2011 New Rabbinical Students

Julianne Benioff was principal of the Sunday religious school at Congregation Or HaTzafon in Fairbanks, Alaska. She has participated in the Davennen' Leadership Training Institute and in Storahtelling’s StorahLAB Summer Training Institute. Earlier, Julie worked with the Boreal Ecology Cooperative Research Unit and was an adjunct faculty member at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. As the owner of Alaska Benchmark Company, she developed curriculum and assessments for 15 school districts.		Joshua Boydstun supervised circulation at the Joseph Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago and interned at the university’s Newberger Hillel Center. He has worked in theater production in New York City and, while living in Tucson, AZ, served as an editor of the radical environmentalist journal Earth First! Joshua has been involved with the Hyde Park Minyan, the Yavneh Minyan and the egalitarian havurah at Newberger Hillel.

Jamie Hart has worked as a religious school teacher and camp counselor. She was active at the University of Hartford Hillel and served as cancer education chair for the university’s “Relay for Life” event. When Jamie was a teenager, her family joined Reconstructionist congregation Ahavat Achim in New Paltz, NY. During 2006-07, she participated in the Young Judaea Year Course in Israel and volunteered as a physical therapy aide.		Brooke Hyman served as marketing coordinator at Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation, Bayer Healthcare and Prime Energy Rental. She is an active volunteer with a variety of causes, including child athletes, the arts and animal rescue. For the past few years, Brooke has been a member of Reconstructionist congregation Bnai Keshet in Montclair, NJ. She was a member of the Big East All-Academic Team in basketball.

Sandra Lawson was an adjunct professor of sociology at Howard Community College, Community College of Baltimore County and Georgia Perimeter College. She has conducted investigative research for the Anti-Defamation League and also served as an investigator in the US Army. For a decade, she owned and operated a fitness training and nutritional counseling company. Sandra has been active in Atlanta’s Reconstructionist Congregation Bet Haverim and with Nehirim, which serves GLBT Jews, their partners and allies.		Leiah Moser was the librarian, taught in the Hebrew school, worked with prospective converts and taught a Mussar course for adults at Congregation B’nai Emunah in Tulsa; she also enjoys leading services and giving divrei Torah. She has professional experience in website development, graphic design and customer service. Leiah served as an English instructor in Komaki, Japan, for a year. She has studied at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Ora Nitkin-Kaner participated in Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps in New Orleans and was the primary writer for Avodah's national blog, Jewish Voices Pursuing Justice. While in New Orleans, she worked with exonerated individuals at Resurrection After Exoneration and co-founded a multi-denominational, egalitarian minyan. She is proudest of her anti-oppression and anti-racism work, especially the work conducted through a lens of Reevaluation Counseling. She also gives workshops on social justice and Judaism.		Matan Peled is a native Israeli and served as a medic in the Israeli Defense Forces. He is a longtime educator who served most recently as religious school teacher and youth group advisor at Congregation Beth Shalom and Temple B’nai Israel in Clearwater, FL. Matan also has worked as a bird ringer and researcher at the International Birdwatching and Research Center in Eilat and as zoo manager and veterinary assistant at the Children’s Village of Karmiel.

Alex Weissman has served as the social justice coordinator at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York City. He served on the board of directors of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ); he has participated in JFREJ’s Grace Paley Organizing Fellowship and chaired its Justice for Domestic Workers campaign. Alex has worked in HIV research and domestic violence prevention. He contributed to a collection that won a 2007 Lambda Literary Award.

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