Authors

Rabbi Rachael Bregman is a freelance spiritual director and Jewish educator recently relocated to Charlotte, NC.  She previously served as the Rabbi at a small and mighty congregation on the coast of Georgia where she co-founded Glynn Clergy for Equity and spearheaded a community response to the tragic lynching of Ahmaud Arbery. She founded Open Jewish Project in Atlanta, dedicated to serving the religious and spiritual needs of unaffiliated Atlanta Jews. She has served as a Chaplain Candidate in the US Navy and Marines, thru hiked the Appalachian Trail, earned a Master’s Degree in Education from Harvard University and received ordination as a Rabbi from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City. She is a certified spiritual director, a pastry chef, occasional artist and full-time mom.

Yakir is the Senior Director of Leadership programs at the Israeli-American Council. He also teaches at the Academy for Jewish Religion.

Originally from the Hasidic community of Israel, Englander left Ultra-Orthodoxy and was subsequently drafted to the Israeli military, where he served in an elite unit tasked with the identification of human remains—an experience that profoundly shaped his worldview and approach to life. 

Yakir served as a volunteer director and later as the vice president of the board at Kids4Peace, an interfaith youth movement in Jerusalem. His personal motto, "Nothing human is strange to me," reflects his ability to connect with people across diverse backgrounds and his deep commitment to understanding the full spectrum of human experience.

He is a Fulbright scholar and has held visiting professorships at Northwestern University, Rutgers University, the Hebrew University, the Shalom Hartman Institute, and Harvard Divinity School. Englander's two books on body and sexuality in Haredi and Religious-Zionist communities have transformed the discourse within religious societies in Israel. 

Yakir lives in an intentional community in Vermont, maintains an ethical non-monogamous lifestyle, strives to pray and live a mystical life, and trains in karate and shamanic practices for cultivating sensitive awareness of the body.

Rabbi Pamela Gottfried (she/her) serves as the rabbi of Congregation Beth Tikvah in Marlton, NJ. Since her rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1993, Gottfried has taught in churches, colleges, community centers, mosques, retreat centers, schools, summer camps, and synagogues. She is a member of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association (RRA) and the Interim Ministry Network (IMN). Gottfried previously served in congregations and schools in Metro Atlanta, as an interim rabbi at Temple Kol Emeth; the second rabbi at Congregation Beth Haverim; the Dean of Jewish Studies and a Scholar-in-Residence at The Weber School; and for many summers she taught both ceramics and Judaics at Camp Ramah Darom. As an artist, she incorporates creative expression and message-driven art in her teaching of teens and adults. A strong proponent of pluralism and innovation, Gottfried is a board member of Bayit, a collaborative community that creates tools and resources for how people are doing Jewish now. An alumna of Clal's Rabbis Without Borders and LEAP fellowships, she is trained to help people access Jewish wisdom and culture to enrich their lives.

Jill Harman serves as an Associate Pastor at Fremont First United Methodist Church and as an Adjunct Professor at Creighton University, where she is involved in teaching and curriculum development. With over seven years of experience in restorative justice, she has made impactful contributions as a consultant and program developer. As the co-lead of the Restorative Justice Project at Creighton, Jill is dedicated to promoting healing and justice by integrating restorative practices on campus and fostering a restorative mindset. She is also an EdD candidate in Disciplinary Leadership at Creighton University, currently writing her doctoral dissertation. Jill holds a Master of Religious Arts from Emmanuel Christian Seminary at Milligan and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Beyond her professional commitments, she is an avid reader and finds peace in gardening.

Rabbi Arielle Krule is a spiritual entrepreneur who comes from a lineage of bold women. She is the Director of Jewish Life and Learning at Luria Academy of Brooklyn, where she fosters spiritual growth, inquiry, and community. Rabbi Arielle is the founding Director and spiritual leader of Selah, a vibrant Jewish community for people in recovery and their loved ones.

She has served as the Rabbinical Fellow at Prospect Heights Shul, Scholar-in-Residence at At The Well, and Director of the Jewish Learning Fellowship at Hillel International, the largest provider of Jewish education on college campuses in North America. She was also the founding Director of the NYC CUNY Hillel Social Work Fellowship.

A Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Rabbi Arielle holds a BSW, MSW, SIFI certification, and a certificate in Spirituality and Social Work from NYU, as well as a certificate in Experiential Education from M²: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education. She is a former Wexner Graduate Fellow, UJA-Federation of New York Fellow, and Atra: Center for Rabbinic Innovation Fellow. In 2024, she was named one of The Jewish Week’s “36 to Watch.”

Rabbi Arielle lives in the heart of Brooklyn with her husband, Jackson.

Eliana Light is cultivating a more connected world by making the urgent spiritual wisdom of Jewish liturgy and prayer practice (t’fillah) accessible and meaningful through her prayer leadership, consulting, teaching, and the Light Lab, a center for t’fillah education. Eliana has shared her unique “t’fillahsophy” as faculty at national Jewish education and songleading conferences, as a guest teacher at Hebrew Union College, the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Academy for Jewish Religion, and Limmud, and at synagogues, day schools, camps, and communities across North America. “Eliana Rhymes (About Jewish Times)”, her fifth album of playful, thoughtful, original Jewish music was released this fall. In 2023, she was awarded the Covenant Foundation’s Pomegranate Prize and is the 2025 Covenant Foundation Family Education Fellow. Eliana earned her Master's in Jewish Experiential Education from JTS in 2016 and is based in Durham, NC, where she leads communal singing, everybody-friendly Jewish ritual, and silent disco dance parties around downtown.

Rabbi Francine Roston is the founder of Glacier Jewish Community which serves northwest Montana. She is co-founder of a local Interfaith Clergy group and volunteers for Glacier National Park and the North Valley Foodbank. Francine is also a board member and teacher for the mindfulness-based, online Jewish community Path With Heart.

For sixteen years, Francine served Conservative congregations in New Jersey. In 2005, when she was hired by Congregation Beth El in South Orange, NJ, she broke the “stained glass ceiling,” becoming the first Conservative woman rabbi to serve a congregation larger than 500 households. 

The Roston family moved to Montana in 2014. Soon after, in the winter of 2016-17, her family and community experienced neo-nazi cyberterrorism and harassment. The lessons Francine learned from this experience directed her to focus her studies and teaching in the areas of trauma, healing, resiliency, and mindfulness.

Francine is a trained teacher of the Community Resiliency Model helping individuals develop wellness skills and guiding communities to be trauma-sensitive and resiliency-focused. She is also a certified Teacher of Mindfulness Meditation under the direction of renowned teachers Tara Brach & Jack Kornfield. Francine writes on Substack @francineroston406.

Ezra Weinberg is a rabbi, ritual musician, and educator dedicated to facilitating and supporting transformative Jewish rituals. He founded Jews Get Divorce, a network of resources for Jews going through Divorce, which aims to redefine the communal response to this life stage. He is a native Philadelphian and holds a Master’s Degree in Conflict Transformation.