Chani Getter

Chani Getter is a Motivational Speaker, Certified Holistic Life Coach and Ritual Creator. She leads informational and support groups in parenting, single-motherhood, domestic violence, cross cultural integration, issues of sexuality, and identity. She coaches individuals and offers workshops in the areas of life-balance, self-acceptance, transition, spirituality, and living your dreams. In addition to creating spiriutal and creative ceremonies, Chani follows an eclectic spiritual path that allows her to connect to the source of life within.

Sabrina Sojourner

Sabrina Sojourner was the first open lesbian to be elected to Congress, in the “shadow” seat representing the District of Columbia. Today, with two decades of experience in management and public policy, she works as an independent consultant.  She was recently the cantor at Temple Beth Emet in Washington, D.C.

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Ariel Vegosen

Ariel Vegosen is a conflict resolution specialist, professional dialogue facilitator, ropes course instructor, youth educator, peace activist, media wizard, organic therapist,and world traveler. Some of her most inspirational work includes Seeds of Peace, Code Pink Women for Peace, and the political theater piece An Olive on the Seder Plate about Jewish people wrestling with the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.  She currently works for Mintwood Media, a progressive PR collective serving the peace movement, organic and Fair Trade farmer movement, and other social justice organizations. She strives to end war, violence, and patriarchy.

Rabbi Jill Hammer, Ph.D.

Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD, is the Director of Spiritual Education at the Academy for Jewish Religion. She is also the director of Tel Shemesh, a website and community celebrating earth-based Jewish traditions, and the co-founder of Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, a training program in women’s spiritual leadership. Rabbi Jill Hammer was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2001. She also holds a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Connecticut. She is the author of The Jewish Book of Days: A Companion for All Seasons (Jewish Publication Society, 2006) and Sisters at Sinai: New Tales of Biblical Women (Jewish Publication Society, 2001).

Shoshana Jedwab

Shoshana Jedwab is a prize winning Jewish educator and the Jewish Studies Coordinator at the A.J. Heschel Middle School in NYC. She is the founding facilitator of the Makom Drum Circle at the JCC in Manhattan and is a percussionist and performance artist who has trained in bibliodrama and psychodrama. Shoshana has provided empowering drum circles to singles, student, training, and bereavement groups. Shoshana has performed with: Storahtelling, Chana Rothman, Debbie Friedman, Akiva Wharton, A Song of Solomon, Hebrew Mystical Chant with the Kirtan Rabbi, Andrew Hahn, and Tel Shemesh seasonal events.

Chris Gacsi

Chris Gacsi has been a music educator for more than 30 years. She teaches, lectures, and performs locally, nationally, and internationally, and accompanies several West African, Middle Eastern dance troupes, and individual performers, and is also a recording artist. Chris also serves as a “worship musician” for several synagogues in Southern California, as well as providing programming for numerous Jewish events and organizations, including Brandeis Collegiate Institute, the Betty Wagner Program, and American Jewish University. Additionally, she teaches and performs at several womyn’s music events in the United States and Canada, including Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, Womyn’s Voices, and others.

Gella Solomon

Gella Solomon, 29, has been “doing theology” since the age of 7, and began studying and exploring theology informally with Rabbi Neil Gillman (then chair of Jewish Philosophy, now professor emeritus, at JTS) from the age of 15. Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Gella is a student of Judaism currently learning at The Drisha Institute, a pluralistic women’s yeshiva in New York City. She is on leave from JTS Rabbinical School where she has learned for one year following two years at The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem. She is on the path to being ordained as a Conservative Rabbi.

Ellie Barbarash

Kohenet Ellie Barbarash is a longtime member of the Nehirim community and frequent faculty member.  In addition to her work as a certified environmental auditor, she was one of the first graduates of Rabbi Jill Hammer’s kohenet program and has a significant background in Jewish spirituality and music.

Penina Weinberg

Penina Weinberg is an independent biblical scholar who serves as president of Congregation Eitz Chayim in Cambridge, MA, and on the Boston Keshet community events committee. Her masters studies at Hebrew College (2009) concentrated on women-centered readings of biblical texts. Her studying and teaching focuses on the intersections of power, politics, and gender in the Hebrew Bible. Penina teaches at her synagogue, at other Boston area shuls, and at Nehirim and Keshet.