CJS - People

Hashaw Elkins is a project manager in international development and a Jewish community lay leader.

Brandt Miller is a writer and filmmaker pursuing his MA at the GTU. His creative background is diverse: from a Fulbright Fellowship in Mongolia documenting the underground queer movement – to reporting for an English-language newspaper in Cambodia – to obtaining his MFA in Creative Writing at Columbia University.  Most recently, he has been working as a creative producer in the documentary film world. Transformation, sacred narratives and storytelling are interweaving threads that will continue to guide his path. Brandt’s passion for interreligious exploration and service to societal transformation led him to the Interreligious Chaplaincy Program. In his life, spirituality, service and creativity are synergistic ingredients that chaplaincy will allow him to embody more deeply.

Allan Shore is a native New Yorker, who now makes his home in Washington State with his beloved spouse, Kirsten. In 2016, Allan completed a PhD in Modern Jewish History and Culture at the GTU.

Through the lens of Judaism, Mia seeks to understand the ways in which narratives, particularly around God, shape our lives and the fabric of our built reality. She focuses on calling to attention the forgotten feminine force within Judaism, and thus questioning the basis of monotheism in its exclusion of women. Mia is a Berkeley Native and graduated from California College of the Arts with a BFA in art and writing. Through her own personal practice of storytelling through writing, making art, as well as through the practice of listening to the stories of others, Mia seeks to promote a form of therapeutic healing to communities.

Amy is a community organizer and leader who has worked in the arts and nonprofits for over 25 years, and past roles include CEO at the JCC East Bay, founding executive director at the David Brower Center, and performing artist and musician (The Esther Show, Lilith, A Little Friction). In addition to studying at the GTU, Amy works independently as a coach and advisor to spiritual and communal leaders.

Miriam Kanani, M.A. has a true passion for Jewish Education, Leading Ceremonies and Song, and working with you. She is a Bar and Bat Mitzvah teacher and Jewish educator with over 15 years experience as well as a Lead Teacher in the Tawonga B'nai Mitzvah Program. Miriam has prepared over two dozen students for their Bar/Bat Mitzvahs and has officiated ceremonies around the Bay Area for families who work within the synagogue setting and also for families doing an independent Bat/Bar Mitzvah. Miriam attained her Master's Degree from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and also holds a Multi-Subject California Teaching Credential, as well as a certificate in Jewish Education from Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles. She has taught children of all ages around the Bay Area and has been a Hebrew teacher at Congregation Beth El for the past 6 years. She is a singer, educator, and Jewish ritual leader.

Course: Geneology of Jewish Culture, Spring 2020

After years working in Social Justice and politics, Jen Roitman became the Executive Director of Chochmat HaLev – Jewish Spiritual Center and Congregation in 2011, where she worked until this year.  

She leads Jewish Meditation and Chanting including a weekly morning service at Chochmat HaLev and Meditation programs for Jewish Holidays.  She is a graduate of Rabbi Shefa Gold’s Kol Zimra Chant Leader Training Program and has been meditating for over 18 years.

At Chochmat HaLev she saw how much support people need when a loved one dies, and she is now part of “Melaveh” which seeks to provide emotional and spiritual support for Jewish people and their families at the end of life.  She is a hospice volunteer and trained as an End of Life Doula.

She is excited to be studying at the GTU where she hopes to develop a stronger foundation in Jewish thought and history to enhance her meditation teaching and End of Life care. 

Course: Intro to Rabbinic Lit, Fall 2019

Cole Krawitz is a doykait believer, teenage cancer survivor, gratitude practitioner, trans, queer, white Ashkenazi Jewish ritual lover and leader, caring uncle, award-winning writer and poet, and leadership coach who for over twenty years has been working across liberation and social justice movements for freedom and dignity for everyone. He believes that coaching is sacred--that to build a relationship where people tap into their most creative, alive, and truest understanding of who they are is a spiritual practice, an embodied practice, a liberation practice that brings long lasting change. He has been a student in SVARA’s batei midrash since the mid/late 2000’s and is endlessly grateful for Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Benay Lappe and the beautiful network and learning community that is SVARA. He is also a member of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Bend the Arc, Jewish Voice for Peace and is collaborating on a Trans Day of Torah project to be officially launched in 5781.

In addition to running his own coaching and consulting practice, he’s an award-winning writer who has been a Lecturer in Creative Writing in the Master of Arts in English Program at Holy Names University and in June Jordan's Poetry for the People Program at University of California, Berkeley. He’s been awarded residencies and fellowships from Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), Lambda Literary Foundation, and Makor/92nd Street Y. Founding editor of jvoices.com, Cole was a contributor to Beyond the Pale: Jewish Radio Hour on WBAI in NY, and received the Be’chol Lashon Media Award in New Media. His work has been published in Troubling the Line: Trans & Genderqueer Poetry & Poetics Anthology, Tidal Basin Review, The Forward, The Advocate, and more and he has performed his work throughout the Bay Area at Lit Crawl, Museum of Performance & Design, San Francisco Public Library, Bay Area Poetry Marathon, SOMArts Cultural Center, and the National Queer Arts Festival. Cole earned a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from Smith College and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, Poetry, from Lesley University’s low-residency program.

You'll often find him singing, leyning Torah, studying Talmud with SVARA, walking in parks with beloveds, and embracing the joy of Shabbat.

“I believe the work of critical feminist anti-racist anti-colonial genealogies of Jewish knowledge (re)production is critical to our collective efforts towards transformative, healing and just futures for all people across time and place.”

Alina Fox was a 2015 Gilda-Slifka Research Intern at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute and graduated from UC-Santa Cruz in 2016 with a focus in Critical Jewish Studies. They are currently pursuing their MSW at Smith School for Social Work.

Course: Levinas, Fall 2017

An historian, educator, and Yiddish language lecturer, she is a fellow at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts. She has studied at Bar-Ilan University, Hebrew University, University College of London, Southampton University James Parkes Institute in England, and Vilnius University. Agnieszka works for the Taube Philanthropies for Jewish Life & Culture. In her free time she is teaching Yiddish at the Workmen's Circle in San Francisco. 

Course: The Politics of the Bible in Translation, Spring 2018

“I am dedicated to Jewish regenerative communities based in culture building, ritual and study.”   

Simcha Schwartz is the Development Director for Wilderness Torah and Co-founder and former Director of the Jewish Farm School.  Simcha’s Jewish professional career has also included working for Hazon Inc, Eden Village Camp, the Teva Learning and American Jewish World Service.  In 2013, Simcha became a Chaplain and is currently on staff with Vitas Healthcare.  He was ordained as a Chaplain in September, 2018 at The Chaplaincy Institute in Berkeley, CA.

Course: Readings in the Zohar, Spring 2018