PLENARY Speakers
Rabbi Mira Wasserman, Ph.D.
Vice President for Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Rabbinic Literature (Moderator)Rabbi Mira Wasserman, PhD, teaches Talmud and Midrash at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where she serves as the Vice President for Academic Affairs of Reconstructing Judaism.
Aaron Dorfman
Executive Director, A More Perfect Union
Aaron Dorfman is Founder and Executive Director of A More Perfect Union, an effort to mobilize the American Jewish community to protect and strengthen American democracy. Previously, Aaron served as President of Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, Vice President for Programs of American Jewish World Service, and Director of Informal Education at Temple Isaiah of Contra Costa County. He holds a Masters in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and a BA in English and Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Aaron and his wife Talia live in Brooklyn, New York, where they’re raising three fierce feminist daughters.
Rabbi Sandra Lawson
Executive Director, Carolina Jews for Justice
Rabbi Sandra Lawson is the Executive Director of Carolina Jews for Justice (CJJ), a statewide grassroots organization building power for electoral justice, immigrant rights, and community safety through coalition-based organizing across North Carolina. A 2018 Reconstructionist Rabbinical College graduate, Sandra has worked to transform perceptions of what a rabbi looks like. She tackles questions surrounding Jews and race, LGBTQ+ inclusion, and social justice through her writing, podcasts, media appearances, and keynote speeches. With more than 100,000 followers across social media platforms, she models what it means to teach Torah and build community in digital spaces. Sandra previously served as the inaugural Director of Racial Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Reconstructing Judaism and as Associate Chaplain for Jewish Life at Elon University. Before entering the rabbinate, she served in the U.S. Army and as an investigative researcher for the Anti-Defamation League. Her work has been recognized by The Forward, the Center for American Progress, and Out Magazine.
Amy Spitalnick
CEO, Jewish Council for Public Affairs
Amy Spitalnick is the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the national convener of Jewish coalitions working across communities to build a just and inclusive American democracy.
Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D.
President & CEO, Reconstructing Judaism (Moderator)
THE FIRST WOMAN RABBI to head a Jewish congregational union and a Jewish seminary, Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D., became president and CEO of Reconstructing Judaism in 2014. She has drawn on her training as a rabbi and historian to become the Reconstructionist movement’s leading voice in the public square.
Elliot Vaisrub Glassenberg
Senior Educator, BINA, The Home of Israeli Judaism
Elliot Vaisrub Glassenberg is an American-Canadian-Israeli Queer Jewish educator-activist whose work focuses on the intersection of Judaism and human rights. Originally from Chicago, Elliot holds a B.A. from McGill University, an M.A. in Jewish Education and an M.A. in Jewish Literature from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Since moving to Israel in 2011, Elliot has taught hundreds of groups from Israel and abroad and has volunteered and advocated for refugee rights, LGBTQ inclusion and other causes. Elliot currently serves as a senior educator at BINA: The Home of Israeli Judaism; as part of his work, he oversees the RRC-BINA Israel Summer Term on the ground. Elliot is also a student in the The Beit Midrash for Israeli Rabbis (by Hamidrasha at Oranim and Hartman Institute), a blogger at The Times of Israel and lives in Jaffa. Elliot is an affiliate faculty member at RRC.
Helen Kim, Ph.D.
President & Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Sociology, Whitman College
Helen Kim is Professor of Sociology and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. Her scholarship focuses on race and American Judaism in the contemporary era. Along with co-author, Noah Leavitt, she published JewAsian: Race, Religion, and Identity for America's Newest Jews in 2016 with University of Nebraska Press.
Amanda Beckenstein Mbuvi
Director of the Center for Jewish Ethics, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Dr. Amanda Beckenstein Mbuvi is a scholar and teacher with expertise in Tanakh, Jewish ethics and multifaith studies. She serves as the director of the Center for Jewish Ethics at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where she previously served as the vice president for academic affairs—the first African American to lead in that role at an American rabbinical seminary. A graduate of Bryn Mawr College, she earned her Ph.D. from Duke University, specializing in Hebrew Bible with minors in Literature and Judaic Studies. She is the author of the book Belonging in Genesis: Biblical Israel and the Politics of Identity Formation, as well as numerous scholarly articles. She is passionate about dynamic, inclusive Jewish communities that cultivate what she likes to call “blessed interdependence.
Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer
Director of Virtual Content and Programs, Ritualwell, Reconstructing Judaism
Gabrielle Ariella Kaplan Mayer is an author, educator and spiritual director who works 1:1 with people, helping them find their inner wisdom through words. She currently works as the director of virtual content and programs for Ritualwell.org. Her personal essays have been featured in Tablet, Shondaland, NBCThink, Wisdom Daily, WHYY, The New York Times and many other publications. Gabrielle is currently working on a memoir about the power of intuition and ongoing conversations with her ancestors She writes a weekly Substack with creative prompts and spiritual practices called “Journey With the Seasons.” Find her books, plays and essays at gabriellekaplanmayer.com.
Rabbi Nicole Fix
Co-founder, Rabbinic Arts Company
Rabbi Nicole Fix
Rabbi Shawn Zevit
Rabbi Mishkan Shalom
Rabbi Shawn Zevit is a dynamic and widely known liturgist, teacher, singer, author and consultant to Jewish communities. He is a 1998 graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and worked for the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation for 14 years as the Director of Congregational Services, Outreach and Tikkun Olam. In 2023, Rabbi Shawn celebrated 25 years as a rabbi and 10 years at Mishkan Shalom. Rabbi Shawn has been a sought-after teacher and leader of spiritual practice programs, including co-director of the award-winning Davennen Leader’s Training Institute, where he coaches rabbis, cantors and lay leaders of all denominations.
Rabbi Kelilah Miller
Rabbi Mishkan Shalom
Rabbi Kelilah Miller
Justin Rosen Smolen
Vice President for Thriving Communities and Partnerships, Reconstructing Judaism (Moderator)
Justin Rosen Smolen is the Vice President for Thriving Communities and Partnerships at Reconstructing Judaism, where he oversees movement initiatives supporting nearly 100 congregations worldwide and builds partnerships to advance a deeply rooted, boldly relevant and co-creative approach to Jewish life. He is a member of the advisory board of Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations. Justin previously served as director of Jewish Emergent Network, where he led collaboration and strategy across seven pioneering communities throughout the United States to spark innovation in Jewish spiritual life. He also served as national director of youth programs at Keshet, where he expanded leadership programs and partnerships to support LGBTQ Jewish youth, and as associate director for community-based teen initiatives at The Jewish Education Project, where he advised a collaborative of funders launching new teen initiatives across the country. He has also consulted to a variety of organizations on inclusion, innovation and strategy. Justin holds an MPA in management and an MA in Jewish Studies, and is an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship. He lives in northern New Jersey with his partner and their two children.
Rabbi Aliza Schwartz
Rabbi Temple Hillel B'nai Torah
Rabbi Aliza Schwartz is the rabbi of Temple Hillel B’nai Torah, a haimish, progressive Reconstructionist congregation in Boston, MA with about 165 member households. Rabbi Aliza was ordained by RRC in 2024. She worked for two years as a Cooperberg-Rittmaster Rabbinical Intern at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York. She spent one year of rabbinic training in Jerusalem, studying at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies and doing protective presence and solidarity work, especially in Masafer Yatta, an area home to several Palestinian villages in the southern West Bank. Rabbi Aliza strives to always be part of bringing people toward one another and toward larger containers of “home.” In this particular world moment - and always - Rabbi Aliza fights for a deeply-rooted Judaism that stands loudly against racism, loudly against antisemitism, loudly against Islamophobia, and loudly against the systems that allow for dehumanization and that pit humans against one another.
Jillian Best Adler
Board Vice President, Camp Havaya
Jillian Best Adler is an early childhood consultant who offers coaching and training to early childhood educators and facilitates workshops and support groups for parents of young children. All of her work, including her parenting, is values-based, informed by and rooted in a commitment to justice. She is a mixed-race Black Jewish mother of three children and the wife of a Reconstructionist rabbi. She serves as Vice President of the Board of Camp Havaya and is an active volunteer at her children’s progressive Quaker school. Jillian hosts a podcast called "Connecting the Dots: Not Just Another Parenting Podcast" where she, using a blend of professional expertise and lived experience, guides parents through the process of shifting their perspectives on everyday behaviors and commonly held beliefs about children and our interactions with them.
Rabbi Isabel de Konnick
Executive Director and Campus Rabbi, Hillel at Drexel University
Rabbi Isabel de Koninck has served as Executive Director and Campus Rabbi for Hillel at Drexel University since 2010. Complementing her role at Hillel, Rabbi de Koninck regularly serves as an adjunct instructor at Drexel University and at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC). A native of Montclair, New Jersey, Rabbi Isabel de Koninck is a graduate of Brandeis University, and received rabbinic ordination from the RRC where she also completed a graduate certificate in Jewish Gender and Women’s Studies. Her thought pieces have been published by the CCAR Press, Evolve, and eJewish Philanthropy among others. She is an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship and of the Mandel Foundation’s Executive Leadership Program. Beyond her work at Hillel, Rabbi de Koninck is pursuing a doctorate in Leadership and Innovation at NYU’s Steinhardt School, serves on the boards of Reconstructing Judaism and Tribe12, and loves spending a week on faculty each summer at Camp Havaya.
WORKSHOP PRESENTERS
Rabbi Michael Strassfeld
Professor Jenna Weissman Joselit
Charles E. Smith Professor of Judaic Studies & Professor of History, George Washington University
Jenna Weissman Joselit is the author of Mordecai M. Kaplan: Restless Soul, the hot-off-the-press biography just published by Yale University Press as part of its distinguished ""Jewish Lives"" series. A celebrated cultural historian and public intellectual, whose column on American Jewish history and culture had appeared monthly over the past 25 years in the Forward and Tablet, she's now a contributing writer for the Jewish Review of Books. Her work has also been published in The New York Times, the New Republic, and Gastronomica.
Elsie Stern, Ph.D.
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Elsie R. Stern, Ph.D. is Professor of Bible at RRC, where she has served on the faculty for twenty years. One of her current research project centers on representations of migration in the Hebrew Bible. She is also serving as the general editor of a new Torah Commentary produced by the Central Conference of American Rabbis. Elsie lives in Philadelphia with her family and loves being part of the RRC and Reconstructing Judaism communities.
Rabbi Alex Weissman
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Rabbi Alex Weissman (RRC '17) serves as the Director of Community Life and Mekhinah at RRC where he teaches classes in Mishnah, practical rabbinics, and Reconstructionism. He has previously served as Rabbi of Congregation Agudas Achim, Director of Organizing at T'ruah, and Senior Jewish Educator at Brown RISD Hillel.
Rabbi David Teutsch, Ph.D.
Wiener Professor Emeritus of Contemporary Civilization, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Rabbi David Teutsch is the Wiener Professor Emeritus of Contemporary Civilization at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where he was the founding director of the Center for Jewish Ethics after he served as president of the College for nearly a decade. He is the editor of the Kol Haneshamah Reconstructionist prayer book series and of the three-volume Guide to Jewish Practice as well as several other books and dozens of articles. He continues to do consulting and coaching, and has been a volunteer leader of JStreet since its founding. He earned his A.B. with honors at Harvard University, his ordination at HUC-JIR in New York, and his PhD at the Wharton School.
Rabbi Nancy Fuchs Kreimer, Ph.D.
Rabbi Nancy Fuchs Kreimer, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Religious Studies Emerita and the founding Director of the Department of Multifaith Studies and Initiatives at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. She is a 1982 graduate of RRC and earned her doctorate in Religion from Temple University in 1990.
Rabbi Mordechai Liebling
Rabbi Mordechai Liebling is the Vice-Chair of the Board of Faith in Action (FIA), the largest faith-based community organizing network in the U.S. In 2025 he retired from working at POWER Interfaith, FIA's affiliate in Pennsylvania. Before that, he founded and directed the Social Justice Organizing Program at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College for ten years. Previously, he served as the executive vice president of Jewish Funds for Justice (now Bend the Arc); and was the executive director of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation for 12 years. He leads workshops and retreats on Race, Antisemitism and Christian hegemony, and on the Work That Reconnects developed by Joanna Macy.
Rabbi Rayna Grossman
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
As director of field education, Rabbi Rayna Grossman (they/them) oversees students’ on-the-job training, ensuring that future rabbis are prepared to serve in a variety of settings and communities. RRC’s new Advanced field education program (which began in academic year 2023-24 and builds on the General internship program), further centers immersive fieldwork opportunities as a core component of students’ learning and development. As part of their role, Rayna teaches supervision groups and helps coordinate all aspects of student supervision. They bring to the role substantial experience in supervising rabbinical students and, thanks to a background in social work, possess a rich understanding of what supervision can look like and how powerful it can be. Rayna spent five years as director of religious services at Lion’s Gate, a continuing-care retirement community in Voorhees, N.J., where they had previously served as rabbinic intern. While in this position they also had the pleasure of supervising RRC interns who helped serve the Lions Gate community. They graduated from RRC in 2017. While in rabbinical school, Rayna served a number of senior living communities, leading services, teaching adult-education classes and offering pastoral care. Previously, they earned a Master of Social Work from the University at Buffalo, N.Y., and worked for nonprofits dedicated to civil rights and fair housing. Growing up, Rayna belonged to Temple Sinai, a Reconstructionist shul in Buffalo, which is now Congregation Shir Shalom, a dually affiliated community in Williamsville, N.Y.
Rabbi Josh Jacobs-Velde
Rabbi, Oseh Shalom
Rabbi Josh Jacobs-Velde has been the co-rabbi of RJ-affiliate Oseh Shalom in Laurel, MD since 2017. A graduate of RRC, he is also active in the Jewish Renewal movement. He is deeply interested in supporting contemplative Jewish practice for liberal Jews, as well as connecting Judaism to the natural world.
Dr. Barry Dornfeld
Barry Dornfeld is a filmmaker, organizational consultant, and scholar whose award-winning documentaries and research span public TV, cultural performance, and community history.
Professor Sharon Musher
Professor of History, Stockton University
Sharon Ann Musher is Professor of History at Stockton University. She is the author of Democratic Art: The New Deal’s Influence on American Culture (University of Chicago Press, 2015) and Promised Lands: Hadassah Kaplan and the Legacy of American Jewish Women in Early Twentieth Century Palestine (New York University Press, 2025), which was selected for the Jewish Women’s Archive’s Summer Book List and twice for Hadassah Magazine’s Shabbat Bookshelf. Sharon is also a granddaughter of Hadassah Kaplan Musher and a great granddaughter of Mordecai Kaplan.
Rabbi Maurice Harris
Associate Director of Thriving Communities, Reconstructing Judaism
Rabbi Maurice Harris (RRC '03) is Associate Director for Thriving Communities at Reconstructing Judaism. Previously, he served as Associate Rabbi and Head of School at Temple Beth Israel (Eugene, OR). Maurice is the author of three Jewish studies books: Moses: A Stranger among Us; Leviticus: You Have No Idea; and The Forgotten Sage: Rabbi Joshua ben Hananiah and the Birth of Judaism as We Know It. He blogs at . theaccidentalrabbi.substack.com.
JT Waldman
JT Waldman is a bicentennial-baby born, raised, and residing in Philadelphia, PA. He is known for his scholarly and unconventional take on Jewish visual history and folklore through the medium of comix.
McKenzie Wren
Wren Consulting & Ma'ayan Spiritual Arts
McKenzie Wren (she/her) is an artist, facilitator and consultant who works in multiple arenas to support connection and growth. As Wren Consulting, she works with businesses and nonprofits to support inclusion and belonging. As Ma’ayan Spiritual Arts, she facilitates art, ritual and connection through Earth-based, embodied Jewish practices uplifting hidden voices and lost stories. At the heart of everything she does is the belief in the power of relationship, community and connection to nature - she is skilled in creating spaces where each person is seen, heard and valued.
Rabbi Jacob Staub
Director of Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations, Reconstructing Judaism
Rabbi Jacob Staub is the director of Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations. He is Professor Emeritus of Jewish Philosophy and Spirituality at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where he continues to direct the Program in Jewish Spiritual Direction. He served as editor of The Reconstructionist 1983-89. He co-authored with Rebecca Alpert, Exploring Judaism: A Reconstructionist Approach.
Josie Boskoff
Rabbinical Student, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Josie Boskoff (née Felt) is in her senior year at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Josie relocated to Albuquerque this summer from Philadelphia, where she spent two years working as the Rabbinic intern at Kol Tzedek. Her deep love of prayer and ritual developed over three years living in Jerusalem, where she studied Torah and participated in Jewish-Palestinian solidarity work in Masafer Yatta in the West Bank with All That’s Left and the Center for Jewish Nonviolence. While in Jerusalem, Josie co-founded Boneh Yerushalyim, an egalitarian anglo minyan for activists. Before turning towards the rabbinate, Josie graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in theater and worked as a stage manager in Washington DC and San Francisco.
Rabbi Dr. William Plevan
Assistant Professor of Contemporary Jewish Thought, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Rabbi Dr. William Plevan is Assistant Professor of Contemporary Jewish Thought at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College where he is director of its Israel program and served as the 2023-24 Democracy Fellow. He writes and teaches on contemporary Jewish theology, ethics, and political thought, and is currently working on a book on the ideal of community in Martin Buber's thought. He currently serves on the Board and is former Co-chair of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights and is past President of Matan, an organization devoted to creating disability inclusion in the Jewish community. He received rabbinical ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary and a PhD in Religion from Princeton.
Laynie Soloman
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Laynie Soloman is a teacher and Torah-lover who seeks to uplift the piously irreverent, queer, and subversive spirit of rabbinic text and theology. They serve on the faculty at SVARA, where they co-founded the Trans Halakha Project, an initiative that seeks to create new forms of halakhic (Jewish legal) expression shaped by trans and non-binary Jews. Laynie has taught Jewish text for over a decade in a wide range of spaces, including Yeshivat Hadar, the Academy for Jewish Religion, Pardes North America, and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. They live in Philadelphia with their partner, Zahara, and their kid, Remez.
