Dr. Esther Altmann

Esther Altmann, Ph.D., is the Director of Pastoral Education at Yeshivat Maharat and a clinical psychologist with over 30 years of experience treating individuals, couples, and families. Dr. Altmann enjoys working with individuals across the lifespan and has particular expertise in adolescent and young adult development, eating disorders, ADHD, female cancers, and trauma. She has taught graduate courses in psychology and has served as a supervising psychologist at several New York City hospitals. Dr‭. ‬Altmann writes on mental health topics and is a consultant to schools and communities.

Rabbanit Alissa Thomas-Newborn

Rabbanit Alissa Thomas-Newborn, BCC is the Rabbanit at Congregation Netivot Shalom in Teaneck, NJ. She is a Board Certified Chaplain and staff chaplain at NewYork-Presbyterian Columbia University Irving Medical Center, where she has specialties in Palliative Care, Critical Care, and Emergency Psychiatric Care, and she is the president of NAJC (Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains). Rabbanit Alissa is also an Atra fellow in the inaugural Northern New Jersey Rabbinic (re)Design Fellowship. From 2014 to 2022, Rabbanit Alissa served as a spiritual leader at B'nai David-Judea Congregation, as the first Orthodox female clergy in a shul in Los Angeles. A writer and speaker, she received her ordination from Yeshivat Maharat and her BA from Brandeis University. She is the author of the newly released halachic and pastoral book, Shabbat Guidebook for Parents: Halacha of Caring for Infants, Toddlers, and Young Children on Shabbat and Yom Tov. Rabbanit Alissa and her husband Akiva live in Teaneck with their children, Ella and Liam.

Rabbi/PhD Katja Vehlow

Raised in southern Germany, Rabbi Dr. Katja Vehlow is a former professor of Jewish and religious studies. She lives with her family in New York City and has served as a hospital chaplain, providing spiritual care to people of all faiths and none. She is herself an immigrant and a convert to Judaism.

Katja received her ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in May 2022. Prior to rabbinical school, she taught Religious and Jewish Studies at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC from 2008-2017. She received her doctoral degree from New York University and was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship at the Jewish Studies Program and the Institute for Research and the Humanities at the UW-Madison.

Rabba Briah Cahana

Rabba Briah Cahana is the Director of Member Care and Outreach and Congregation Shaar Hashomayim in Montreal. She received her rabbinical ordination in 2023 from Yeshivat Maharat, having served as a rabbinic intern at Congregation Beth Sholom in Providence, RI as well as having completed a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education at NYU Langone Hospital. Prior to her rabbinical studies, she earned her M.A. in Jewish Bible Interpretation at McGill University and focused her B.A. undergraduate studies on Philosophy and Jewish studies. Simultaneous to her university studies, she underwent training in sofrut (Jewish scribal arts) and becoming a doula.

Before attending Yeshivat Maharat, she immersed herself in many formal and informal Jewish learning environments such as Yeshivat Hadar, Kivunim, Pardes, and Urban Adamah, all of which inform her understanding of the expansiveness of Jewish life. She deeply believes in the beauty of our tradition and our values to enhance our lives and the world we live in.

Rabbanit Judith Levitan

Rabbanit Judith Levitan is a lawyer with over 20 years experience in the field of social justice. She currently works at Legal Aid NSW where she uses Human Centred Design to innovate and improve legal services for disadvantaged people. She holds degrees in Law and Social Work and her honours thesis examined family violence in the Orthodox Jewish community. She was a founding member of the Jewish Alliance Against Family Violence. Rabbanit Judith lives in Sydney, Australia where she runs women’s tefilah services and teaches bat mitzvah and brides. Since receiving smicha she has served as Religious Programs Coordinator at Maroubra Shule in a Sydney and was recently appointed as a chaplain in the Australian Defence Force

Rina Phillips

Rina has a Masters Degree in Social Work from the Wurzweiler School of Social Work in NYC, earned a Bachelor’s of Psychology from Stern College, and is licensed to practice psychotherapy in the State of Maryland.  Rina is trained in Internal Family Systems therapy and is a Certified IFS therapist.  She is passionate about using IFS in her clinical work as it has transformed the way she views human behavior and has seen its impact on healing and recovery.  Rina is also licensed as a Maryland clinical supervisor.

Darshanit Dr. Miriam Udel

Miriam Udel is associate professor of German Studies and Judith London Evans Director of the Tam Institute of Jewish Studies at Emory University, where her teaching focuses on Yiddish language, literature, and culture. She holds an AB in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and a PhD in Comparative Literature, both from Harvard University. She was ordained in 2019 as part of the first cohort of the Executive Ordination Track at Yeshivat Maharat, a program designed to bring qualified mid-career women into the Orthodox Jewish rabbinate.

Udel is the author of Never Better!: The Modern Jewish Picaresque (University of Michigan Press), winner of the 2017 National Jewish Book Award in Modern Jewish Thought and Experience. She is the editor and translator of Honey on the Page: A Treasury of Yiddish Children’s Literature (NYU Press, 2020), winner of the Judaica Reference Award from the Association of Jewish Libraries. Udel’s translation of Chaver Paver’s 1935 story collection about the adventures of a lovable proletarian mutt became the basis for Theater Emory’s 2021 puppet film Labzik: Tales of a Clever Pup; her full translation of the stories will appear next year with SUNY Press. This October, Princeton University Press will publish her critical study Modern Jewish Worldmaking Through Yiddish Children’s Literature.

Her ongoing research looks to children’s literature and culture as a powerful force for political formation and a resource for the intergenerational transmission of culture, values, and ideology. She is spending 2024-25 in New York as the inaugural Robert S. Rifkind Senior Fellow at the Center for Jewish History, the Covenant Foundation Jewish Family Education Fellow, and the Emory College Chronos Fellow.