11:40 - 12:50 p.m. Workshop

Room 223
Kedushat HaGuf -Sanctity of the Body
Dr. Beth Samuels & Sarah Gershman: Chair Dr. Juliet Stamper

Room 224
Urban Kedusha: The Eruv and the Production of Sacred Space
Dr. Daniel Boyarin & Dr. Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert

Room 204
Kedushat Hazman -Sanctity of time: Juggling values and allocation of time to family, career, torah study, communal involvement
Rabbi Judah Dardik, Jeff Shachat, and Ilana Fodiman Silverman

Room 225
Choice and Process- A Modern Recipe for Kedusha
Rabbi Francis Nataf



1:00 - 2:15 Lunch and Plenary in Student Commons

Topic: Holiness of Productivity
Rabbi Saul J. Berman


2:30 - 2:50 Mincha in the Beit HaMidrash

3:00 - 4:15 p.m. Workshop II

Room 223
Teaching Ethics in our schools
Maya Bernstein, Mark Shinar & Danny Zeldin Chair: Dr. Brian Kay

Room 224
The Challenge of Holiness: a Quest of Integration or Segregation in Jewish Public Life
Rabbi Yair Silverman and Rabbi Eliyahue Stern

Room 204
The Limits of Kedusha
Dr. David Henkin

Room 225
Kiddushin- Marriage : Kedusha in not Just Sexual Activity but in Sexuality
Rabbi Benjamin Hecht


4:30 - 5:30
Plenary and closing

Room 213- Lecture hall
Can Traditional Jewish Theology Sustain the Feminist Critique?
Dr. Tamar Ross

Rabbi Saul J. Berman is a leading Orthodox teacher and thinker. He was ordained at Yeshiva University, from which he also received his B.A. and his M.H.L. He completed a degree in law, a J.D., at New York University, and an M.A. in Political Science at the University of California at Berkeley. He spent two years studying mishpat ivri in Israel at Hebrew University and at Tel Aviv University. He is married to Shellee Berman, and they have four children, one son-in-law, one daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren in Israel. Rabbi Berman served as the Rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel in Berkeley, California, from 1963 to 1969, and as the spiritual leader of the Young Israel in Brookline, Mass. from 1969-1971. In 1971, he was appointed Chairman of the Department if Judaic Studies of Stern College for Women of Yeshiva University. In 1984, Rabbi Berman accepted the position as Senior Rabbi of Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan, where he served until 1990. In 1990, he returned to academic life, as Associate Professor of Jewish Studies at Stern College, and as an adjunct Professor at Columbia University School of Law, where he teaches a seminar in Jewish Law. In 1997, Rabbi Berman became Director of Edah, a new organization devoted to the invigoration of modern Orthodox ideology and religious life.

Maya Bernstein is currently working as the founding Bay Area Regional Director and Curriculum Director for The Curriculum Initiative (TCI) a non-profit Jewish organization that supports ethics education and Jewish life at independent, non-Jewish high schools. Previously, Maya spent two years as founding Regional Director for TCI's New England region and as advisor to the Jewish community at Phillips Exeter Academy. Maya has pursued a number of varied interests in the field of education, including facilitating Jewish educational opportunities for Russian immigrants in Germany and Belarus, and work in educational television. She holds a B.A. in Russian Language & Literature from Columbia University, and an M.A. in Education from Harvard University.

Rabbi Dr. Alan Brill is Assistant Prof. of Jewish Thought at Yeshiva University, Instructor in Jewish thought at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, co-Founder and Dean of Kavvanah: Center for Jewish Thought. He was ordained by RIETS and has his PhD from Fordham University. He also did graduate study at Hebrew University and Harvard University. He is the author of Thinking God: The Mysticism of R. Zadok of Lublin and has a forthcoming volume on Judaism and Other Religions.

Rabbi Judah Dardik has been the spiritual leader of Beth Jacob Congregation in Oakland for four years. He received his BA from Yeshiva University's Sy Syms School of Business, his Master's degree from the Azrielli Graduate School of Jewish Education, and his ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) of Yeshiva. He lives in Oakland with his wife Naomi and their three children.

Rabbi Yosef Etz-Hasadeh is married to Tamar. They have four daughters, Sarah, Hannah, Yael and Elishevah. In the early 90’s they made aliyah to Israel from New Zealand. They are Israeli Citizens and have lived in Jerusalem and Efrat, and they have their home in the small town of Bet Hagai just south of Hebron. Rabbi Etz-Hasadeh has been serving as the Rabbi of Kenesset Israel Torah Center, a centrist orthodox congregation in Sacramento, California since 2001. He has a background in engineering and management and trained for the Rabbinate in Israel at the Joseph Straus Rabbinical Seminary in Efrat, Gush Etzion.

Ilana Fodiman-Silverman teaches Talmud and Jewish law in Berkeley including at the Graduate Theological Seminary and is the mother of a wonderful ten-month-old daughter. She was both a member of the scholar's circle and on the faculty of the Drisha Institute in New York, and an Ira Marienhoff scholar at the Bernard Revel Graduate school of Yeshiva University in Medieval Jewish History. Ilana is the past chair of Jewish studies at the Jewish community High School of the Bay.

Rabbi Benjamin Hecht, the Founding Director of NISHMA, is recognized throughout North America and Israel for his study, insights and perspectives in the fields of Torah law and ethics. He serves as the editor of the NISHMA Journal and NISHMA Introspection and writes prolifically on Jewish thought and its interaction with the world political scene and the human condition. His work has been published internationally, including in The Toronto Globe and Mail, The Jewish Press and The Canadian Jewish News. He lectures extensively and is a sought-after opinion leader, having been a guest on Passages and other radio and television programs. Rabbi Hecht is active in Nishma's ongoing research and education projects and is about to complete a new book on Jewish identity. In addition to his rabbinical ordination, he holds degrees in law, psychology and business. He was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1982. Born in Ottawa, Rabbi Hecht is joined in his work by his wife Naomi, who also writes for various Nishma publications and serves on the staff of the Institute as an editor and advisor. The Hechts have four children and reside in Hamilton, Ontario.

Dr. David Henkin has taught (and, where appropriate, chanted) traditional Jewish texts in the Bay Area for the past seventeen years. More recently, he is co-founder of the Mission Minyan in San Francisco. In a distinct but related life, he is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley, where he teaches about nineteenth-century America.

Dr. Brian Kaye is the immediate past president of the Jewish Community High School of the Bay and a past president of Oakland Hebrew Day School. He is also vice president of Beth Jacob Congregation in Oakland. Dr. Kaye is a rheumatologist in practice in Berkeley and Orinda, and an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He received his B.A. in history from Princeton University and M.D. from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He lives with his wife, Fran, daughter, Naomi, and son, Joshua, in Piedmont.

Rabbi Francis Nataf is the Educational Director of the David Cardozo Acadey in Jerusalem. He is a well-respected educator who has held many senior educational positions in Israel and the United States. Rabbi Nataf was ordained at Yeshiva University and holds degrees in Jewish history and international affairs. He has written numerous articles for a variety of important Jewish periodicals and websites. The Cardozo Academy aims to promote a radical reevaluation of Jewish Education through its innovative teachers' training program.

Professor Tamar Ross is a member of the editorial board of The Edah Journal and teaches in the department of Jewish philosophy at Bar Ilan University. She has taught Jewish thought at Midreshet Lindenbaum since its inception in 1976, and this year is the Blaustein visiting professor in the department of religious studies at Yale University. She is the author of Expanding the Palace of Torah: Orthodoxy and Feminism and has published dozens of scholarly monographs on Jewish philosophy, ethics, and mysticism.

Beth Samuels just completed her Ph.D in mathematics from Yale University. She is a graduate of Drisha Institute's Scholars Circle in Talmud and Tanach and currently teaches Torah classes in the Palo Alto area. She is a mother of two girls and will be an Assistant Professor in Mathematics at UC Berkeley in the fall.

Jeff Shachat is proud to be an engaged, searching, traditional Jew. He tries to observe Kedushat Hazman by infusing each day and each week with family time, communal time, personal study,and time to withdraw from creative activities. Jeff serves on the Board of Directors of Beth Jacob Congregation and is the incoming treasurer to both the Jewish Community High School of the Bay and East Bay Federation of the Greater East Bay.

For the past two years, Mark Shinar has been the Director of the Oakland Hebrew Day School, a modern Orthodox day school serving a broad spectrum of the Bay Area Jewish community in Oakland, CA. Before moving to Northern California, Mark lived and worked in Riverdale, teaching 5th grade General Studies and 8th grade English Literature in the S/A/R Academy. While there, he completed a Masters degree in Private School Administration from Columbia University Teachers' College. Mark holds a BA in English Literature and Theater from Yeshiva University. Many of his summers were spent in Camp Moshava working as part of the camp's administrative team and developing dynamic informal educational programming. Mark and his wife, Lauren, have 5 month old twin boys.

Rabbi Yair Silverman is the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Israel in Berkeley, CA. He and his wife are the grateful parents of a joyous ten-month-old daughter, Hadar. Ordained by the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University, he also holds a Bachelors in Philosophy and Masters in Jewish Philosophy from Yeshiva University.

Rabbi Eliyahu Stern is a founder and President of Lishmah: A Day of Jewish Learning. He received rabbinic ordination and an MA in Talmud from Yeshiva Univeristy. His articles have appeared in The Jewish Week, Jerusalem Report and First Things. Currently, he is a Koret Fellow in Judaic Studies at U.C. Berkeley.

Danny Zeldin spent several years in Jerusalem Yeshivot. He has a Masters Degree in Jewish Education from Hebrew University and an Advanced Certificate in Jewish Studies from Pardes Institute in Jerusalem. He is currently on the Judaica Faculty at The Jewish Community High School of the Bay.