Educational Committee and Instructors

Many thanks to out educational committee:

Scott Newberger (chair)
Shalom Bersson
Norman Crandus
Neil Guterman
Marcie Hemmelstein
Shari Helft Lennon
Ryan Levin
Irene Lehrer Sandalow
Pennie Ungar-Sargon

Meet Our Instructors

Rabbi Avi Finegold r eceived his ordination from Rabbi Yeshua Tzvi Shmidman at Yeshiva Noam HaTorah in Montreal , and is a graduate student at the University of Chicago Divinity School. He has taught high school Talmud and Philosophy, and was a Teaching Fellow at the Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik Institute in Boston . Rabbi Avi currently works as an educator at the Hillel at University of Chicago . He has worked with Hazon on a variety of projects relating to Judaism and food, and he contributes to their blog, www.jcarrot.org.

Rachel Kohl Finegold is a graduate of the Scholars Circle at the Drisha Institute in New York and received her B.A. in Religion from Boston University . Rachel served as Congregational Intern at Ohev Shalom – The National Synagogue – in Washington , DC and has studied at Midreshet Lindenbaum and MaTaN in Jerusalem . Her youth work includes Camp Nesher , the Drisha High School Program, and Camp Szarvas in Hungary . She is the Programming and Ritual Director at ASBI .

Rabbi Yehoshua Karsh received his M.Ed in Guidance and Counseling, and spent seventeen years in Jerusalem continuing his studies and teaching at Ohr Somayach, Neve Yerushalayim Jewish Educational Network, B'not Torah Institute and Sha’arim. Upon moving to Chicago , Rabbi Karsh became Director of Outreach at the Chicago Community Kollel, and helped found the Torah Learning Center of Northbrook. Rabbi Karsh currently lives in Northbrook with his wife, Tzippy, and their four sons.

Rabbi Asher Lopatin is the rabbi of Anshe Sholom B’nai Israel Congregation. A musmach of both Yeshivas Brisk (Rav Ahron Soloveichik) and Yeshiva University , he did his B.A. at Boston University , and an M.Phil and doctoral work at Oxford University studying Medieval Islam and Islamic Fundamentalism on a Rhodes scholarship. Rabbi Lopatin and his wife Rachel Tessler Lopatin were both Wexner Graduate Fellows and they have four children, two of whom attend the new multidenominational school of Chicago, the Chicago Jewish Day School.

Gary Shapiro is Director of Jewish Learning at the Community Foundation for Jewish Education of Metropolitan Chicago. Formerly, he was founding head of school at Akiva High School in Minneapolis and was an instructor for 11 years at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem where he taught Talmud, Bible, Jewish Philosophy, Ethics and Prayer. Mr. Shapiro authored an Ethics curriculum used by the Florence Melton Adult Mini-Schools. He received his B.A. in Hebrew Literature and Jewish Studies from the University of Minnesota , and his M.A. in Divinity from the University of Chicago , where he is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in History of Judaism. Mr. Shapiro also spent four years studying Bible and Rabbinic Literature in Israeli yeshivot.

Rabbi Dr. Julian Ungar is an interventional neurologist who trained in the U.K. with a prior degree in music from the Royal Academy . He earned his M.A. from the Harvard Divinity school and a Ph.D. in Ancient Near Eastern studies from Brandeis University . His projects include such topics as Pain and Spirituality, Chassidism and Post Modernity, as well as a reconstruction of the musical notation of Psalms. His children are Eli Ungar (our shul), Naftali (formerly at Columbia , NY ) Batya (studying at Berkeley ) Tsiona (Dance studio, Chicago ) Ayelet (studying at Bar Ilan) and Aliza ( Stern College ).