Boston Area Me'ah Boston Area Regional Office 617-559-8708
FacultyDr. Jay R. Berkovitz is Professor of Jewish History at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he directs the Center for Jewish Studies. Also a specialist in Jewish law, he received his PhD at Brandeis University in Near Eastern and Judaic studies. He is author of The Shaping of Jewish Identity in Nineteenth-century France (Detroit: Wayne State Univ. Press, 1989). Rites and Passages: The Beginnings of Modern Jewish Culture in France, 1650-1860 was published in 2004 by the University of Pennsylvania, and a Hebrew edition will be published by the Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History. His most recent work has focused on Jewish social history in the early modern period, with particular emphasis on communal governance, ritual, family, and the history of Jewish law. He has been awarded grants by the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, the Littauer Foundation, and fellowships at the Hebrew University, Harvard University, and the Institute for Advanced Studies, Jerusalem. Dr. David Bernat received his PhD in biblical studies from Brandeis University and is Assistant Professor of Religion and Jewish Studies at Wellesley College. Dr. Bernat has taught for Me'ah since 1998 and has led Meah's Bible/Rabbinics summer Israel tours. Dr. Marc Brettler is the Dora Golding Professor of Bible in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University where he was awarded the Michael L. Walzer Teaching Prize. He is the author of many articles on literary and historical aspects of biblical texts, including being co-editor of the Jewish Study Bible (Oxford University Press; 2004), winner of a National Jewish Book Award in 2004. Dr. Brettler has been a Me’ah instructor since the program’s inception. Reuven Cohn is an adult Jewish educator, and an attorney. He is a veteran teacher in the Me'ah program and also teaches for the Me'ah Graduate Institute, Hebrew College Online, and Maimonides School. He holds rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University, a JD from Yale Law School, and has done advanced graduate work in Jewish studies at Harvard University. Among his areas of interest are Jewish interpretations of the Bible, the literary development of the Mishnah and Talmud, and history of the prayerbook. Dr. Lynne Heller is a graduate of the Yeshivah of Flatbush and its Midrasha. Dr. Heller received a BA with honors in English and education from Brooklyn College (Scholars Program) and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She earned her MA and PhD degrees in English and comparative literature at New York University as a New York State Regents Doctoral Fellow and a National Defense Education Fellow. She has taught Bible in several of the adult learning programs of Hebrew College and CJP, including the Early Morning Text Study program, Genesis Bible study program, Ikkarim, Kol Isha and the Institute for Jewish Studies in Lexington. Dr. Deeana Copeland Klepper holds a PhD in Medieval European History from Northwestern University and is currently Assistant Professor of Religion at Boston University where she teaches a variety of courses on the religious culture of the Middle Ages. She has published articles on late medieval Christian-Jewish relations, and is completing a book on polemics, interpretation, and Jewish texts in the middle ages. Dr. Shari Lowin is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Stonehill College. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. She has taught at University of Chicago, Yeshiva University, Brooklyn College, and in Ma’ayan. Shari is fluent in Arabic and has researched and published on a number of topics comparing Judaism and Islam, including her dissertation: The Making of a Forefather: Abraham in Islamic and Jewish Exegetical Narratives. Rabbi Natan Margalit earned his PhD in Near Eastern studies from UC Berkeley. He studied for many years in Israel and received rabbinic ordination from Machon Harry Fischel (The Jerusalem Seminary) in 1990. He has served as Jewish Chaplain and Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion at Bard College, as well as Director of Education at Makor, a Jewish cultural and arts center in New York. He was a Rabbinic Fellow at CLAL and has taught at Machon Pardes and Yakar Learning Community in Jerusalem. He currently serves on the Ethics Committee and the Task Force on Ethical Kashrut for Ohalah, the association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal. He has published articles on gender, textual practice, ecology and spirituality in numerous journals, and is currently preparing for publication of his book, Life Containing Texts: Gender and Writing in the Mishnah. Dr. Jacob Meskin is Assistant Professor of Jewish Education at Hebrew College. He also helps train faculty for Me'ah. He has taught previously at Princeton University, Williams College and Rutgers University. He received his MA and PhD from Princeton University. His articles have appeared in Modern Judaism, The Journal of Religion, Soundings, Judaism, Cross Currents, and in several edited volumes. He is currently completing a manuscript on the relationship between philosophy and Jewish tradition in the work of Emmanuel Levinas. Rabbi Benjamin Samuels is the rabbi of Congregation Sha'arei Tefillah in Newton. He holds a BA in English literature and an MA in both Bible and medieval Jewish history from Yeshiva University. Jeffrey Spitzer is the chair of the Rabbinic Literature Department at Gann Academy-The New Jewish High School in Waltham. Spitzer is a graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary where he did doctoral work on the social history of the ancient synagogue. Spitzer was formerly the Senior Educator at Jewish Family & Life; he was the editor of the Jewish texts section of the acclaimed MyJewishLearning.com website (developed in conjuction with Hebrew College), and has contributed 50 articles to the site. Spitzer is also on the interdenominational editorial board of BabagaNewz, a Jewish values magazine for children in grades 4-7. Dr. David Starr is Hebrew College Vice President for Community Education, Assistant Professor of Jewish History and Dean of Me'ah. An expert on the subjects of modern Jewish history, Jewish education and adult Jewish learning in America, he has overseen a decade of Me'ah's national growth. Dr. Starr received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and rabbinical ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Dr. Ronit Ziv-Kreger serves as Judaic Studies Coordinator and Family Educator at MetroWest Jewish Day School. She developed an award winning course for Hebrew College’s Prozdor program, designed a neighborhood-based preschool family “play and learn”program, and authored curriculum for the Israeli Ministry of Education. She is a graduate of the Pardes Educators Program, and a cantorial program at Jerusalem's Hebrew Union College. Dr. Ziv-Kreger received her PhD from M.I.T.'s Sloan School of Management.
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