“The best help you can give people is to be in relationship with them,” said Rabbi Anne Ebersman. As director of hesed and tzedek at the Heschel School in Manhattan, she lives that statement every day, and in her doctoral work at The William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education, she has experienced how learning as a community can have tremendous impact.
“The reward of community engagement is not always where you expect it to be,” said Rabbi Anne Ebersman, director of hesed and tzedek at the Heschel School in Manhattan. “Our students regularly prepare and deliver meals for people who live near us and are food-insecure, and that definitely benefits our neighbors, but it also has an important impact on the students. They learn to recognize the needs in their broader community—and they come to see themselves as empowered to help make things better.”
As she approaches completion of The William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education’s executive doctoral program, Ebersman believes that engaging with and in the broader community is a critical component of Jewish education. Learning itself happens most effectively “in community.”
An Upper West Side native, Ebersman only started to deepen her own connection to Judaism after she graduated from Barnard and attended a Friday night service and Shabbat dinner with a classmate. “It so happened that my ‘very Jewish’ friend was the niece of Rabbi Marshall Meyer, and from that first evening at B’nai Jeshurun, I felt drawn powerfully into the spirituality and ritual of Jewish life.”
Fast forward from that experience, and Ebersman entered rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College and taught in a number of synagogue supplementary schools. Ebersman served as principal of BJ’s Hebrew School at the time when the Heschel School was based in the same building. With a toddler at home and a second child on the way, unsure about continuing in the role as principal of an afterschool with late hours, she was offered a job at Heschel, where she “fell head over heels in love with day school.”
Ebersman’s career at Heschel began in the Lower School and Early Childhood and then expanded to a school-wide role as she was named the director of hesed and tzedek. “At Heschel, an important aspect of hesed is about how we connect to the community around us,” said Ebersman, “so we look for ways to create ongoing partnership with community-based organizations in the city.”
Connecting to the Community
“It is hard to tackle big, systemic issues like food insecurity,” Ebersman said, as an example, “but we can get outside of our own walls and do our part in our own neighborhood.” Through Heschel’s Cooking for Community initiative, students cook and deliver 75 meals a week for residents living in the nearby Amsterdam Houses. The school has made a commitment to cook for its neighbors every Thursday when school is in session.
Similarly, when Heschel fifth graders each month welcome to lunch older adults from Project Ezra, a social service agency on the Lower East Side, they share a meal and develop ongoing relationships. “Our students learn that even a fifth-grader can play a part in the epidemic of loneliness, one conversation at a time.”
The school has also built an ongoing relationship with the Manhattan Children’s Center, a school for children on the autism spectrum. “At first, our middle and high school students were volunteering after school. But then we heard from the teachers at MCC that their younger students needed to gain experience in neurotypical settings.” Ebersman and Heschel then began a program in kindergarten where the MCC students come to Heschel and play together.
As the relationship with MCC developed, they incorporated the volunteering that the older students were doing into formal learning. Ninth graders read and discussed The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and invited different speakers to talk about disability. “When one of our 11th graders spoke about what it was like for him to have a brother who is on the spectrum, that was incredibly impactful,” said Ebersman.
When Heschel students volunteer at MCC, the staff explains to them how important it is for the MCC students to learn how to relate to new people in the classroom. “Our students appreciate feeling like they are making a material difference,” said Ebersman. “For us as teachers, we also appreciate the difference that learning and volunteering together affect the way the Heschel students see themselves and their capacity to contribute to a complicated world.”
For Ebersman, cultivating relationships and authentic partnerships and dedicating time and space for reflection elevate what could be seen as random acts of kindness to a more holistic—and holy—concept of hesed.
In a Community of Learners
When Ebersman considered expanding her own professional capacity through the Davidson executive doctorate program, she was looking for a new challenge and a deeper understanding of what it means to be an educator. It was the community of learners in her cohort that provided support and encouragement and perspective throughout the undertaking. “None of us in my cohort had research skills, so we were really not facing the challenge of doctoral research individually,” she said.
Faculty at Davidson inspired Ebersman during coursework and beyond, ultimately encouraging her to take on an “action research” project that brought both personal meaning to the work and an appreciation for what her research can contribute to the field of Jewish education. Ebersman’s combined her love of studying and teaching Tanakh with feminist biblical scholarship, two ideas that “don’t naturally speak to each other,” she said.
Doing action research enabled Ebersman to participate in her research project alongside the study participants, a group of five high school Tanakh teachers from East Coast community day schools. “I was not an objective outsider,” she said, “and the idea of community ended up being a very important component of my work.”
The cohort of teachers studied feminist biblical scholarship and talked about what it would be like to teach Tanakh using these ideas. Ebersman then observed the teachers in their classrooms.
“Together, we studied Tanakh from a perspective of something we believed in,” said Ebersman. “Whether we were reclaiming women’s stories in the Bible or confronting painful ways in which women were represented, we drew strength from our small community as we tried to figure out what teaching this material could look like.”
When Ebersman observed the teachers with their students, she was amazed at the skill and creativity they applied to bringing feminist biblical scholarship into the classroom. “One of the conclusions in my dissertation is that while the teachers predicted significant pushback to learning this material, they significantly underestimated their own ability to find ways to build a bridge between the students and the material.”
Throughout her research and writing process, Ebersman has felt a tremendous sense of her Davidson faculty rooting for her. “Our success is their success,” she said, noting that at her proposal defense the faculty helped her consider new questions and enabled her to “workshop” some of her ideas in collaboration.
As she anticipates completing her dissertation, synthesizing the content and pedagogy and impact on the teachers themselves, Ebersman has been fortunate to count on another community to spur her progress: the Mandel Center Doctoral Fellowship.
“The best help you can give people is to be in relationship with them,” said Ebersman. “I have learned that personally over and over in my Davidson experience, and that is what we want our students to take away from their hesed experiences. There are all different ways of having relationships with people, and the pursuit of tzedek calls on everyone to contribute.”
Alumni News
Mazal Tov to the 2025 Graduates of The William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education!
Tobi Afran is the assistant director of Camp Ramah in the Poconos.
Sarah Bernstein is Park Avenue Synagogue’s assistant director of congregational schools in NYC.
Mallory Bustow is the education director of Hebrew Educational Alliance in Denver, CO.
Liora Finkel is both education coordinator and teacher of CSAIR Marsha Dane Stern Hebrew School in Bronx, NY as well as a teacher and Hebrew-tfilah curriculum coordinator for Temple Israel of New Rochelle, NY.
Julia Goldberg is continuing her academic and professional interest as a JTS rabbinical school student.
Trudy (Morse) Goldshine is the senior manager of Jewish education for Repair the World in Los Angeles, CA.
Israel (Izzy) Gordan is the fundraising manager of Shahar, a moshav in Israel.
Shelly S. Kedar is the chief impact officer of the Jewish Agency for Israel.
Ariel Light is the programs and engagement associate at the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas.
Emma Sesar is an assistant teacher at the Abraham Joshua Heschel High School in New York.
Hadassa Slager teaches Hebrew and Jewish studies at Smith Jewish Academy (formerly known as Amos and Celia Heilicher Minneapolis Jewish Day School) in Minneapolis.
Shanna Bedrick Straut continues in her role as Director of Education of Temple Beth Sholom in New City, NY.
We are very proud of our alumni who shared the following professional achievements and brought us up to date on their roles. If you have an update that you would like to share in the next issue, please reach out to Melissa Friedman, Director of Alumni Affairs at mefriedman@jtsa.edu.
Matt Altman is the assistant director of Yachad, the congregational school of Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn, NY.
Alyssa Berman was one of five Jewish educators to receive the Jewish Education Project’s 2025 Robert M. Sherman Young Pioneers Award. This award celebrates educators aged 40 and under who demonstrate a commitment to new ideas and the use of innovative approaches to inspire children and families in their community.
Matthew Check published an edgy, self-aware memoir, What Would Philip Roth Do?
Hillary Jaye Gardenswartz is now a talent lead for Sandler Search, matching talent with hiring non-profit employers.
Sheridan Gayer is now the director of family engagement of Temple Shaaray Tefilla in New York.
Danielle Rockman Greene, now a certified pediatric sleep consultant, is the founder & owner at Danielle Greene Sleep Consulting, LLC.
Samuel Greene serves as the senior speaker bureau coordinator at L&M Healthcare Communications.
Harman Grossman is an educator at the upper school of Golda Och Academy in West Orange, NJ.
Rachelle Grossman is an assistant professor in the department of comparative & world literature at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Joshua Jacobs is a psychotherapist at Metropolitan Center for Mental Health in New York.
Saul Kaiserman is a lecturer at American Jewish University.
YonahKirschner was recently promoted to program director of Covenant Foundation.
Kelly Kosar began her studies towards an EdD at American Jewish University in early childhood education.
Jacob Kotlicky received rabbinic ordination by Yeshivas Chonen Daas and now serves as a department chair at David Posnack Jewish Day School in Davie, FL.
Jaimie Krass was named president & chief executive officer of Keshet.
Eliyahu Krigel is the director of education and family engagement of SULAM, the religious school of Beth El Temple in West Hartford, CT.
Micah Lapidus, director of Jewish and Hebrew studies and school rabbi at the Alfred and Adele Davis Academy in Atlanta, was a 2025 recipient of the prestigious Covenant Award.
Gabe Miner is the director of Jewish student belonging at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Margie K. and Louis N. Cohen Center for Jewish Life
Jon Mitzmacher recently became a senior director at Scott Goldberg Consulting.
Alli Moses was recently promoted to associate director of Ramah Galim/Camp Ramah in Northern California.
Micah Peltz was honored by Temple Beth Sholom in Cherry Hill, NJ for 18 years of dedicated leadership.
Miles Roger is now the director of lifelong learning at Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun in Milwaukee, WI.
Sara Shapiro-Plevan became the new chief program officer of Elluminate.
Jordan David Soffer will become head of school at Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy in Stamford, CT on July 1, 2026.
Amy Posner is now the chief advancement officer/interim executive director of the Hudson Valley Community College Foundation.
Andy Shugerman recently expanded his work to include the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh as an educational consultant.
Carrie Zucker Siegel was named Head of School of Golda Och Academy in West Orange, NJ
Samantha Aviva Vinokor-Meinrath was named one of Hadassah’s “18 American Zionist Women You Should Know.” Samantha is recognized as a leading voice on the American-Jewish experience at this transitional point in history.
Dana Beth Levinson Walker recently joined Urban Legend Media as its chief operating officer.
Andy Weissfeld joined the leadership team at Congregation Adas Israel in Washington, DC as its new rabbinic director of education and Judaics.
Help Us Increase the Holiness in Our World
As we begin 5786, we celebrate the accomplishments that continue to shape our future.
If you are interested in learning more about planned giving opportunities or your eligibility to give through an individual IRA, please contact Linda Zisk.
List College Students: A Summer of Scholarship, Experience, and Connections
This summer, List College students pursued a wide range of meaningful experiences—spanning research, internships, community engagement, and travel. From archival work at the Library of Congress and Tel Aviv University, to educational research at Columbia and Teachers College, to creative work in fashion, to working at summer camps, our students deepened their learning while contributing their skills to diverse fields.
Ilana Bramson served as a Junior Fellow in the Hebraic Section of the Library of Congress, cataloging over 1,000 books from the Deinard Collection—many of which had been undiscoverable since their 1912 donation by Jacob Schiff.
Clementine Silver Schwartz, a junior majoring in Jewish Gender and Women’s Studies, Sociology, and Education at Columbia, conducted research in the Curriculum and Teaching Department at Teachers College with Dr. Stephanie McCall. Their work explored sexuality and trauma in school curricula, examining the impact of abstinence-only education, and envisioning more sex-positive pedagogies.
Abner Gordan interned with celebrity stylist Sam Spector, compiling lookbooks and moodboards, assisted with fittings, and supported preparations for red carpet events and award shows. Clients included Neil Patrick Harris, Kevin Jonas, Kate McKinnon, Alan Cumming, Michael Zegen, Andy Cohen, and others.
Haya Fine interned at the New York Historical Society, gaining hands-on experience in museum work and historical research.
Liana Marks worked as a research assistant intern at Tel Aviv University with Professor David Schorr on his project about the Warren Court and Israel. She sourced and digitized archival newspaper materials in English and Hebrew, organized them into a searchable database, and indexed over 500 archival documents and photographs from the Library of Congress.
As part of Columbia University’s Denning Global Fellows in Sustainable Development program, rising List College senior Yardena Rubin worked with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center on a climate vulnerability assessment, evaluating how climate change could affect both health care facilities and patient populations..
Many students worked at summer camps, including Ramah camps where they served as JTS Ramah Ambassadors, while others volunteered in Israel.
List College Students: A Summer of Scholarship, Experience, and Connections
This summer, List College students pursued a wide range of meaningful experiences—spanning research, internships, community engagement, and travel. From archival work at the Library of Congress and Tel Aviv University, to educational research at Columbia and Teachers College, to creative work in fashion, to working at summer camps, our students deepened their learning while contributing their skills to diverse fields.
Ilana Bramson served as a Junior Fellow in the Hebraic Section of the Library of Congress, cataloging over 1,000 books from the Deinard Collection—many of which had been undiscoverable since their 1912 donation by Jacob Schiff.
Clementine Silver Schwartz, a junior majoring in Jewish Gender and Women’s Studies, Sociology, and Education at Columbia, conducted research in the Curriculum and Teaching Department at Teachers College with Dr. Stephanie McCall. Their work explored sexuality and trauma in school curricula, examining the impact of abstinence-only education, and envisioning more sex-positive pedagogies.
Abner Gordan interned with celebrity stylist Sam Spector, compiling lookbooks and moodboards, assisted with fittings, and supported preparations for red carpet events and award shows. Clients included Neil Patrick Harris, Kevin Jonas, Kate McKinnon, Alan Cumming, Michael Zegen, Andy Cohen, and others.
Haya Fine interned at the New York Historical Society, gaining hands-on experience in museum work and historical research.
Liana Marks worked as a research assistant intern at Tel Aviv University with Professor David Schorr on his project about the Warren Court and Israel. She sourced and digitized archival newspaper materials in English and Hebrew, organized them into a searchable database, and indexed over 500 archival documents and photographs from the Library of Congress.
As part of Columbia University’s Denning Global Fellows in Sustainable Development program, rising List College senior Yardena Rubin worked with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center on a climate vulnerability assessment, evaluating how climate change could affect both health care facilities and patient populations..
Many students worked at Jewish summer camps, including Devin Leslie at Camp Tawonga in California, and others worked at Ramah camps and served as JTS Ramah Ambassadors, while others volunteered in Israel.
Division of Religious Leadership: A Summer of Learning, Leading, and Living Jewishly
The DRL community had a vibrant and meaningful summer—learning, engaging, and gaining experiences both inside and beyond the classroom. Here are some highlights:
Nishma: We had a fantastic summer session of Nishma, led by Sara Duker and Matt Eisenfeld z”l Beit Midrash Director Rabbi Luciana Pajecki Lederman. Incoming and continuing DRL students honed their skills, studied Talmud, and explored Jewish life in New York City.
Tanakh 360: The pilot summer of Tanakh 360 program welcomed JTS students and community learners into the Beit Midrash, where they studied Tanakh with faculty across disciplines.
Camp and Youth Leadership: DRL students made an impact as yoatzot, rashei edah, and educators at Ramah Canada, Berkshires, Darom, Nyack, Ojai, and Galim. One student worked on USY on Wheels, and another served as an intern at USY’s Leadership Training Institute, helping shape the next generation of Jewish leaders.
Cantorial Student Engagement: Cantorial School students joined Cantor Shoshi Levin Goldberg at the Cantors Assembly convention on the Jersey Shore. Later in the summer, DRL students joined her at the North American Jewish Choral Festival.
Immersive Learning: Rabbinical students took part in two multi-day minimester immersives, one in May and another in August, diving deeply into intensive study and practice.
Fellowships & Internships: One rabbinical student, serving as a Slifka Nadich Fellow at the Hartman Institute, helped staff the launch of their teen program. Several students engaged in Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) internships, gaining hands-on experience in spiritual care.
Global Experiences: Many students spent the summer in Israel, immersed in a wide range of work, volunteer opportunities, and personal growth experiences.
Recruiting on the Road
Members from the admissions office, as well as deans, visited multiple locations this summer to meet with potential students. They were out and about, talking with future students about JTS’s many programs and opportunities.
Rabbi Ayelet Cohen, Pearl Resnick Dean of The Rabbinical School, and Rabbi Stephanie Ruskay, Associate Dean of The Rabbinical School, visited Camp Ramah in the Poconos and met with current and future rabbinical students, along with camp staff and administrators. Rabbi Cohen also met up with JTS students at Ramah Day Camp in Nyack and spent time at Ramah in the Rockies, and Rabbi Ruskay taught at Ramah Berkshires.
Rabbi Cantor Shoshi Levin Goldberg, Director of the H. L. Miller Cantorial School, spent a Shabbat with her family at Ramah Day Camp in Nyack, where she previously was a staff member.
Rabbi Annie Lewis, Director of Recruitment and Admissions for Religious and Educational Leadership and Assistant Dean of First Year Rabbinical Students, took an extensive tour, visiting multiple camps. She served as scholar-in-residence at Camp Ramah in the Poconos and taught rising 7th graders about tefillin; participated in “Tefillot Afloat,” a signature experience at Camp Ramah in Northern California; and engaged with campers and staff at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin. She also met with numerous JTS alumni, students, and staff.
We had a full roster of students enrolled as Freiberg-Hammerman Ramah Ambassadors. This special program supports JTS students who work at Ramah camps, where they share Jewish learning and programs and help identify and recruit the next generation of promising JTS students.
A JTS student also attended BBYO’s International Leadership Training Conference where they talked with future leaders and provided information about the List College community. Locally, JTS had a table at the Collegiate Leadership Internship Program through NYU’s Bronfman Center.
From Israel to summer camps to professional development workshops, JTS’s faculty have had one busy summer! Here are a few highlights:
Professor Eitan Fishbane, Professor of Jewish Thought, was selected for the Posen Library Digital Curriculum Development Fellowship. The fellows will be working to create teaching modules on Jews and citizenship; Middle Eastern and North African (MENA), Sephardic, Maghrebi, and Mizrahi Jewish experiences; rabbis and the emergence of Judaism in antiquity; and life-cycle, ritual, and observance around the world.
Professor Yitz Landes, Assistant Professor of Rabbinic Literatures and Cultures, welcomed a group of teenagers to experience JTS’s Rare Book Room as part of his responsibilities teaching young people in the Bronfman Fellowship. The fellows looked at items that touched upon various topics they had studied over the course of the summer—including ancient Torah scroll fragments from the Cairo Genizah, important Kabbalistic manuscripts from Safed and Italy, Hebrew Bibles from Spain, the decisions of the Napoleonic Sanhedrin, and the poetry of Emma Lazarus.
Professor Shira Billet, Assistant Professor of Jewish Thought and Ethics, delivered several lectures throughout the world, sharing her scholarship with new audiences. Lecture titles included “Maimonides on Love and Humility in Hermann Cohen’s Anti-Eudaimonian Ethics,” “Hermann Cohen’s Hermeneutics of Holiness,” and “Shared Traditions of Parental Grief and Comfort Across Islamic and Jewish Sources.”
Read about the Paleography Workshop that Professor Marjorie Lehman, Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics, attended at the University of Toronto’s Fisher Library.
Professor Robbie Harris, Professor of Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages, spent a meaningful and memorable summer at Camp Ramah in the Poconos. As the professor in residence, he taught campers and staff a variety of topics, including the story of Cain and Abel. He also had the opportunity to publish three articles: “From פשטי דקרא to פשוטו של מקרא: The Origins of Peshat Commentary in Eleventh and Twelfth Century Rabbinic Exegesis,” “Speaking to and About the Other: Terms for Christians and Christianity Among twelfth century Rabbinic Exegetes,” and “Rhetoric and Polemic in the Twelfth-Century Renaissance: Literary and Religious Interpretation in R. Yosef Kara’s Commentary on Isaiah.”
Professor Benjamin Sommer, Professor of Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages, had a busy August of international travel. At the World Congress of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, he presented a paper on “Psalms of Crisis.” The following week, he attended the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament meeting in Berlin, where he presented on modern Jewish commentary on the Psalter.
Professor Jonathan Milgram, Associate Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics, attended the World Congress as well. He presented a paper entitled, “The ‘Mitzvah’ of Procreation for Non-Jews” (in Hebrew) and chaired the “Studies in Talmud Yerushalmi” panel. Chancellor Emeritus Arnie Eisen was part of a session organized by Dr. Alon Goshen-Gottstein about his new book, In God’s Presence: A Theological Reintroduction to Judaism. Professor Eisen’s talk placed that work in dialogue with his own recently published book, Seeking the Hiding God: A Personal Theological Essay.
