Staff

Jay Michaelson, Executive Director

Jay Michaelson is the founder and executive director of Nehirim.
For the last ten years, Jay has been a leading advocate for the inclusion of sexual minorities in religious communities, and writes and teaches frequently on issues of sexuality and religion. His work on the subject has appeared on NPR, and in Tikkun, Blithe House Quarterly, the Jerusalem Post, the Duke Law Review, the Michigan Journal of Gender & Law, and anthologies including Mentsh: On Being Jewish and Queer (2004), Righteous Indignation: A Jewish Call for Justice (2007) and Jews and Sex (2008). He also wrote the Coming Out ritual for the Human Rights Campaign.  In 2009, he was recognized on the Forward 50 list of the fifty most influential Jewish leaders in America.

In addition to his work with Nehirim, Jay is a writer and scholar whose work focuses on the intersections of spirituality, sexuality, Judaism, and law. Jay is a columnist for the Forward newspaper, the Huffington Post, Tikkun, Zeek, and Reality Sandwich magazines. He is the author of Everything is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism (Shambhala, 2009),  God in Your Body: Kabbalah, Mindfulness, and Embodied Spiritual Practice (Jewish Lights, 2006) and Another Word for Sky: Poems (Lethe Press, 2007). Currently a Ph. D candidate in Jewish Thought at Hebrew University, Jay is a recent Visiting Professor at Boston University Law School, and holds a B.A. from Columbia, an MA from Hebrew University, and a J.D. from Yale Law School.

Prior to founding Nehirim, Jay also founded Wasabi Systems, a multimillion-dollar software company, and Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture (www.zeek.net). In 2008-09, he spent five months on silent meditation retreat, mostly in Nepal. Currently he lives in upstate New York.

Sasha T. Goldberg, Assistant Director

Sasha T. Goldberg is the Assistant Director of Nehirim. A Jewish scholar, educator, and community organizer, Sasha brings a unique passion for creating radical Jewish programming, and building community around the intersections of Judaism and various cultural, social, sexual, and religious identities. Prior to joining Nehirim in 2007, she taught grades K-12 in Religious Schools, led Jewish teen retreats, and worked with a wide variety of Jewish organizations in the Bay Area. Sasha holds a Master’s Degree in Judaism from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, where she focused on issues of grief, loss, and pastoral care. In September of 2008, she facilitated Nehirim’s first Grief and Loss group, entied, “Bearing Witness: Sharing Grief in Queer Community.”

In addition to her work at Nehirim, Sasha has a long history of queer advocacy and activism, and, accordingly, has organized conferences, film festivals, fundraisers, workshops, and events, as well as having spoken and published on sexuality, gender, and identity. Sasha currently serves as President of the Board of Directors for NUJLS, The National Union of Jewish LGBTQQI Students, as the Programming Chair for Butch Voices 2011, and is a member of the GLBT Advisory Committee for the Jewish National Fund.

Sasha hails from the good Midwestern stock of the United States, and makes her home in Oakland, California.

Zvi Bellin, PhD, Engagement Associate

Dr. Zvi Bellin is the Engagement Associate for Nehirim and is responsible for student outreach, internal community relations, and programming at Nehirim retreats.  He leads workshops and directs retreats that integrate body-heart-mind-soul in a variety of spiritual and religious contexts. Zvi earned a PhD in Pastoral Counseling and an M.A. in Counseling and Guidance. He is a Registered Yoga Teacher  with the Yoga Alliance. He has worked as a therapist in a number of mental health settings, and has interned as a Psychiatric Chaplain. Zvi’s most recent interests include exploring the raw experience of meaning in life, and the integration of personal spirituality into a practice of holistic well-being. He is a co-founder of the Silver Spring Moishe House, a Jewish community house sponsored by the Schusterman Foundation.

Esther Smigel, Operations Manager

Esther Smigel is the Operations Manager of Nehirim. She is a recent graduate of Smith College, where she focused on economics and Jewish studies. At Smith, she dedicated much of her time to the Smith investment club and two socially responsible investing committees as an advocate for ethical investing. Her Jewish learning while at Smith led her to a year in Israel, where she immersed herself in the study of Jewish texts, ethics, laws and values at Machon Pardes in Jerusalem. Esther joins Nehirim excited about building queer Jewish community and forming progressive and queer interfaith connections.

Marlene Rachelle, Communications Manager

Marlene Rachelle is the Communications Manager of Nehirim.  She recently received an MA in Jewish Education from the Jewish Theological Seminary with a concentration in informal and communal education.  Marlene went back to school after leaving her position as Senior Producer at MTV Networks where she had worked for over ten years. She was an Education Intern at the JCC in Manhattan’s Family Life and Community Programs department where she designed and marketed programs for the LGBTQ community.