weekly blog on the parsha for the Times of Israel. Sharona is the author of two books: Parsha Points: Torah from the Land of Israel and Parsha Points: More Torah from the Land of Israel. 

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What does Birkat Hamazon (Grace After Meals) Teach Us About Inclusivity and Ethics within the Parameters of Jewish Law? With: Rabbanit Dr. Adena Berkowitz

BIO:

Rabbanit Dr. Adena Berkowitz is Scholar in Residence and co-founder of Kol HaNeshamah NYC, an organization dedicated to reenergizing the spiritual lives of both affiliated and not-yet affiliated Jews. With a background in law, Jewish studies, and psychotherapy, Rabbanit Berkowitz is the author of the best selling The Jewish Journey Haggadah, now in its second printing; and co-editor of Shaarei Simcha: Gates of Joy, a mini prayer book, and the first liturgical work written in the modern era by Orthodox women. Touro Law Review featured her article "My Body, My Choice: Biblical, Rabbinic and Contemporary Halakhic Responses to Abortion" in Fall 2021 and her article "Brain Death and Organ Donation in Jewish Law" is featured in the just released The Oxford Handbook on Jewish Law, from Oxford University Press. A founder of the Hadassah National Attorneys Councils, Adena has long been active in interfaith dialogue. Currently a Fellow with the Ohr Torah Stone Jerusalem Interfaith Center, she was part of one of the first Jewish delegations to meet with the late Pope Francis. A popular teacher of Torah across the U.S. and Israel, Rabbanit Adena is a practicing therapist and lives in New York with her husband Rabbi Zev Brenner, children and grandchildren.  

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