2011–2012 Seminar Participants

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  David Basior

  David Basior is a resi­dent of Philadelphia where he attends the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. David’s first Encounter trip was in October 2005 when he was living in Jerusalem and learning at Pardes. He has been a resi­dent of New York, Florida and Washington and has worked with Jewish commu­ni­ties in each of these loca­tions. He has worked with Hillel, BBYO, Taglit-Birthright Israel, Jewish Voice for Peace, Rabbis for Human Rights, and Operation Understanding. He is the 2011 recip­ient of the Tikkun Olam award from the Reconstructionist Student Association.
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  Danny Cohen

  Danny grad­u­ated with a B.S.E. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a manage­ment concen­tra­tion, where he was also a leader of the campus Jewish commu­nity and active in Jewish educa­tional initia­tives. Danny conceived and co-founded LendforPeace​.org, a web portal supporting micro­fi­nance in the West Bank. He has studied at a variety of Jewish educa­tional insti­tu­tions in Israel and America, including the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, Yeshivat Maale Gilboa, Yeshivat Hadar, and currently part-time at Sulam Yaakov, the Nachlaot Community Beit Midrash for Leadership Development, and has taught Torah and Jewish spir­i­tu­ality in America, Israel, and India. His pursuit of medi­ta­tion, contem­pla­tive prayer, and the spir­i­tu­ally oriented path of Torah have been partic­u­larly trans­for­ma­tive in his life over the past few years. He is inter­ested in learning and teaching Torat Hayyim, a deeply committed path of living out our Divine poten­tial as human beings and society, and building a world where that is mani­fest in all walks of life.
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  Jessica Fain

  Born in 1987 and raised in Miami, Jessica holds a B.S in Learning and Organizational Change from Northwestern University. As an under­grad­uate student, Jessica was President and Producer of the Undertones A Cappella group and served as trea­surer and student board member at Northwestern’s Hillel. Additionally, Jessica attended the School for International Training in Vietnam, where she completed an ethno­graphic study related to women’s empow­er­ment. As a Dorot fellow, Jessica worked for Itim, a Jerusalem orga­ni­za­tion which helps indi­vid­uals navi­gate the rabbinical system in Israel. She currently works at Hiddush — Freedom of Religion for Israel as their Director of Social Media and Outreach.
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  Katie Greenberg

  Katie Greenberg will be starting her first year of rabbinical school at the Jewish Theological Seminary next year. She has lived in Israel for three years studying at the Pardes Institute of Jewish studies, working at the Israel Religious Action Center, and volun­teering with new Ethiopian immi­grants and older adults with Alzheimer’s. Originally from New York City, Katie grad­u­ated from Oberlin College with a degree in Environmental Studies and Jewish History. Katie has worked in various Jewish camp settings for eight years including the most recent two summers at the Nesiya Institute.
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  Daniel Reiser

  Daniel Reiser is a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College. He hails from the small but mighty Jewish commu­nity of Tallahassee, FL, a small town where being one of the only Jewish kids in his grade gave him a sense of pride. He spent his summers growing up at URJ Camp Coleman in Georgia, where he discov­ered the joy of living in a large Jewish commu­nity and devel­oped a love for Shabbat. He received his BA in English from the University of Florida with a minor in Jewish Studies. After college, he spent three years serving as program director for Hillel at Emory University.
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  Beruria Steinmetz-Silber

  Beruria Steinmetz-Silber is currently finishing a year as fellow on the Dorot Fellowship in Israel, where she has been learning Torah and Hebrew liter­a­ture, volun­teering with at-risk youth, and both deep­ening and compli­cating her rela­tion­ship with this land. Beruria grew up in New York City, but spent a couple of years of her child­hood living in Jerusalem. Since receiving her BA in Philosophy from the University of Chicago, Beruria has taught in a Jewish Day School and volun­teered with migrant workers in Kathmandu. She plans to make aliyah in the fall and study Clinical Social Work.
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  Diane Tracht

  Diane Tracht will be attending the Reconstructionist Rabbincal College in the fall. This year she has studied at the Pardes Institute of Jewish studies in Jerusalem. She studied at the Brandeis-Middlebury School of Hebrew as a Kathryn Davis Fellow for Peace. Diane grad­u­ated with High Honors in Religion from Haverford College, where her senior thesis, “Identity, Morality, and Politics: American Reform Jews and the State of Israel,” won the depart­mental prize for best thesis. Her time as a partic­i­pant and co-President of Haverford’s Hillel was forma­tive for her vision of Jewish practice.

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