2010 New Rabbinical Students

Shelly Barnathan is a seasoned educator who has taught foreign languages to children in grades K-12 at many different Philadelphia-area schools. In synagogue settings, she has taught Melody and Meaning of Prayer, a weekly Shabbat spirituality class for adults, for over a decade, and has been the instructor of a women’s spirituality group since 2005.		Jason Bonder’s childhood dream of being a professional baseball player came true in the summer of 2007, when he pitched for the Tel Aviv Lightning in Israel’s first professional baseball league. Jason is a certified personal trainer. He has worked as a Jewish educator at the Rebecca and Israel Ivry Prozdor High School in New York City and has been an active volunteer for New York Cares.

Tamara Cohen co-founded Jewish Activist Gays and Lesbians and was a founding board member of Brit Tzedek V’Shalom: The Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace. For many years she provided spiritual leadership for a Jewish group in Connecticut and was a senior staff member at Ma’yan: The Jewish Women’s Project in New York City. She has worked in several capacities, including director of multicultural and diversity affairs, at the University of Florida.		Elana Friedman worked for the Fund for the Public Interest in Boston, Atlanta and Los Angeles for the past seven years; most recently, as the California and New Mexico regional director, she raised $7 million in four years to support progressive nonprofits. Elana took leaves of absence in 2004 and 2008 in order to work for Grassroots Voter Outreach, where she served as assistant national field director.

Shelley Goldman has served as a youth organizer at the LGBT Community Center in New York City. Through the Avodah Fellowship in 2005–06, she worked as a community organizer for Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and led the Jewish Immigrant Justice Organizing Campaign. Shelley has taught about Jewish social justice issues in synagogue and camp settings.		Greg Hersh moved to Thailand after college and taught English at the Prasatwit Primary School in Sena. He spent the 2009–10 academic year living in Jerusalem, where he studied at several different ulpanim, regularly attended the monthly Reconstructionist minyan and volunteered with Encounter, an organization that exposes Jewish leaders in the Diaspora to Palestinian life.

Marisa Elana James lived in Jerusalem for the past three years and was deeply involved in Encounter (an organization that exposes Jewish leaders in the Diaspora to Palestinian life), both as a volunteer facilitator and medic and as a member of the professional staff. A lover of languages, Marisa has worked as a freelance translator and editor. She also has taught English literature to university students.		Jean Meltzer-Maskuli began her rabbinical studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary; introduced to Recon- structionist Judaism in Jerusalem, she decided to transfer. Jean is a writer and television producer; she won many awards for her work on the educational series Assignment Discovery. Much of her free time goes to operating an online support group for ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephaloyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) patients and their families.

Nathan Weiner served for four years as the assistant principal for grades 7-12 at Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church, VA, where he introduced a new model for teen education. He was executive director of NUJLS, the National Union of Jewish LGBTIQQ Students, from 2004–07, and helped secure a grant from the Schusterman Family Foundation for the organization to hire its first fulltime staff member.

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