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Faculty
Outstanding teachers routinely pull up a chair, guiding the exchange of
chavruta partners grappling with text. Their inspiring, dynamic classes
leave the engaged student with newfound insight and a personal
connection to the sources. Learning is the lifeblood of Jewish life.
The uniquely Jewish scholar-student relationship conveys more than
just a way of thinking and analysis. By way of example, our teachers
transmit a derech chaim - a way of life.
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Rabbanit Chana Henkin, Dean
Rabbanit Chana Henkin , Nishmat's founder and dean, is one of
today's most acclaimed Jewish educators and a trailblazer in
opening the higher reaches of Jewish learning to women. In
conferring upon her the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane
Letters for her pioneering work on behalf of women's Torah
education, Yeshiva University President Dr. Norman Lamm said,
"You peered through the glass ceiling and observed the
heavens smiling and beckoning above. So, without fanfare,
confrontation, or acrimony, you lifted open a window in the
ceiling and taught the rest of us that the sky is the limit
if your heart is with Heaven."
Rabbanit Henkin is a graduate of Yeshiva University's Stern
College and Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish
Studies. Following their aliya in 1972, the Henkins settled
for nearly a decade in the development town of Bet Shean,
where Rabbanit Henkin worked with disadvantaged youngsters
both as an educator and administrator and was awarded the
Israel Ministry of Education's Agrest prize for innovative
Jewish education.
Endowed with an infectious love of Jewish scholarship,
Rabbanit Henkin teaches Torah and Tanach at all levels at
Nishmat and delivers a sicha shevuit (weekly talk).
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Rabbi Yehuda Henkin, Rabbinic Advisor
Rabbi Yehuda Herzl Henkin occupies a unique position as an
internationally recognized authority in halacha. Grandson of
Rabbi Yosef Eliyahu Henkin zt"l, one of the greatest
poskim in America in the 20th century, he studied
privately with his grandfather and was ordained by him. He
also has two degrees from Columbia University in New York.
Rabbi Henkin served as rabbi of the Bet Shean valley
in Israel, and published his first volume of halachic
responsa at the age of 36. He has authored three volumes of
responsa Bnei Banim, a commentary on the Torah
Chibah Yeteirah, and over a hundred articles in
rabbinic journals and periodicals. In English, his
Equality Lost: Essays in Torah Commentary, Halacha, and
Jewish Thought was published by Urim Press, His New
Interpretations on the Parsha by Ktav, and Responsa on
Contemporary Jewish Women's Issues will appear in 2002.
Rabbi Henkin is known for his forthright and unhesitant
rulings on pressing and controversial topics, including on
womens' issues and relationships with Christianity and
non-Jews. He is readily available to Nishmat students for
questions and consultation.
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Rabbi Zvi Leshem, Associate Dean
Rav Zvi, formerly known as Rav Zvi Blobstein, grew up in Cleveland and Indianapolis. He earned a B.A. in History from Columbia University as well as a B.A. in Talmud. Making aliya with his wife Julie in 1979, he spent eight years in the Kollel of Yeshivat HaMivtar, at the same time attending shiurim of gedolim such as Rav Shaul Yisraeli zt"l and Rav Aharon Lichtenstein shlit"a. He was ordained by the Israeli Chief Rabbinate and certified to serve as a Rav Shechuna. He is also an ordained Sofer Sta"m and Baal Magia. Rav Zvi earned his M.A. in Jewish Philosophy from Touro College, and his PhD in Jewish Philosophy from Bar Ilan University, where he wrote his dissertation on Between Messianism and Prophecy: Hasidism According to the Piaseczner Rebbe. Rav Zvi was also a Jerusalem Fellow, where his projects were on Relations between Religious and Secular Jews, and on Chassidic Educational Philosophy. In 1986 he traveled to the Soviet Union on a secret mission to train underground Torah teachers. He served for many years in a combat unit of the IDF.
Rav Zvi has taught in many Yeshivot and programs for young women, both Israeli and English speakers. He has been at Nishmat since the first day the school opened, and has served for eleven years as Associate Dean, as well as having directed the Alisa Flatow Overseas Program for many years. He teaches most areas of Torah studies, specializing in Gamara, halacha, and machshava, primarily chassidut. He is author of the book Redemptions: Contemporary Chassidic Essays on the Parsha and the Festivals. He is know for developing especially warm relationships with students, and is sought out for advice in a wide range of personal and spiritual issues.
Rav Zvi and Julie, a Judaica and functional potter and ceramics teacher, make their home in Efrat, where Rav Zvi also serves there as the Spiritual Leader of Congregation Shirat Shlomo. Their children and grandchildren live in various places around Israel. The warm and fun atmosphere of their home and at their shul make it an attractive place for Nishmat students to spend Shabbat in a very special atmosphere.
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Rabbi Joshua Weisberg , Overseas and Israeli Program
Rabbi Joshua Weisberg, Director of Shana B'Aretz Post High School Program, grew up in Kingston Ontario, Canada, and
moved to Israel in the late 80's after his studies at
Wesleyan University in Middletown CT. He spent the following
ten years immersed in intensive Talmud study in Israeli
yeshivot, Or Etzion, and Bet Morasha in
Jerusalem. Rabbi Weisberg has a Masters degree in Jewish
history, and wrote an award-winning thesis on the political
thought of the Rosh.
In addition to directing Nishmat's Overseas Program and
counseling students, Rabbi Weisberg teaches Chumash,
Mussar and Chassidut to English speakers and
Talmud to Israeli students. In class he makes every
effort to teach his students to see the pressing relevance of
the texts they are learning. Although his classes share a
focus on skills and independence in learning, Rabbi Weisberg
teaches his students to ask themselves foremost how what they
are learning can change them, and how they are growing in
their own spiritual and ethical lives as they learn. Students
in Rabbi Weisberg's class learn how to learn, but no less
important, how to feel at home discussing and thinking about
texts that previously had felt forbidding and intimidating.
Rabbi Weisberg and his family live in the Jerusalem
neighborhood of Nachlaot, a diverse community of young
couples and singles which becomes a second home for many
Nishmat students, as they join his family for Shabbat
meals and a regular mishmar at his home.
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Rabbi Mendel Blachman, Overseas and Israeli Program
Rabbi Mendel Blachman was born in Hamburg, Germany, and
immigrated to Chicago as a child. Following high school, he
came to Israel to study in the Hevron Yeshiva, where he
studied b'chavruta for twelve years with the Rosh
Yeshiva, Rabbi Simcha Zissel Brodie, zt"l. Later, he studied
at Kollel Pachad Yitzchak, where he became a close disciple
of Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner, zt"l.
Rabbi Blachman heads the Overseas Program of Yeshivat Kerem
B'Yavneh, where he has taught since 1979. One of Nishmat's
most veteran faculty members, Rabbi Blachman's shiurim
are known for delving deeply into Chassidic thought and
contemporary issues in emunah (faith). He teaches
Chassidut to both Nishmat's English speakers and
Israeli students, and spends time weekly counseling students
and discussing issues of faith. A caring and devoted teacher,
he actively engages his students in discussions on general as
well as religious issues.
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Rabbi Moshe Ehrenreich, Machon Gavoha
Rabbi Moshe Ehrenreich, Dean of Kollel Eretz Hemda, has
taught the top Gemara shiur at Nishmat for a
decade. He studied at Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh, where he
served as a Rosh Metivta from 1967 to 1986. He has written
extensively on topics in Choshen Mishpat and Even
HaEzer, and oversees teams of rabbis responding to
contemporary halachic questions received from around the
world. He also is a member of the Chief Rabbinate's Court for
Conversions.
Rabbi Ehrenreich's Nishmat students treasure his
shiurim, both for their analytical depth and because
of Rabbi Ehrenreich's paternal warmth and outstanding
character. Rabbi Ehrenreich personally mentors each student's
analytical skills.
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Simi Peters, Overseas Program
Simi Peters has an MA in Linguistics from the Graduate School
and University Center of the City University of New York and
is a Fellow of the Jerusalem Fellows Program. She has been
involved in adult Jewish education since making aliya in
1981, specializing in Tanach and Midrash. Simi
has also worked in teacher education, most recently as a
faculty member of the Atid program. Her publications include
"Rereading Midrash" (Jewish Action), "Thoughts on a Metaphor"
(Wellsprings) and "Naaseh Adam: Should We Make Adam? A
Midrashic Reading of Genesis 1:26" in Torah of the Mothers,
an anthology of Torah writings by Orthodox educators. Her
forthcoming book on midrash study will be published by
Urim Publications.
Simi's teaching style is highly interactive which means that
the students do most of the work. Among her goals is to give
her students the structural and analytical tools necessary
for independent study. Simi, her husband David, and their
three children live in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem.
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