Dr. Jonathan Sarna is the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University and Chief Historian of the new National Museum of American Jewish History. Dubbed by the Forward newspaper in 2004 as one of America’s fifty most influential American Jews, he was Chief Historian for the 350th commemoration of the American Jewish community, and is recognized as a leading commentator on American Jewish...

Ruth Langer, C’86, is Associate Professor of Jewish Studies in the Theology Department and Associate Director of the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning at Boston College. Her book, Cursing the Christians?: A History of the Birkat HaMinim, has just appeared with Oxford University Press.

Rabbi Nehemiah Polen, Ph.D., is a National Jewish Book Award recipient and is Professor of Jewish Thought at Hebrew College, Boston.

Rabbi Aaron Panken, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Rabbinic and Second Temple Literature at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. He has taught at the College since 1995, and served as Dean from 1998-2006. An alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, he earned his doctorate in Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University, where his research focused on legal change in Talmudic and Midrashic Literature. He...

Professor Manuel Trajtenberg was appointed Chairman of the Budgeting and Planning Committee of the Council for Higher Education in Israel in September 2009, after serving as (first) Head of the National Economic Council at the Prime Minister Office in Israel, and chief economic advisor to the Prime Minister during 2006-2009. He has been a Professor of Economics at Tel Aviv University since 1984, obtained his Ph.D. at Harvard University, held...

RABBI DENNIS S. ROSS directs Concerned Clergy for Choice, an interfaith reproductive rights advocacy network of 1000 clergy. A project of the Education Fund of Family Planning Advocates of New York State, Concerned Clergy for Choice has earned national recognition for its advocacy and media work during the national health care reform debate and as Congress considered defunding Planned Parenthood. Concerned Clergy for Choice also contributed a...

Martha Minow is the Dean and Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Professor at Harvard Law School where she has taught since 1981.  An expert in human rights with a focus on members of racial and religious minorities and women, children, and persons with disabilities, her scholarship also has addressed private military contractors, management of mass torts, transitional justice, and law, culture, and social change.  She has published over 150 scholarly...

Michael Marmur is Vice President for Academic Affairs at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Previously, he served as Dean of the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem. In recent years he has taught courses in Theology, Homiletics, and Pluralistic Jewish Education. Born and raised in England, Rabbi Marmur completed a B.A. degree in Modern History at the University of Oxford before moving to Israel...

Harold Kushner is Rabbi Laureate of Temple Israel in the Boston suburb of Natick, Mass., after serving that congregation for twenty-four years.  He is best known as the author of WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE, an international best seller first published in 1981.  The book has been translated into fourteen languages and was recently selected by members of the Book of the Month Club as one of the ten most influential books of recent...

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the next president of the Union for Reform Judaism, has for 20 years been the dynamic, visionary spiritual leader at Westchester Reform Temple (WRT) in Scarsdale, New York. During his time as senior rabbi of WRT, Rabbi Jacobs has left an indelible mark on the congregation by dramatically reshaping the communal worship and strengthening the community’s commitment to making the congregation vibrant and inclusive. Through a...

Dr. Arthur Green is the Rector of the Rabbinical School of and Irving Brudnick Professor of Jewish Philosophy and Religion at Hebrew College.  He is Professor Emeritus at Brandeis University, where he occupied the distinguished Philip W. Lown Professorship of Jewish Thought.  He is both a historian of Jewish religion and a theologian; his work seeks to form a bridge between these two distinct fields of endeavor. Educated at Brandeis and at the...

After graduating from the University of Michigan and the Boston University School of Law, Michael joined the National Labor Relations Board’s Appellate Court Branch where he successfully litigated more than fifteen cases on behalf of the Board in the United States Courts of Appeals. Michael left the Board to represent the interests of labor unions and employees in collective bargaining, arbitration, federal court litigation, and before a...

Sylvia Barack Fishman, Chair of the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Department at Brandeis University, is the Joseph and Esther Foster Professor of Contemporary Jewish Life; and also co-director of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute. Professor Fishman is the author of seven books and numerous monographs and articles on the interplay of American and Jewish values, the impact of Jewish education, and contemporary Jewish literature and film. Her most...

Dr. Paula Brody holds a Doctorate in Education from Boston University and a Masters in Social Work from the University of Michigan.  She has over 35 years of experience as a family life educator and counselor.  For the past 23 years Dr. Brody has served on the Outreach staff of the Union for Reform Judaism, working with interfaith families and individuals exploring conversion.  In her current position as the Director of The Outreach Training...