Hashpa’ah Training Program Faculty

Rabbi Shawn Israel Zevit, HDD, was ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1998, and has smicha from Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi as a rabbi and Mashpia Ruchani (Spiritual Director). He serves as rabbi at Mishkan Shalom, in Philadelphia, PA. A member of the Aleph Ordination Program VAAD and faculty, he has been involved in teaching, supervising, and training Jewish and Multifaith Spiritual Directors for over twenty years. He is co-founder/director with Rabbi Marcia Prager of the Davennen Leader’s Training Institute (www.DLTITraining.org); and is the Director for the ALEPH Hashpa’ah (Spiritual Direction) Training Program. Shawn has been offering spiritual direction since 1999 through the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, ALEPH and with individuals, teaching at Spiritual Director International conferences and Leadership Institutes, and working with people of all faith backgrounds. He is an active leader is faith and justice work, with POWER, PA: Faith in Action, is a liturgical, recording (www.rabbizevit.com) and performing artist, founder of www.menschwork.org; co-editor of “Brother Keepers: New Perspectives in Jewish Masculinity”; and author of “Offerings of the Heart: Money and Values in Faith Community”.  See: (http://zevit.wpengine.com/jewish-spiritual-direction/)

Rabbi David Curiel is the Assistant Director of the AOP Hashpa’ah Training Program. He carries smicha as Rabbi and Mashpi’a Ruchani from the AOP and is a member of Spiritual Directors International. He has studied at Hebrew College, the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, and the Shalom Hartman Institute. Rabbi David has led prayer and meditation and nourished souls for over a dozen years, including at Asiyah—the community he co-founded and led for five years in Somerville, MA—as well as with Nava Tehila in Jerusalem and Romemu in Manhattan. He has sat multiple vipassana retreats with various teachers at the Insight Meditation Society, as well as with Rabbi Alan Lew, z”l, and Rabbi David Cooper, z”l. Currently, Rabbi David teaches and counsels private clients, assists Rabbi Nadya Gross in Yerusha’s Secrets My Grandmother Told Me: A Wisdom School and serves as adjunct faculty at Hebrew College. Rabbi David also holds degrees from the University of Michigan (bachelor’s) and Indiana University (MBA) and is certified as a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner (SEP), a body-based trauma healing modality. More information can be found at rabbidavidcuriel.com

Rabbinic Pastor & Mashpi’ah Ruchanit Sandra Wortzel enjoys integrating the things she knows and loves: Expressive Arts, Jewish Renewal, Spiritual Direction, and her own soul-evolving experiences through artmaking. She encourages others to express their spirituality and yearnings through the arts in spiritual direction sessions, creative rituals, and through workshops/retreats that unite Jewish spirituality, the expressive arts and nature.  Sandra grew up in NYC, and was a desert dweller in Tucson, AZ from 1975-2018. She and her husband moved to the Mendocino Coast in CA in early 2019 and now dwell among the redwoods.  ‘Reb Sandra’ has dual ordination from Aleph Alliance for Jewish Renewal AOP. She served as a hospice chaplain for 6 years in Tucson, AZ.  She was administrator, core faculty and supervisor for the Aleph Hashpa’ah training program (2014-2022) and continues to be a supervisor and adjunct faculty for the Hashpa’ah training. Reb Sandra is a Mashpiah for AOP students and in private practice.  She is a graduate of Kol Zimra Hebrew Chant Training and Rabbi Nadya Gross’ “Wisdom School”. She and her husband Kenny have three children, four delightful grandchildren and a golden retriever named Zushya.

Rabbi Nadya Gross is the Former Director of the AOP Hashpa’ah Training Program. She serves as Co-Rabbi of Pardes Levavot, a Jewish renewal congregation in Boulder, CO, together with her beloved, Rabbi Victor Gross. The two received Joint Rabbinic Ordination from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi in recognition of their unique paradigm of spiritual partnering. Rabbi Nadya was trained from childhood in the Jewish mystical tradition, by her Israeli grandmother, and now transmits the teachings in a two-year wisdom school program. She is a teacher of Kaballah and spiritual practice and is guided by our wisdom tradition and Reb Zalman’s teaching in her private practice as Mashpi’ah Ruchanit – which focuses on individuals, couples, and clergy. She co-founded the Center for Spiritual Friendship in Boulder with Rabbi Ori Har, an interfaith center for hashpa’ah in many forms. She also proudly serves as faculty in the ‘Sage-ing Program,’ bringing her extensive experience with end-of-life care to that mentorship training program.