Rabbi Adina Allen (BCI Educator)

Rabbi Adina Allen is an educator and prayer leader whose passion lies at the intersection of Judaism, ecology and creativity.
Adina teaches from a place of openness, authenticity and deep love for Judaism and seeks to foster a learning environment in
which participants are supported in taking creative risks and empowered to build bridges between their personal experience
and the collective experience that resides in our texts. She utilizes diverse modalities in her teaching, including hevrutah text
study and facilitated group discussion with an emphasis on hands-on experiences with the creative arts.
Adina has led creative arts beit midrash sessions--using art, writing and movement to explore texts--in a wide variety of Jewish
settings across the country, including as the Rabbinic Fellow at Tufts University Hillel, Wexner Graduate Fellow, Education Fellow
at the Brandeis Bardin Collegiate Institute, CIRCLE interfaith leadership fellow, visiting faculty member at Adamah, and instructor
for Piyut North Americas Shira Yoga. Adina is co-founder of the Movement Minyan and served as Liturgist in Residence at the
2012 National Havurah Summer Institute. She is a contributing writer to the Huffington Post and her work has been published
in Tikkun magazine and the CCAR Journal, among others. Adina is currently working on the launch of a new Jewish learning and
creative arts venture with her husband, Jeff Kasowitz.
Adina is available to offer creative arts beit midrash workshops that are engaging, accessible and fun on topics that are relevant
to your students. Topics might include God, spirituality, Shmita, feminism, Israel, social justice, sustainability, LGBT issues, parshat
ha-shavua, or Jewish holidays.

Past workshops include:

Art and Text-based Workshops

Stir Up the Torah Inside You, Jewish Community of Ojai, 2014

Praying for Jerusalem, Hebrew College Orientation, 2014

Facing East Processing an Immersive Israel Experience, Tufts University Hillel and UMass Hillel, 2013

Creating Sacred Space, Tufts University Hillel, 2012

Exploring Creation, Brandeis Collegiate Institute, 2012

Sharing Our Spiritual Narratives, State of Formation Interfaith Conference, 2012

Envisioning Jerusalem, Hebrew College, 2012

Write Your Own Prayers, The Conservative Yeshiva, 2011, Hebrew College 2012

Inheritors and Innovators, Hebrew College Prospective Student Program, 2011

Traditional Text and Creativity, Wexner Graduate Fellowship Summer Institute, 2011

Holding Paradox, Hebrew College, 2011
Movement and Text-based Workshops

Renewing the Stories of Our Lives, Mayyim Hayyim, 2014

Saying Goodbye, Hebrew College, 2014

Embodying Teshuva, National Havurah Summer Institute six-part series,

2013 Embodying Revelation, Nehar Shalom Community Synagogue, 2013

Moving into Shabbat, Brandeis Collegiate Institute, 2013

Exploring Compassion, Brandeis Collegiate Institute, 2013

Saying Goodbye, Brandeis Collegiate Institute, 2013

God in Your Body, Brandeis Collegiate Institute, 2013

Exploring Power and Privilege, Hebrew College, 2013

Yoga Shabbat for the Mind, Body and Soul, Tufts University Hillel, 2012

Building the Tools of Improvisation, Hebrew College bi-weekly series, 2012

Encountering God as Embodied Beings, Brandeis Collegiate Institute, 2012

Coming Together, Coming Apart, Brandeis Collegiate Institute, 2012

The Dance of Prayer, Hebrew College bi-weekly series, 2011

How We Lead, How We Follow, Hebrew College bi-weekly series, 2010

Embodied Prayer and the Talmud, Kehilat HaAloneem, 2010

Alone, Together, Hebrew College bi-weekly series, 2009

Josefa Briant (BCIs Dance Artist-in-Residence)

Josefa is an incredible Dance Workshop facilitator, as well as a dancer and choreographer. She was born in Israel, performed as a
soloist in the Bat Sheva Dance Theatre group, and worked as an assistant Choreographer in Alvin Alley Dance theatre. Josefa studied
dance in Israel, at the Dance and Music Academy in Jerusalem, and with the Bat Dor Dance Theatre in Tel-Aviv. In New York she studied
at the Marce Cunningham dance theatre, and with Master Ballet teacher, Maggie Black.
Josefa offer workshops in dance, movement, and Israeli dance. Her workshops are physical and spiritual journeys through dance/
movement, music and text. She encourages participants to find their own movements, to create their own dance, and to find their
own connection. Everyone is welcomed and encouraged to join whether they are experienced dancing or not.

Ami Yares (The Isaac D. Sinaiko BCI Endowed Chair in Music)

Ami Yares is a New Jersey-born, Jaffa-living, world traveling folk musician with a knack for making music that moves you physically,
spiritually, and politically. Influenced by the spectrum of Americana music, Amis music merges his Jewish Jersey roots into Israeli
and Arab culture in a yet-to-be-named fusion of styles. Ami thrives off the energy of staged performances and takes this energy into
formal and informal educational settings as well. In the last five years, he has toured in over twenty countries teaching and performing
about social action, Jewish identity and music. In Israel, Ami is the regional director of Heartbeat, the Palestinian and Israeli Youth
Music project that amplifies youth voices in the name of equality and social action. Ami also teaches Hebrew and Arabic music at
schools in Jaffa and Tel Aviv. For the last few years, the US Embassy in Israel has sponsored Amis FocUS Music program to teach and
perform music about the US Civil Rights movement and other pertinent social issues. Ami often tours with his brother, Gavri Tov, in
the roots fusion duo, The Brothers Yares. Ami plans to release three recordings in the coming year; a solo EP, a Brothers Yares EP, and an
album sponsored by the conflict transformation NGO, Seeds of Peace that features musicians from Israel, West Bank/Palestine, Jordan,
Gaza, and the United States. Ami couldnt be happier to have the privilege to harvest hope and action though music.
Some of Amis workshops include Peoplehood (exploring notions of identity through musical engagement and singing), Tackling
Tough Text in Song (an opportunity to explore tough issues in Judaism as a way of fostering proactive conversations regarding Jewish
identity and history), Peace Making and Conflict Transformation: Going Beyond Salaam (an opportunity for participants to extend
the traditional peace and co-existence/co-resistance repertoire and dive deeper into songs from Arab and Jewish culture), and FocUS
Music (a series of workshops, lectures, and performance about the influence and sound of social movements in the US). Ami is also
available for concerts. Ami has traveled to over twenty countries world performing his original music as well as traditional music in
Hebrew and Arabic.

Shulie Seidler-Feller (BCIs Photographer-in-Residence)

Shulamit Seidler-Feller is a photographer and educator in New York City. She holds a BA in Anthropology from Reed College and an
MFA in Photography from NYU. Her work has appeared in publications such as The Jerusalem Post, amNew York, & the Forward. Her
teaching experience includes work for SAR High School, YouthBridge NY, Brandeis Collegiate Institute, The Jewish Lens, Camp Ramah,
& the Center for Alternative Photography. View her work at www.shulamitphotography.com.