AOP Incoming Class 2021-22

Rochelle was a school librarian and a clinical social worker. As a member of Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, she is embarking on her sixth year teaching Judaics, beginning Hebrew, and electives such as puppetry and creating graphic novels. Rochelle also plays the piano and writes fiction as her creative outlets. She lives in Towson with husband Perry and daughter Miriam.

Igal is a spiritual director, meditation teacher, and a practitioner of NARM, an advanced therapy for healing developmental trauma. He offers NARM sessions, spiritual direction, and mental health coaching, as well as conducts meditative attunement workshops for therapists. Igal has taught meditation to thousands of people on four continents and has spent years in extended meditation retreats. He has translated into Hebrew various books on religion and spirituality for Israel’s largest publisher. Igal lives in New York City with his wife, Rabbi Lisa Goldstein, and their foster son.

Elizheva grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1970s and has roots in Memphis and Birmingham, AL. She has been an education director and a Jewish educator for several decades. She has worked for Kehilla Community Synagogue, The Contemporary Jewish Museum, the JCCSF, The Kitchen SF, Netivot Shalom, and B’nai Tikvah. With a Master’s in Jewish Art and Material Culture from the Jewish Theological Seminary, Elizheva is an artist who loves working with fabric, making custom tallitot and huppot. She lives in Oakland with her spouse and son.

Kathryn is an academic, a writer, and a counselor cyber-commuting from the Fiji Islands. One of the inaugural ALEPH Kesher fellows, they hold a Ph.D. in biblical studies and a Ph.D. in literature and creative writing. They have published on such topics as ghosts and ancestor worship in the biblical tradition, ancient Near Eastern goddesses, leadership and justice, and the biblical theologies of comic books. Kathryn is editing their first satirical novel, writing and illustrating a picture book on grief, and working on a book – based on their dissertation – about Qohelet and the philosophy of death.

Josh has been active, since the early 2000’s, in the Jackson Hole Jewish Community, where he is a teacher and Director of Bet Sefer, a youth mentor for B’nei Mitzvah, a baker of challah, as well as a co-facilitator of services, holidays, lifecycle events, and Torah study. Josh has also been a place-based educator for two decades, teaching students and teachers of all ages in hands-on ways in the classroom and out in nature. A trained Torah Trek Guide, Josh has a passion for exploring how his place-based teaching intersects with Judaism. He is constantly searching for beautiful Jewish traditions to share with his community. He lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with his beloved Kalen and three children.

Lauren is the cantorial soloist at Temple Beth Torah in Chantilly, Virginia, where she leads worship services, educates Bar/Bat Mitzvah students, as well as supports her diverse congregation in any way she can. A board member of the Guild of Temple Musicians, Lauren has over twenty years of experience as a Jewish educator, serving at all levels. She has led High Holiday and Shabbat services, tutored B’nai Mitzvah students, sang at lifecycle events, and performed in local community theaters.

A longtime educator and administrator at Hebrew schools and synagogues, Becky serves as student rabbi for Congregation Neve Shalom in St Louis, Missouri. After earning a B.A. in Linguistics from Bar-Ilan University in Israel, she moved to St Louis where she built a career in IT and raised her children. Becky volunteered for many years with the Missouri Department of Corrections as a Chaplain’s Assistant, facilitating the meditation circle at a medium security facility. She also volunteered with the local Chevrah Kadishah and is pursuing the establishment of a liberal alternative Chevrah Kadishah in her community. Becky credits late husband Sveinn for following her dream of rabbinical school.

Ellen received her Ph.D. in Nursing Science from the University of California, San Francisco, and is Professor Emerita at the UCI (University of California, Irvine) Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing and Founding Director of UCI’s Program in Nursing Science. A Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner, she serves on the Advisory Board of the Orange County Women’s Health Project. Ellen became bat mitzvah at 60 and chairs the tikkun olam committee of her synagogue, Congregation Shir Ha-Ma’alot. In addition to her rabbinic studies, Ellen is completing a Master’s in Jewish Studies at the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership.

Raechel is a New York based singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. She majored in music at LaGuardia High School and Wesleyan University. She has toured the United States with her original music and received critical acclaim from publications such as The FADER, Glide Magazine, and BTRtoday. Raechel has accompanied Hazzan Basya Schechter (AOP Class of 2016) on voice and shruti box for Romemu’s High Holy Day services in Brooklyn, as well as on various Shabbat evenings and mornings. She is now the cantorial soloist for High Holidays at Hebrew Congregation of Somers.

A vocalist, composer, music therapist and educator, Lisa is professor at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where she teaches Embodied VoiceWork, a vocal improvisation method which she developed and is used in arts education, music therapy, and human-potential work. Her book, Embodied VoiceWork: Beyond Singing, was published in 2020. Lisa trains everyday folks, artists, physicians, and therapists internationally and has performed on many stages worldwide, including Montreaux Jazz, Kool Jazz Festival, Havana International Jazz Festival and the Spoleto Festival. Her many recordings include Presence, named Best CD of the Year and Best of the Decade from DownBeat Magazine. Lisa has also served at her local havurah as a lay cantor for fourteen years.

Sue is a visual artist, writer, and community builder who loves the musicality of language, the storytelling of color, and the push-pull of liberation. She is the author of we who desire, a book of Torah-inspired poetry. She recently completed a fellowship with Indiana University/Purdue University on “Noah, the Flood, and the Environmental Imagination.” After decades as a labor and social justice organizer and educator, Sue brought her passion to Jewish communal life and has served as board member, treasurer, president, and co-founder of a Jewish Renewal minyan at her synagogue. Her most precious role is satva/grandmother.

Lorin first enters AOP as part of the second cohort of the Earth-Based Judaism Program, bringing together his passion for Judaism, the natural world, and building healthy sustainable practices. He has served as rabbinic intern at Temple Beth El in Portland, Maine. After graduating from Babson College, he spent five years in Australia developing an environmental and feminist consciousness. He then directed the Hillel at the University of California, Santa Cruz, earned an MBA focusing on sustainability, developed Blue Lotus, a green business, and worked with YES! (Youth for Environmental Sanity) and SunRidge Farms. Lorin and his partner Sussi Rowntree live in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

Dan, who grew up in a Reform community and found his connection to Judaism through music, studied music education at Colorado State University after earning a Bachelor’s in Human Development and Family Relations from the University of Colorado, Denver. He has taught music in classrooms and privately for over eleven years and is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, and DJ. Dan has served as music specialist, educator, cantorial soloist at several synagogues and camps and is a mentor for the Open Tent Be Mitzvah program at Judaism Your Way. He also practices and leads meditation, Qigong, and ecstatic dance. He and his wife Ali live in Denver.