Nehirim's faculty includes some of today's most innovative thinkers in the Jewish world: rabbis, bestselling authors, members of the "Forward 50," and up-and-coming teachers and scholars who combine spiritual depth with intellectual rigor, accessibility with sophistication. Together with our director and staff, Nehirim's faculty members are available for special programs and scholar-in-residence weekends; email us for information.

Rabbi Jill Hammer, Ph.D.

Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD, Director of Spiritual Education at the Academy of Jewish Religion, is an author, educator, midrashist, myth-weaver, and ritualist. She is the director of Tel Shemesh, a website and community celebrating and creating Jewish earth-based traditions, and the co-founder of Kohenet: The Hebrew Priestess Institute. She is the author of two books: Sisters at Sinai: New Tales of Biblical Women (Jewish Publication Society, 2001) and The Jewish Book of Days (Jewish Publication Society, forthcoming 2006). She is a poet and essayist whose work has been published in many journals and anthologies such as Lilith, Bridges, Response, Natural Bridge, Zeek, The Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion,The Jewish Spectator, Biblical Women in the Midrash, and The Womens Torah Commentary. Rabbi Hammer is a celebrated adult educator who has taught in many venues including retreats, conferences, synagogues, Jewish community centers, new moon gatherings, and on-going adult education classes. She conducts workshops around the country on ancient and contemporary midrash, bibliodrama, creative ritual, and Jewish cycles of time. She is also currently serving as an adjunct at the Academy for Jewish Religion in Riverdale, NY.

Rabbi Jacob Staub, Ph.D.

Jacob J. Staub, Ph.D., was ordained at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1977 and has been on the faculty since 1983 (including 15 years as academic dean). Today, he serves as chair of the Department of Medieval Jewish Civilization, professor of Jewish philosophy and spirituality and director of the Jewish Spiritual Direction Program, which he was instrumental in developing. Spiritual direction is a contemplative practice that helps individuals discern God's presence in their lives.

Staub's own spiritual quest led him to complete certification in mindfulness leadership training with Sylvia Boorstein, a widely respected teacher of mindfulness meditation. He teaches meditation and spirituality at RRC and has taught Jewish spiritual direction across North America, and served in 2008 as the Conference Spiritual Director for Spiritual Directors International.

Staub is the co-author of Exploring Judaism: A Reconstructionist Approach and the author of The Creation of the World According to Gersonides. He has published over 100 articles on contemporary Jewish life and thought, queering Judaism, and medieval Jewish civilization. He is also a published poet.

Shoshana Jedwab

Shoshana Jedwab is a prize winning Jewish educator and the Jewish Studies Coordinator at the A.J. Heschel Middle School in NYC. She is the founding facilitator of the Makom Drum Circle at the JCC in Manhattan and is a percussionist and performance artist who has trained in bibliodrama and psychodrama. Shoshana has provided empowering drum circles to singles, student, training, and bereavement groups. Shoshana has performed with: Storahtelling, Chana Rothman, Debbie Friedman, Akiva Wharton, A Song of Solomon, Hebrew Mystical Chant with the Kirtan Rabbi, Andrew Hahn, and Tel Shemesh seasonal events.

Julia Watts Belser

As a spiritual teacher and facilitator, Julia Watts Belser strives to blend passionate scholarship with prophetic witness, teaching classic Jewish texts in a way that speak to our contemporary longings. Julia has taught in diverse university, synagogue, and community-based settings, including the Graduate Theological Union, The Leaven Center for Spirituality and Social Change, and the Masorti Lehrhaus in Berlin, Germany. As a writer and Jewish ritualist, Julia is engaged in crafting feminist theology and nurturing earth-based Jewish practice. She works as an anti-oppression educator and activist for LGBT issues, anti-racism, and disability rights. She has co-authored A Health Handbook for Women with Disabilities, published by Hesperian Foundation and distributed to grassroots groups and health workers around the world. Her poetry and essays have appeared in Midstream: A Journal of Jewish Thought; The Journal of Women and Religion, Kalliope: A Journal of Women’s Art and Literature; and Fireweed: A Feminist Quarterly.
Julia is a final year rabbinical student at the transdenominational Academy for Jewish Religion, CA in Los Angeles. She is finishing her Ph.D. in rabbinic literature in the Joint Doctoral Program in Jewish Studies at the University of California Berkeley and the Graduate Theological Union.

Gabriel Blau

Gabriel Blau is the founder of The God & Sexuality Conference, an annual gathering of scholars devoted to issues of religion and sexuality. He has spoken in the US and Israel to camp groups, yeshiva students, colleges and graduate schools and at open lectures. Both the general and gay Israeli media have covered his work as an activist. He is the author of Two Truths: Living as a Religious Gay Jew in Lawrence Schimmels book Found Tribe, (Sherman Asher Publishing, 2002.) Gabriel received his BA in Theology from Bard College. He is currently editing the upcoming book Homosexuality and the World Religions: Traditional Views and Modern Responses.

Daniel Max

Daniel Max is the founder and director of Max Sense of Self. Daniel is a Nutrition and Health Counselor, Shiatsu Practitioner, and Yoga Instructor.