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Meet our Faculty
Nishmat's faculty encourages students to question and to debate the issues important to them. Inspiring role models, Nishmat rabbis and teachers help you along the challenging path to authentic Torah-observance in the modern world.
Rabbanit Chana Henkin
Rabbanit Chana Henkin, Dean and founder of Nishmat, is one of today’s most acclaimed Jewish educators, known worldwide for opening the highest reaches of Torah to women. She teaches at all levels of the program. Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, past President of Yeshiva University, when conferring an honorary doctorate upon her, said “You peered through the glass ceiling and observed the heavens smiling and beckoning above. So, without fanfare, without confrontation or acrimony, you gently lifted a window in the ceiling and taught the rest of us that the sky is the limit if your heart is with Heaven”.
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Rabbi Menachem Schrader
Rabbi Menachem Schrader, Director of the Alisa Flatow English Speakers Program, studied in Yeshivat Har Etzion for two years. He returned to the States where he obtained his BA in Philosophy from Yeshiva University and an MA in History at NYU. Rabbi Schrader also studied in the RIETS Kollel and received his smichah there in 1978.
Rabbi Schrader has occupied various full-time educational positions over the years, including: Mesivta Ohr Torah, in Riverdale, NY and the Beit Medrash leTorah, in Jerusalem. Before becoming the head of the Alisa Flatow Program at Nishmat, Rabbi Schrader was one of the prominent teachers at Yeshivat Hamivtar in Jerusalem and Efrat for twenty-five years. He has taught Talmud, Bible, and Halachah in all of these yeshivot.
In addition to his vast teaching experience in a full-time capacity, Rabbi Schrader has also been involved in a number of other educational institutions and midrashot: Gesher, Bruriah, Machon Gold and Neve Yerushalayim. Rabbi Schrader was the Founding Director of the Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus, and is still involved in this organization. He is also a consultant to the Jewish Chaplaincy of the United Kingdom.
Rabbi Schrader is married to Rina Schrader. He was the Rav of Moshav Carmel for four years. For the last ten years he has been the Rav of the Congregation Tiferet Avot in Efrat.
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Rabbi Mendel Blachman
Rabbi Mendel Blachman, a veteran Nishmat faculty member and Ram at Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh, studied at Yeshivat Chevron and in Kollel Pachad Yitzchak with Rav Hutner. His classes delve deeply into chassidic thought and contemporary issues in emunah. In addition to teaching, Rav Blachman devotes time every week to discussing religious questions with individual students.
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Rav Uri Cohen
Rav Uri Cohen studied at Yeshivat Shaalvim and Yeshivat Hamivtar and received rabbinic ordination (semichah) from RIETS and the Joseph Straus Seminary at Yeshivat Hamivtar. He earned a BA in Jewish Studies, an MS in Medieval Jewish History, and an MS in Jewish Education from Yeshiva University. Rav Uri has served as Educational Director at the Center for Jewish Life at Princeton University. Rav Cohen has also taught at Midreshet Moriah, Emunah V'Omanut, Pardes, and Netivot Australia. He currently teaches contemporary halachic issues at Nishmat. He lives with is wife Dr Yocheved Engelberg in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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Simi Peters
Simi Peters, scholar of Tanach and Midrash, has an M.A. in Linguistics from the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York. She is a graduate of the prestigious Jerusalem Fellows of the Mandel School of Leadership at Hebrew University. Simi is the author of the critically acclaimed book “Learning to Read Midrash” (Urim Publications) as well as several articles on Midrash and education, in a variety of publications. She has served as an educational consultant for a number of prominent Jewish education initiatives, including the JCCA of North America’s Ethical Start Program. Simi has been involved in adult Jewish education for women since making aliya in 1981. She lives with her family in Jerusalem.
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Rachel Reinfeld
Rachel Reinfeld – Wachtfogel received her B.A. in Economics and Business Administration at Bar Ilan University followed by an M.B.A. at Hebrew University. She has studied limmudei kodesh intensively at Matan, Nishmat and Bet Morasha. Rachel managed the Gemara Berura (methodology and software) Project and facilitated teacher-training sessions in Israel and the US on teaching Gemara in high schools. Rachel teaches Gemara at Nishmat. She also teaches Gemara and Tanach in the Bet Midrash program of the Amit Noga Ulpana in Bet Shemesh. Rachel lives in Jerusalem with her husband and children.
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Dafna Siegman
Dafna Siegman teaches Tanach in Tochnit Alisa. An alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, Dafna has a BA and MA from Columbia University in History, and pursued doctoral work there in Jewish History. Dafna taught for over a decade at Drisha (NYC) and has served as a guest speaker in many communities in Israel and abroad. Previously, Dafna worked in curriculum writing and development at the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School Institute of the Hebrew University. She also co-founded and co-led Kehillat Moriah, a Beit Knesset and learning community in Jerusalem, for over seven years. Dafna lives near Nishmat with her husband and four children.
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Rabbi Da’vid Sperling
Rabbi Da’vid Sperling, was born in Sydney Australia. He studied at Yeshivat Machon Meir and after that, he studied at Yeshivat Ateret Kohanim under the tutelage of Rabbi Shlomo Aviner. Rabbi Sperling received advanced rabbinic ordination from the chief rabbinate of Israel, as well as from Rabbi Yehuda Henkin. Rabbi Sperling has taught Halacha at Nishmat for many years, as well as at Yeshivat Machon Meir. He has published a wide range of halachic articles in journals and on the internet. Rav Sperling lives in Jerusalem with his wife Riva and their five cute children.
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