
Dr. Joshua Kulp
Rosh Yeshiva
Dr. Kulp is co-founder of the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem where he has taught Talmud and halakhah for the last 20 years. He is the author of the recently published book Reconstructing the Talmud (Mechon Hadar, 2014) as well as the The Schechter Haggadah: Art, History and Commentary (Schechter Press, 2008). Beginning in 2001 and continuing through 2013, Dr. Kulp authored a commentary in English on the entire Mishnah, which served as the basis for the Mishnah Yomit project. In 2013 Dr. Kulp began the Daf Shevui program, the study of one daf of Talmud per week and has so far completed a commentary on Tractates Sukkah and Megillah and has begun work on Tractate Ketubot. Dr. Kulp was raised in Margate, New Jersey, where his family was active in the Conservative Movement. He spent his summers at Camp Ramah in the Poconos, Camp Ramah in Canada and for the last ten summers, he has served as the scholar-in-residence at Camp Ramah in New England. Dr. Kulp made aliyah in 1994 and currently lives in Modiin with his wife, Julie Zuckerman, and their four children. In his spare time, he is an avid triathlete and runner and has completed three Ironmans.

Rabbi Joel Levy
Rosh Yeshiva
Rabbi Levy studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University, was chair of the Program at Limmud conference and is an ex-director of NOAM. He received rabbinical ordination from Rabbi David Hartman in 2000. He has been the part-time rabbi of Kol Nefesh Masorti Synagogue, Britain’s first fully egalitarian traditional shul, since 2001. He teaches Practical Halacha.

Dr. Shaiya Rothberg
Teacher
Dr. Rothberg received his doctorate in Jewish Thought from the Hebrew University and his B.A. in Jewish Philosophy and Talmud from Bar Ilan University. Shaiya has also learned in the Conservative Yeshiva Kollel since it began, and earlier on at Machon Meir, Machon Pardes, Hamachon Hagavoah Letorah (Bar-Ilan’s yeshiva) and Machon Hartman. He teaches Theology, Kabbalah and Written and Oral Torah from Midrash to the Middle Ages. You can find some of Shaiya’s theology and interpretation at info.humanrightstorah.org.

Rabbi Shoshana Cohen
Teacher
Rabbi Cohen teaches Talmud, Midrash and Gender Studies at the Yeshiva. Shoshana is the educational director of ATZUM’s Takum, a social justice beit midrash housed at the CY. Shoshana has completed advanced studies at Hebrew University, Matan and the Hartman Institute and has semikha (Rabbinic ordination) from Rabbi Daniel Landes. Lecturing in Hebrew and in English she has been on the faculty of the Drisha Institute, the Hartman Girl’s High School, Yeshivat Talpiot and Yeshivat Hadar.

Rabbi Mordechai Silverstein
Teacher
Rabbi Mordechai (Mitchell) Silverstein is a senior faculty member at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem where he teaches Talmud, Poskim, Halacha, and Midrash. Before making aliyah in 1988 he served as the rabbi of Congregation Shomray Hadath in Elmira, New York. In 2010-11, he served as the sabbatical rabbi and again in 2015-16 as interim rabbi at Moriah Congregation in Deerfield, Illinois. In 2009 he was the scholar in residence for the Chicago region of USCJ (United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism). Rabbi Silverstein is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania where he served as president of the Hillel Foundation. He graduated from the Jewish Theological Seminary with a MA and rabbinical ordination. He also received Smichat Rabbanut under the auspices of Yeshiva University and did advanced studies in Talmud at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Rabbi Silverstein is the leading expert in Midrash Tehillim. He is a native of Philadelphia, growing up in Willingboro, New Jersey, and is married to Shira, a Jerusalem native, who is a geneticist at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. Together, they have five children and nine grandchildren, all of whom live in Israel.

Rabbi Joel Roth
Rosh Yeshiva Emeritus
Rabbi Roth is Louis Finkelstein Professor of Talmud and Jewish Law at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Rabbi Roth formerly served as Dean of the Rabbinical School at JTS and Chair of the Rabbinical Assembly’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards. He gives shiurim during his frequent visits to Israel.

Vered Hollander-Goldfarb
Teacher
Vered Hollander-Goldfarb received her M.A. in Judaic Studies and Tanach from the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Yeshiva University and studied at Bar-Ilan University and the Jewish Theological Seminary. Before making aliyah, she taught at Ramaz School and Stern College in New York. She teaches Tanach and Medieval Commentators.

Rabbi Shlomo Zacharow
Teacher
Rabbi Zacharow is Chairman of the Israel Rabbinical Assembly Law Committee, Director of the Masorti Movement Bet Din for Divorces and works in Rabbinic development for Masorti Olami. He previously served as Rabbi of Congregation Shevet Achim in Gilo. At the Conservative Yeshiva, he teaches Biblical Hebrew, Halakha and Pos’kim (The development of Jewish Law). He heads the “Sacred Skills” track and he himself is certified by the Israeli Rabbanut as a Mashgiah Kashrut and Shohet L’ofot (ritual slaughterer). Rabbi Zacharow received his MA and Rabbinic ordination from the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies as well as an additional investiture from the “Beit Midrash for Israeli Rabbis,” affiliated with The Shalom Hartman Institute and HaMidrasha at Oranim.

Shuvi Hoffman
Teacher
Born in NYC, raised in Jerusalem, married to Eitan and mother of five. Spent the past two years in New York as a Tanakh and Hebrew teacher at SAR high school, and teacher in the Drisha summer program. Taught Tanakh and Machshevet (Jewish Philosophy) and was head of Judaic studies in Tali Beit Chinuch (a public-secular high school in Jerusalem) since 2005. Mentored teachers in Judaic studies through the Hartman Institute (Be'eri program) and teachers-in-training in David Yellin College of Education. Over the past 10 years was also involved in writing curriculum as well as the Matriculation exam ("bagrut") in Jewish philosophy. Has an MA in Tanakh from Hebrew University, graduate of Revivim program, where she also works as a teacher and mentor.

Yardén Raber
Teacher
Yardén Raber was born in Buenos Aires in the midst of a traditional Jewish family. He studied in diverse batei midrash and Jewish academic institutions both in Israel and in Argentina, where he also served in various Conservative communities until he made alia in 2012. Yardén studied Talmud an Ancient Jewish Literature at Tel Aviv University, where he currently works as a researcher of ancient Jewish writings from the Cairo Genizah. In addition, he is currently completing his rabbinical ordination at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, and is a faculty member at the Conservative Yeshiva since 2015. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife and their two children.

Ilana Kurshan
Teacher
Ilana Kurshan is the author of If All the Seas Were Ink (St. Martin's Press, 2017) and Why is This Night Different From All Other Nights (Schocken, 2005). She has a degree in History of Science from Harvard and in English literature from Cambridge, and she has worked in literary publishing both in New York and in Jerusalem -- as a translator, a foreign rights agent, and as the Books Editor of Lilith Magazine. She has translated books of Jewish studies by Ruth Calderon, Benjamin Lau, and Micah Goodman, as well as novels, short stories, and children's picture books.

Gila Vachman
Teacher
Gila grew up in Kvuzat Yavne, a religious kibbutz near Ashdod. She studied Talmud and Hebrew Literature at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and received her doctorate from Hebrew University in 2009. Her main focus is on the study of Midrash Aggadah. She teaches at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies and at the Hebrew University. Her edition of Midrash Hadash Al-Hatorah was published on 2013. Gila lives in Jerusalem with her husband Ronnie and their three children.