Keynote Presenters
PAPER MIDRASH
Husband and wife “dynamic duo” Isaac and Rabbi Shawna Brynjegard-Bialik create new pathways into Torah, combining deep Jewish scholarship with comic books and pop culture for a unique take on traditional texts. Together, they are Paper Midrash, and we're thrilled that they're headlining the 2023 ISJL Conference! Paper Midrash loves to help communities engage with Torah personally and deeply, with dynamic visual presentations and engaging hands-on workshops. Isaac cuts up comic books and reassembles them into papercuts that explore the stories of the Jewish people. Rabbi Shawna adapts traditional Jewish concepts to a modern Reform context, and brings that synergy to students of all ages. |
MOLLY LEVY
Molly Levy is the Director of Education for the Goldring/ Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life (ISJL). Though this is her first year in the position, this is not her first experience with the organization. Molly was an ISJL Education Fellow from 2009-2011, and grew up in a small Jewish community in North Georgia which has benefited from the ISJL's services. Molly is an alum of the University of Georgia and Baltimore Hebrew Institute at Towson University. Since her time at the ISJL she has served as an Educator at many synagogues from DC to Miami, as well as Program Director for URJ Camp Coleman. She lives in Tampa, Florida, with her husband, Justin, and their two kiddos, Max (3) and Jonah (6). |
AMANDA WINER
Amanda Winer is the Director of Research and Evaluation at The Jewish Education Project and RootOne, LLC. She is a social psychology scholar and applied statistician; research interests are in individuals' sense of self and navigating behavior-based communities. Her dissertation and soon to be published book, "Why am I not More Comfortable?" details the complicated impacts of identity-based education of among Jewish young people's professional and personal choices. She has led dozens of research projects at universities and other educational institutions, most recently "A Census of Jewish Supplementary Schools in North America" on the current state of part-time Jewish education, the first of its kind since 2008. Amanda's other passion is teaching. She derives much of her love of Jewish Education and providing data and support to educators to her first full-time professional role, as an ISJL Education Fellow. She's thrilled to be back in Jackson! |
Presenters
Rabbi Adam M. Allenberg, MAJE (he/him) is the Senior Director of the Office of Recruitment and Admissions for the Hebrew Union College. He spends his days recruiting future colleagues and helping them gain the skills and network to thrive as Jewish professionals in all areas of Jewish life. He has been blessed to teach and counsel, advise and agitate at eighteen different Jewish summer camps, dozens of college campuses and their Hillels, and local and national Jewish gatherings all across the West and beyond. After teaching about Jews’ relationship to land and food for many years, he has begun studying permaculture— an ethics-based approach to land and resource management, from sky to soil, from bacterial to human culture. Adam and his family live in Santa Monica, California, the historic home of the Tongva Nation. The Allenbergs like to hike in the mountains, spend long days at the beach, sing through their growing family songbook and tend to their garden of perennials, flowers and two small citrus trees.
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Kelly Cohen is the Senior Program Director for The Center for Experiential Jewish Education at the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta. She has worked as a Jewish educator in a variety of settings, including camps, day schools, synagogues, Federations, Israel travel and more. Most recently she served as the North American Director of Education for the Diller Teen Fellowship—guiding its global teen leadership program's educational vision and implementation. Kelly holds a BA in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University and a Masters in Jewish Education from Hebrew College. She's also a graduate of Pardes Educators Program and M2's Senior Educator Cohort. In addition to her work as an educator, Kelly is also the creator of Parsha Storybook Project—an online resource for early childhood Torah literacy.
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Beth Kander-Dauphin is a writer, teaching artist, and nonprofit professional. She lives in Chicago, ancestral land of the Council of Three Fires among other indigenous groups. She is the ISJL's Chief Strategy Officer, overseeing grants, communications, strategic planning, staff support, and workplace culture initiatives such as Safety, Respect, Equity (SRE). Publishing under the name Beth Kander, her writing career keeps her busy, as well. Her picture book DO NOT EAT THIS BOOK: FUN WITH JEWISH FOODS & FESTIVALS (Sleeping Bear Press) hits shelves this August, and her adult debut I MADE IT OUT OF CLAY (Mira / HarperCollins) comes out in 2024. Beth holds an MSW from the University of Michigan and an MFA in Creative Writing from Mississippi University for Women, and a BA from Brandeis University. Her all-time favorite characters are her husband and their two children.
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Nora Katz is the ISJL's Director of Heritage and Interpretation. In her role, she interprets and shares the rich legacy of Jews in the American South through public history programs, tours, historic preservation, and more. Originally from rural Pennsylvania, Nora holds a Master’s degree in Public History and Cultural Heritage from Trinity College Dublin and is passionate about the ways in which public history can advance social justice. Nora is also the host and producer of the ISJL’s video podcast Southern & Jewish, which shares stories of southern Jewish history and culture. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and on the ISJL website!
Learn more about the ISJL’s culture division at isjl.org/culture. |
Bonnie Lustig is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 40 years of Jewish education experience and a special interest in developing curricula on Tzedakah and Tikun Olam. For the past 22 years, Bonnie has run the Special Needs Program of Jewish Children’s Regional Service (JCRS) in New Orleans, where she also administers PJ Library. In 2019-20, she focused her passion for experiential education on creating a highly successful series of family volunteering events for PJ Library, “Little Mensches,” which she is teaching about at this conference. Bonnie has completed the PANIM National Educators’ Institute for Jewish Service-Learning, coordinated Louisiana’s B’nai Maimonides Teen Philanthropy Program, and organized New Orleans’ first community-wide Tzedakah Fair. Bonnie has attended 12 previous ISJL in-person annual educators’ conferences.
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Shira Muroff is the ISJL's Director of Programs. She is a California native and a graduate of the University of California, Davis, with a degree in Human Development. A Jacksonian since 2016, Shira first joined the ISJL as an Education Fellow from 2016-2018. After the fellowship, she created Mississippi history materials for students and teachers across the state with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Back at the ISJL since 2022, Shira has enjoyed connecting communities across the South to Jewish speakers, musicians, comedians, and more.
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Dr. Josh Parshall has served as the Director of the ISJL History department since 2017. This is his second stint at the ISJL, having previously worked as oral historian from 2009 to 2013. His academic interests include American Jewish culture and politics, Yiddish language and culture, and southern studies. He holds a Ph.D. from the Department of American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where his dissertation research focused on southern branches of the Arbeter Ring (Workmen's Circle). Dr. Parshall is also the current President of the Southern Jewish Historical Society.
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Lex Rofeberg serves as Senior Jewish Educator for Judaism Unbound. He co-hosts and produces its weekly podcast, downloaded over 2 million times worldwide, and serves as a faculty member of Judaism Unbound's "UnYeshiva," a digital center for Jewish learning and unlearning. Ordained as a rabbi in 2021 through the Jewish Renewal movement, his courses and guest-lectures focus on a variety of topics including Digital Judaism, Judaism and Sports, Jewish Pop Culture, and Interfaith Families. Lex was an ISJL Education Fellow from 2013-2015.
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