Collegiate Program Faculty

 

Click here for the Coed Collegiate homepage. Click to read about the 2012 program, curriculum, and expectations. Click here to download an application.

 

Joshua Amaru teaches in Drisha's collegiate programs and has taught Talmud, halakha, Chumash, and Jewish thought at various yeshivot and seminaries in Israel. He studied for many years at Yeshivat Har Etzion, primarily with Rav Aharon Lichtenstein. He is presently in the process of completing his PhD in philosophy. 

 

 

Yaffa Epstein teaches in Drisha's collegiate programs as well as Talmud, Jewish law, and Jewish Liturgy at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. She holds a Law Degree from Bar Ilan University and is a member of the Israeli Bar. Yaffa was a former student of the Kollel at Pardes, and was a member of Matan's Advanced Talmud Institute. Yaffa has taught at SIACH, the Lookstein Center, Ta Shma and Young Judea Year Course. She was a member of the "Reshut Harabim" Beit Midrash, a think tank on Modern Orthodoxy in Israel, at the Yaakov Herzog Center. Yaffa is currently pursuing a graduate degree in Talmud at Hebrew University.  
 

Esther Fisher teaches in Drisha's collegiate programs as well as Talmud and Jewish studies at Midreshet Ein Hanatziv in Israel and is a facilitator and co-founder of  'Nigun Nashim'  - Women's Beit Midrash of the Elga Stulman Woman's Institute for Jewish Studies of Hamidrasha in Oranim (an Educational Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Israel). She has an MA in Talmud from Hebrew University and is currently pursuing a PhD at the Gender Department of Bar Ilan University. Her academic interests include rabbinic literature, midrash and halakha, and their relation to gender and feminist theory and thought.    

James Jacobson-Maisels teaches in Drisha's collegiate programs as well as Jewish thought, mysticism, spiritual practices and meditation at the Hannaton Educational and Spiritual Center in the Galilee, The Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, and Yeshivat Hadar in New York City. He is pursuing a PhD at the University of Chicago in Jewish mysticism and has taught in a variety of settings in America and Israel on Judaism, Jewish mysticism and Jewish spiritual practices. He strives to integrate his study and practice and to help teach and live Judaism as a spiritual discipline. 
 

Jon Kelsen is the Director of the Collegiate Immersion Programs and teaches in Drisha’s Beit Midrash and Yesodot Programs. A graduate of the Pardes Kollel and a fellow in the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Hadarim Program, he received ordination from Rabbi Daniel Landes and holds an MA in Jewish Civilization from the International School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He works to build community and collaboration within the full time programs. 

 

Aaron Koller teaches in Drisha's Beit Midrash and continuing education programs and is an assistant professor at Yeshiva University. He researches and writes about life in the ancient Near East, including ancient Israel, and early Judaism. His interests include intellectual and social history in the biblical and rabbinic periods, especially issues related to language and linguistics. His doctorate (YU, 2009) was about the archaeology of everyday life in ancient Israel. He also teaches adult education classes at the Jewish Theological Seminary. 

 

David Silber is the Founder and Dean of Drisha Institute for Jewish Education. He received ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. He received the Covenant Award in 2000. He is the author of A Passover Haggadah: Go Forth and Learn (JPS, 2011).

 

 

Sara Tillinger Wolkenfeld teaches at Drisha and is the director of education at the Center for Jewish Life - Hillel at Princeton University, where she and her husband David serve as the OU's Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus Jewish educators. She holds a BA in Judaica and Comparative Literature from the University of Pennsylvania, and has studied Talmud and Jewish Law at Midreshet Lindenbaum, Drisha, Pardes, Nishmat, and Beit Morashah. Sara has taught at The Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton Beach, NY, at United Orthodox Synagogues of Houston, TX, where she was an intern for two years, and as a Beit Midrash Fellow at S.A.R. Academy in Riverdale, NY. She also teaches Hilkhot Nidah to brides and engaged couples.