Register here.

Presenters’ Biographies

Rabbi David J. Cooper serves Kehilla Community Synagogue. In high school in the late 60s, he was in USY’s Leader Training Fellowship, Hashomer Hatza’ir, SDS’s High School Student Mobilization Committee, and Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry. He has been active in the Jewish Renewal movement for three decades.

Aryae Coopersmith, author of Holy Beggars: a Journey from Haight Street to Jerusalem, a memoir from inside the 1960s San Francisco spiritual revolution, co-founded Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach’s House of Love and Prayer in 1968. In his professional life he is Founder & CEO of the HR Forums, whose members are Silicon Valley’s human resource executives. In recognition of his lifetime of Jewish teaching and service, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi has ordained him as a Jewish spiritual teacher. 

Frances Dinkelspiel (Panel: The Pioneer Age) is a journalist and the author of the bestselling Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant named Isaias Hellman Created California. A co-founder of Berkeleyside.com, a two-year old news website about Berkeley, her freelance work has appeared in the New York. She is a graduate of Stanford University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Mercury News, People Magazine, and San Francisco magazine Journalism and has taught at UC Berkeley.

Stephen Mark Dobbs (Moderator, Between the Wars Period Panel) is a native San Franciscan who was educated at Stanford and who has been a long-time student of San Francisco history and especially its Jewish story. After an academic career teaching as a professor of humanities at San Francisco State University, Stephen began a second career in foundations and philanthropy, including Rockefeller and Getty where he was senior program officer.  He is a former President and CEO of the Koret Foundation and of the Marin Community Foundation, and has served in executive capacities with Osher, Taube, and Grand. Stephen currently works with several Bay Area family philanthropies.

Alla Efimova, Ph.D., Jacques and Esther Reutlinger Director, is a curator and art historian with a particular interest in the visual culture of modern Jewry. She holds a Ph.D. in Art History/Visual and Cultural Studies from the University of Rochester. A former lecturer at the University of California Berkeley’s Department of Art History, Alla has contributed many essays to art history and film journals, museum catalogs, and edited volumes. Before coming to the Judah L. Magnes Museum, Alla was Associate Curator at the University of California Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, where she brought interdisciplinary, culturally comparative perspective to exhibitions ranging in themes from 18th-century decorative arts to contemporary media and photography.

Ellen Eisenberg (Between Wars Panel and a Workshop) is the Dwight and Margaret Lear Professor of American History at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. She is the author of Jewish Agricultural Colonies in New Jersey, 1882-1920 (1995) and co-authored Jews of the Pacific Coast: Reinventing Community on America’s Edge (2009) with Ava Kahn and Bill Toll. Her monograph, The First to Cry Down Injustice? Western Jews and Japanese Removal during WWII, was a 2008 National Jewish Book Award finalist.

Mary Ann Irwin (Pioneer Period Panel) teaches history at San Francisco Bay Area colleges, including Diablo Valley College, Chabot College, Laney, San Francisco State University, and California State University, East Bay. Her published works include: Robert W. Cherny, Mary Ann Irwin, and Ann Marie Wilson, eds., Women and Politics: California from the Gold Rush to the Great Depression (University of Nebraska Press, October 2011); Richard B. Rice, William A. Bullough, Richard J. Orsi, and Mary Ann Irwin, The Elusive Eden: A New History of California (4th ed.) (McGraw-Hill, September, 2011); “Sex, War, and Community Service: The Battle for San Francisco’s Jewish Community Center,” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, Vol. 32, Issue 1 (May 2011) (winner, National Coalition of Independent Scholars Eisenstein-DeLacy Award best article award); and “‘The Air is Becoming Full of War:’ Jewish San Francisco and World War I,” Pacific Historical Review,  Vol. 74, Issue 3 (August 2005).

Ava F. Kahn (Pioneer Period Panel & Workshop) holds a Ph.D. in history from UCSB. Upon graduation she accepted an appointment as Research Associate at the Western Jewish History Center of the Magnes Museum. Since leaving the Magnes, Kahn served as a visiting scholar at the California Studies Center, University of California, Berkeley and continued to teach. Her publications include: Jews of the Pacific Coast: Reinventing Community on America’s Edge (2010) co-authored; California Jews (2003, paperback 2011) co-edited; Jewish Life in the American West: Immigration, Settlement and Community (2002); Jewish Voices of the California Gold Rush: A Documentary History, 1849-1880 (2002). This year Kahn received Prinz Memorial Fellowship from the American Jewish Archives for her research on American Jewish military doctors and their families during WWI.

Kenneth Kann is a historian who has written two books on Jewish-American history: Joe Rapoport, the Life of a Jewish Radical (Temple University Press, 1981) and Comrades and Chicken Ranchers, the Story of a California Jewish Community (Cornell University Press, 1993).

Rabbi Yoel Kahn, Ph.D. (Panel: 60s to the Present) is Rabbi of Congregation Beth El in Berkeley.  He was the rabbi of Congregation Sha’ar Zaha, between 1985-1996 and has been a leader for gay visibility and rights in the Reform rabbinate and Reform Judaism throughouthis rabbinate.   His book, The Three Blessings: Boundaries, Censorship and Identity in Jewish Liturgy, was published by Oxford University Press in 2011.

Deborah Kaufman (Panel: 60s to the Present) is a documentary filmmaker based in Berkeley. Prior to her work in film, she was the founder and Director of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, the first and largest of its kind in the world.

Marc S. Klein (Panel Chair and Workshop: From the mid ’80s Until Today: The Community Controversies and How the Jewish Bulletin/J Covered Them)  is the retired editor and publisher of J. the Jewish news weekly of Northern California. Klein led the weekly newspaper for close to 28 years. Under his direction, J — earlier known as the Jewish Bulletin — became the first Jewish newspaper in America to publish its entire contents online beginning in 1995. Klein in 1995 also operated the only Jewish area on America Online at keyword Jewish and at www.jewish.com. Prior to coming to the Bulletin, he was editor of the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia for two and a half years. Before that Klein worked for daily newspapers and at age 30 became the youngest assistant managing editor of the former Philadelphia Bulletin.  Klein and his wife live in the East Bay. They have two adult daughters.

Rabbi Dorothy Richman (Panel: Innovation & Dissent: 1960s to Present) teaches Torah throughout the Bay area. Formerly a pulpit rabbi in San Francisco at congregations Shaar Zahav and Beth Sholom, Dorothy has worked for several years at Berkeley Hillel. She has led trips for AJWS to Central and South America and Africa and is active in the Progressive Jewish Alliance/Jewish Funds for Justice. Dorothy leads Makor Or Jewish Meditation retreats with Norman Fischer in San Francisco and a weekly Jewish meditation sit with Rabbi Margie Jacobs at Hochmat haLev in Berkeley.

Steve Rivo (Workshop: America’s First Jewish Photographer Goes West) is an award-winning documentary producer and the founder of Down Low Pictures. He has produced, directed or written documentaries for PBS, MTV, Discovery, MSNBC, TruTV, Court TV, VH1 and independently. Over a 17-year career in non-fiction film and TV, he has received major industry honors including Emmys, Du-Pont-Columbia, Peabody, IDA, Telly and Cine Golden Eagle awards.  He is co-producer of the PBS series New York: A Documentary Film (directed by Rick Burns), producer of two of Burns’ films for PBS’ American Experience: Eugene O’Neill and Ansel Adams, producer/director of NYC: Inside/Out for Discovery Channel, director, and producer and writer of numerous true-crime documentaries for Court TV’s The Investigators and Dominick Dunne’s Power, Privilege and Justice, and Senior Producer for The Vice Guide to Everything.  Steve has also completed a number of film projects for non-profit groups and institutions including the American Institute of Architects, the Center for Online Judaic Studies, Columbia University and Random House, Inc. A graduate of Columbia University, he teaches film and television in the MFA program at Hofstra University and lives in Brooklyn, New York. 

Francesco Spagnolo (Panel Chair) is a multidisciplinary scholar focusing on Jewish studies, music and digital media, is the Curator of The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at the University of California, Berkeley. Intersecting textual, visual and musical cultures, he actively contributes to academic, cultural heritage and archival institutions, as well as live and electronic media in Europe, Israel and the United States. A fo r mer lecturer at the University of Milan and at UC Santa Cruz, and host for the cultural programs of Italian National Radio, he frequently lectures at academic institutions worldwide, publishes on a variety of subjects, and curates exhibitions and digital programs. Francesco holds a Laurea in Philosophy from the University of Milan (1994) and a PhD in Musicology from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2007).

Regina (Gina) Waldman:  The Struggle for Soviet Jewry Gina Waldman was born in Libya and spent her early childhood there. When she was 19, following the 1967 War she and her family fled under growing threat of violence from their neighbors and government  (see her story at: http://www.jimena.org/gw.htm).  Having settled in the Bay Area, she co-founded the movement to free Soviet Jewry, acting as its Director from 1970 to 1987.  Ten years ago she returned to her roots and founded JIMENA- Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, which “seeks recognition for the nearly one million Jews indigenous to the Middel East and North Africa who were displaced from their country of origin… and is dedicated ot he preservation of Mizrahi iand Sephardi culture and history.” Gina has testified before the UN about the displacement and property disenfranchisement of about one million Jews of North African and Middle Eastern countries. She has received many honors including the Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award and the Woman of the Year Award from the State Assembly of California.

Rabbi Peretz Wolf-Prusan (Workshop: Camp Swig: Summers of Love, Art and Creating Jewish Identity) After volunteering in Israel in 1973, Peretz came to the Bay Area to teach art at UAHC Camp Swig and study at the San Francisco Art Institute.  After a decade of creating Ketubot, printmaking, and working in informal education, he, along with his wife, Becki and one-year-old Leora, traveled back to Israel (1985) to learn at the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem and Cincinnati (best of all, adding Avital and Noah to the family along the way). For twenty years Peretz served Congregation Emanu-El, San Francisco, as rabbi and senior educator. In 2002 he was awarded the Covenant Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the transmission of Jewish knowledge, values, and identity. Peretz joined the leadership team and teaching faculty of Lehrhaus Judaica in October 2010.  He is currently also a Senior Rabbinic Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute.

Register here.

Lehrhaus’ 2012 winter-spring catalog is online. There are also a few summer classes to check out.

Click here to check out our diverse offerings next semester.

(more…)

Becoming an Aleph Fellow – Frequently Asked Questions

What are you looking for in an Aleph Fellow?
We are looking for adult Jewish learners to join five cohorts around the Bay Area. Each cohort will be composed of intellectually curious and communally engaged individuals, highly motivated to be part of and contribute to a learning community. The Bay Area Community Talmud Circle requires a commitment of time and energy from each participant. Attendance at all sessions is critical, and there will be reading and other preparation between meetings. Talmud study is a community process, and we believe that a breadth of experience adds to the richness of the program. We encourage people of all ages and Jewish backgrounds to apply, whether you have never opened a page of Talmud or have had the pleasure of doing so already.

Where do Aleph Fellows meet?
In the launch of the 2011-2012 academic year, there will be five primary cohorts: San Francisco at the JCCSF; North Peninsula at the PJCC in Foster City; South Peninsula at the OFJCC in Palo Alto; East Bay at Lehrhaus Judaica in Berkeley; and Marin County at the OMJCC in San Rafael.

Who is teaching?
Everyone learns Talmud, however, the people leading the learning are Professor Deena Aranoff in Marin and Berkeley; Rabbi Lavey Derby at the Peninsula Jewish Community Center;  Rabbi Peretz Wolf-Prusan in San Francisco and Palo Alto; and Dorothy Richman in Berkeley.

Peretz Wolf-Prusan

Deena Aranoff

Lavey Derby

Dorothy Richman

What are we learning?
The curriculum is based upon the classes developed for the Global Day of Jewish Learning 2010 including topics on leadership, tzedakah, miracles, God, and love. Lehrhaus is working with the Aleph Society to develop a specific Bay Area course syllabus.

How much does the program cost?
The $135 participation fee is your contribution towards the cost of The Bay Area Community Talmud Circle, which includes nine sessions, webinars, materials, and the special program with Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz.

Adin Steinsaltz

What is the commitment?
The Aleph Fellowship is a nine-session program that runs one Sunday a month from October through June. Excellent attendance is required. Aleph Fellows come together for hevruta study (partner study) and discussion on nine Sunday mornings from 9:30 to 11:30 am. There will be webinars connecting all cohorts, as well as exclusive learning with Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz.

Who are the organizers?
Lehrhaus Judaica is a unique non-denominational center for adult Jewish studies serving the San Francisco Bay Area. Lehrhaus courses, conferences, and tours are open to the public, regardless of age, religion or ethnicity.

The Aleph Society exists to support the work of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz around the globe, and his mission to make the Talmud and other sources of Jewish knowledge accessible to all Jews, and the development of Jews, Jewish identity, and Jewish communities.

Kevah’s mission is to catalyze, facilitate and support pluralistic study of traditional Jewish texts. Kevah enables adults to explore the spiritual and intellectual richness of the Jewish textual tradition in a comfortable setting.

Why must I apply?
We just want to know a little more about you. Additionally, The Aleph Society, Lehrhaus Judaica and Kevah are making a serious investment in this project and require equally committed participants. The Talmud is described as an ocean, so, before you dive in, take a breath. We are confident that you will enjoy the swim.

How do I apply?
Registration is now closed. Please check back next year!

The Bay Area Community Talmud Circle is supported by generous grants from the Laszlo N. Tauber Family Foundation and the Koret Foundation. Special thanks to both organizations for their support.

Lehrhaus-JCCSF tours continue to fill up fast. We are thrilled that the Argentina and Uruguay tour is fully subscribed in April, as well as the Baltics tour in September.

There are still spots available for Lehrhaus’ first Family Israel adventure. Learn more here.