Advisory Board

Dr. Erica Brown

Dr. Erica Brown is the Scholar-in-Residence for The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and its Managing Director for Education and Leadership.  In that capacity, she serves as the director of its Jewish Leadership Institute.

Erica did her undergraduate studies at Yeshiva University and continued her graduate work at the University of London, Harvard University and Baltimore Hebrew University.  She was a Jerusalem Fellow and is a faculty member of the Wexner Heritage Foundation.  She lectures widely on subjects of Jewish interest and leadership, in addition to writing extensively in journals of education and Jewish studies.

Avraham Infeld

The founder and director of a succession of innovative educational institutions, Avraham serves as President Emeritus of Hillel International. In the 1970s, Avraham founded Melitz, a non-profit educational service institution that fosters Jewish identity rooted in a pluralistic understanding of Jewish life and the centrality of Israel. He also served as chairman of Arevim; director of the birthright Israel planning process; founding chairman of San Francisco Federation’s Amutot in Israel; and chairman of the Board of Israel Experience. He was presented with the Brian Lurie Fund for Israel-Diaspora Relations Award on March 28, 2006.

A native of South Africa, Infeld immigrated to Israel in 1959. He is married to Ellen, and they share four children and 10 grandchildren. He is a graduate of Hebrew University in Bible and Jewish history, and of Tel Aviv University’s Law School. In 2005, he was awarded Hebrew University’s prestigious Samuel Rothberg Prize for Jewish Education, the first specialist in informal Jewish education to be so honored.

Rabbi Rachel Cowan

Rachel Cowan is the Executive Director of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. She was previously the Program Director for Jewish Life at the Nathan Cummings Foundation. Cowan earned her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College and Master’s degrees from the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, where she was also ordained as a rabbi in 1989. She has written Growing Up Yanqui and Mixed Blessings: Untangling the Knots in Interfaith Marriage (with Paul Cowan), as well as numerous articles in Moment, Sh’ma, and anthologies.

She has worked for a number of years to support religious pluralism, social justice and environmental protection in Israel. Her interests include Jewish healing and Jewish contemplative practice. She leads classes and weekend retreats on Jewish contemplative practice. She was twice named to the Forward’s Top Fifty list of Jewish leaders.

Rabbi Avraham Weiss

Rabbi Avraham Weiss heads the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale in New York. He is an author, teacher, lecturer, and activist. In addition he is founder and Dean of the “Open Orthodox” Yeshiva in New York – Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. Weiss was twice selected as one of the “Fifty Jewish Leaders to Watch in the Year Ahead” by The Forward newspaper and was named Rabbi of the Year for 1993-94 by the New York Board of Rabbis. In 2007, he was selected as one of “America’s Top 50 Rabbis” by Newsweek.

Weiss has been one of the Jewish Orthodox community’s most visible examples of activism over the last generation. He has been vocal on many issues, including emigration and absorption of Soviet Jews, clemency for Jonathan Pollard, opposing terrorism, supporting Israel, preserving Holocaust memorials, and exposing anti-semitism.

Weiss coined the term “Open Orthodox”, and founded Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, which operates under the same model, and aspires to foster intellectual openness, expanding the role of women in Judaism while adhering to Halakha, and cultivating spirituality. He seeks to embrace as many people as possible including the mentally challenged, elderly, poor, and those in need.

Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg

Rabbi Yitz Greenberg is a Modern Orthodox rabbi Jewish-American scholar and author. He is known as a strong supporter of Israel and a promoter of greater understanding between Judaism and Christianity. In 1953 Greenberg was ordained at Yeshiva Beis Yosef. He earned a PhD. from Harvard University and served as the rabbi of the Riverdale Jewish Center, an associate professor of history at Yeshiva University, and as a founder, chairman, and professor in the department of Jewish studies of the City College of the City University of New York. He has also served as the President of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. He is married to the Orthodox Jewish feminist writer Blu Greenberg.

Greenberg’s thought involves a dynamic reading of current Jewish history through use of traditional Jewish categories of thought. He has written extensively about the Holocaust and about the historical and religious significance of the State of Israel. His great teacher in Jewish Thought was Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. One of his major contributions has been as a teacher, and a whole generation of distinguished scholars.

Greenberg’s thought centers on the concept of ‘Tikkun Olam’ of humanity working as Co-Creator with God in improving the world. Another crucial concept of his thought is that of ‘Covenant’ and he sees the Jewish people’s Covenant with God as enjoining them to set an example for the moral edification of mankind. Because of his independent thinking Rabbi Greenberg has frequently met with harsh criticism from fellow Orthodox Rabbis.

Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen

Rachel Naomi Remen is one of the earliest pioneers in the mind/body holistic health movement and the first to recognize the role of the spirit in health and the recovery from illness. She is Co-Founder and Medical Director of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program featured in the Bill Moyers PBS series, Healing and the Mind and has cared for people with cancer and their families for almost 30 years.

She is also a nationally recognized medical reformer and educator who sees the practice of medicine as a spiritual path. In recognition of her work she has received several honorary degrees and has been invited to teach in medical schools and hospitals throughout the country. Her groundbreaking holistic curricula enable physicians at all levels of training to remember their calling and strengthen their commitment to serve life.

Dr. Remen is Clinical Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the UCSF School of Medicine and Director of the innovative UCSF course The Healer’s Art, which was recently featured in US News & World Report. She is Founder and Director of the Institute for the Study of Health and Illness, a ten-year-old professional development program for graduate physicians.

She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal, Riverhead Books, 1996. Her newest book, My Grandfather’s Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge and Belonging, Riverhead Books, 2000, is a national bestseller. As a master story-teller and public speaker, she has spoken to thousands of people throughout the country, reminding them of the power of their humanity and the ability to use their lives to make a difference.