The Uri L'Tzedek Leadership Team

Ari Hart, Shmuly Yanklowitz, Ari Weiss

 

 

 STAFF

Lead Professional: Rabbi Ari Weiss

Rabbi Ari Weiss is currently the Lead Professional of Uri L’Tzedek. Prior to Uri L’Tzedek, he was Co-Director of the Meorot University Fellowship and has served on the Judaic Studies Faculty of the Heschel School.  In the summer of 2006, Rabbi Weiss was a JCUA Rabbinical Student Fellow and interned at We The People Media, a Chicago based public housing advocacy group. He has served as a Jewish educator for American Jewish World Service, Bnei Akiva, and the Lauder Foundation on missions to Nicaragua, Ghana, Israel, and Hungary.  Rabbi Weiss also serves as the Rabbinic Fellow for the Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life at NYU. 

Rabbi Weiss received his Rabbinical Ordination from YCT Rabbinical School in June 2007.  He is completing a Masters degree in Jewish Philosophy from Yeshiva University where he completed his undergraduate work in philosophy and religion.  He has studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion and Beit Morasha of Jerusalem.
 

BOARD

Founder, Co-Director: Shmuly Yanklowitz

Shmuly Yanklowitz was raised in Toronto, New Jersey, and Chicago. He studied at the University of Texas for an undergraduate degree and Harvard University for his Masters degree in Leadership and Psychology. He completed a second Masters degree in Jewish Philosophy at Yeshiva University. He is now working on his Doctoral Studies at Columbia University in Moral Development and Epistemology, and is an instructor of Moral Philosophy at Barnard College.
 
Shmuly studied Talmud and Jewish law at Yeshivat Hamivtar in Efrat, Israel for two years and is now entering his final year of Rabbinical School at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT) in New York. Shmuly has volunteered, taught, and staffed missions in many countries including Israel, Ghana, India, France, Thailand, El Salvador, Senegal, Germany, and Ukraine. Shmuly currently teaches philosophy in the early mornings at in inner-city school in Harlem and serves on the New York Department of Health’s Office of Minority Health Clergy Steering Committee.  
 
In 2008, Shmuly was named by the Jewish Week as one of “36 under 36” (one of 36 of the most influential Jewish leaders under the age of 36). A film crew followed Shmuly for over a year to produce a PBS documentary (“The Calling”) about the training of religious leadership to be released in 2010. Shmuly worked in business consulting for a top 10 firm, has written numerous articles on Jewish and social justice issues, and has lectured and consulted across the world. He is a Wexner Graduate Fellow, the former Director of Panim’s Jam in Washington D.C. and the Founder and Co-Director of Uri L’Tzedek (The Orthodox Social Justice Movement).

 

Co-Director: Ari Hart

Ari Hart resides in Manhattan, where he co-directs Uri L'Tzedek and is studying to be a rabbi at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. A leader of several initiatives that bring together Orthodoxy, the Jewish community, and the world at large to make positive change, Ari launched Or Tzedek, the Teen Institute for Social Justice in Chicago, represented the Jewish Community on the Community Board of Washington Heights and Inwood, and has taught at schools, synagogues, and summer camps around the country. He also served as a Nadiv Social Justice Fellow for the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs and as Court Appointed Special Advocate for neglected and abused children in Cook County. Ari was recently selected by the Jewish Week as one of the 36 under 36, a list of "forward-thinking young people who are helping to remake the Jewish community." Ari graduated from Grinnell College in 2004 with a bachelor's degree in music theory and composition.

COMMITTEE HEADS

Rosh Beit Midrash: Ruth Balinsky

Ruth Balinsky graduated Barnard College in 2007 with a bachelors in Psychology and Jewish Studies. She was raised in Chicago, where she has spent the past two summers staffing Or Tzedek, a social justice program for Jewish teens. This summer Ruth plans to return to Or Tzedek as the Rabbinic Teen Leader Fellow. Ruth has a strong background in social justice work, and recently completed the Grace Paley z''l Organizing Fellowship with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. She currently resides in Manhattan where she is studying in her first year of the Scholars Circle at the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education.

Head of Communications: Jordanna Birnbaum

Jordanna Birnbaum is currently the editorial intern at MyJewishLearning.com. She is a sophomore at New York University in the Gallatin School for Individualized Study. Jordanna served as the Education Chair of Shalhevet at NYU and co-founded L'SHMA Lecture Series at the Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life. She spent a year in Israel learning at Midreshet Moriah in Jerusalem.

Chair of College Initiative: Shoshana Sprague

Shoshana Sprague attended the Double Degree Program between Barnard College and the Jewish Theological Seminary.  She graduated with a degree in Urban Studies and Education from Barnard and Talmud from JTS.  Shoshana was raised in Chicago where she spent last summer serving as the Service Learning Coordinator for the Chicago Jewish Federation’s Camp TOV, a service learning program for teens. She traveled to Nicaragua with AJWS and participated in a multi-cultural alternative spring break trip to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.  She is particularly interested in the intersection between education and social justice and plans to teach in New York City next year.

 http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=0bc9d1a0a4&view=att&th=1221be563994bee0&attid=0.1&disp=inline&zwChair of Community Engagement: Shira Silton

Shira Silton hails from Albany, NY. She received her BA in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Anthropology, and Women’s Studies from Brandeis University; and has obtained Master’s degrees in Social Work from the Columbia University School of Social Work and in Jewish Studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Shira currently works as a psychiatric social worker for Montefiore Hospital and has helped coordinate several Jewish religious, cultural, and charity-based programs in New York City. Shira has been active in Uri L'Tzedek since its inception, is passionate about its mission, and is excited to be joining the Uri L'Tzedek team.

TAV LEADERSHIP

Chief Compliance Officer: Dani Passow

Dani Passow is a rabbinical student at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah where he is also a Wexner Graduate Fellow.  Dani serves as director of alumni activities in America for Yeshivat Maale Gilboa and  has volunteered at the Anshei Chesed Men’s Homeless Shelter.  He recently completed Elat Chayyim’s Advanced Meditation Program.  A graduate of Cooper Union's engineering school, Dani has studied in various yeshivot in Israel, most recently at Yeshivat Maale Gilboa where he was also a Madrich for post-high school American students.  Along with his position at Maale Gilboa, Dani worked with Beit Midrash Yisraeli bringing secular and religious Israelis together to study Torah, and volunteered at the Beit Alpha Ethiopian absorption center.  Dani combines his enthusiasm for Torah with a continued interest in the sciences and has spent the past three summers doing chemistry and bio-engineering research at the University of Pennsylvania.

Chief Operations Officer: Michal Brickman

Michal Brickman currently resides in Manhattan where she works as the Executive Producer of the Israel Tribute Committee, Inc./Salute to Israel Parade. Passionate about health care reform and preventative health education, Michal earned a Masters of Public Health in 2007 from Columbia University. She also graduated from Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts in Art History. In 2004, Michal served as a crisis hotline volunteer for Help Line, a project of the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services. She also spent a year studying Judaic studies at Midreshet Lindenbaum (“Brovenders”) in Israel. Michal has served on the leadership team for Uri L’Tzedek’s Washington Heights Youth/Education Initiatives since May 2008.

INTERNS

Shani Porter is a student at Queens College, studying Philosophy and Jewish Studies. She divides her time between going to school, organizing Israel advocacy programing on campus, volunteering around the world with American Jewish World Service and working as an intern in their service department. Through a generous grant from AJWS-Avodah and under the leadership of Uri L'Tzedek, Shani and Yitzi have been able to create a social justice group on the Queens College campus.

Yitzi Raisner is a junior at CUNY Queens College, where he is majoring in Economics, though he nevertheless likes taking English courses. After a trip to Honduras with AJWS, he became interested in global trade policy and its effects on poverty. In his spare time, he enjoys a nice lyrical ode, or just any guitar+friends combo.

William (Ze'ev) Sudry is a graduate of the Yeshivah of Flatbush Joel Braverman High School; studied in Yeshivat Birkat Mosheh in Ma'aleh Adumim, Israel, for a year; and is a rising senior at CUNY-Brooklyn College, studying history and Judaic/religious studies. He was a Meorot Fellow at YCT, and is a Shabbat counselor at a Bais Ezra home in Brooklyn. He has traveled with Jewish and non-Jewish groups to the Far East, Middle East, and Eastern Europe. William became interested in Uri L'Tzedek after attending some of its programs, and is excited for the experience and the opportunity to contribute in a meaningful way.

Jonathan Henkin is an undergraduate senior in the Joint Program between Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He is majoring in Modern European History at Columbia and Midrash at JTS. When not busy with schoolwork or helping out Uri L'tzedek, he enjoys learning about domestic and global politics and history. He has worked in a number of non-profit and Jewish educational settings and, after attending the fantastic first Uri L'tzedek Shabbaton in Queens in November 2008, is further committed to the cause of making the world a better place.

Alana Tenzer is a junior Environmental Science and Policy major at the University of Maryland. When she is not diligently studying, she likes to lobby on capitol hill, participate in school clubs, travel and fence. Alana is attending The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies next semester where she will study the link between water resource management and human rights.

Michelle Kornblit is currently a junior at New York University studying Philosophy and Politics. For over a year, Michelle has been a legal intern at Tuckner, Sipser, Weinstock & Sipser, a progressive employment law firm that is dedicated to fighting discrimination in the workplace. Michelle is currently the Education Chair of Shalhevet Orthodox Judaism at NYU. She spent a year in Israel learning at Midreshet Lindenbaum in Jerusalem.

Donna Iken is a rising junior at Washington University in St. Louis where she is majoring in International Studies and minoring in Political Science and Arabic.  While not studying, she divides her time between organizing Israel advocacy programs on campus and volunteering at the local public middle school.  Donna has experience in working for non-profits and Jewish educational organizations and is excited to combine the two in a way that can bring more justice to our world.