Religious School Teachers - 2022-2023
Rabbi Toba Spitzer
Senior Rabbi & Tefillah As Experience Teacher
t.spitzer@dorsheitzedek.org
Rabbi Toba Spitzer has been the spiritual leader of Congregation Dorshei Tzedek since graduating from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1997. Rabbi Spitzer has long been active in peace and justice work both in the U.S. and in Israel/Palestine. She currently serves on the Board of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, and as President of the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis. She brings her love of music and her guitar-playing to CDT services, and her passion for teachings to adults and children both at CDT and throughout the greater Boston area.
You can find more information about Rabbi Toba and links to her writings here.
Earnest Arky Solomon
Education Director
Earnest Arky Solomon (he/they) is honored to be the Education Director and is eager to support CDT in creating inclusive, meaningful, and justice oriented Jewish learning opportunities.In addition to working at CDT, Earnest is a SVARA Teaching Kollel fellow, which equips trans and queer teachers to lead empowering Talmud learning communities. Earnest received an M.A. in Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union and a B.A. in Near Eastern Studies at UC Berkeley. Earnest draws on his education to create learning experiences rooted in history, storytelling, cultural arts, and social justice. Prior to moving East, Earnest ran an outdoor Jewish religious school in the Oakland Redwoods and a Jewish farming program at URJ Camp Newman. Earnest is married to Emma Arky Solomon and they enjoy playing board games, studying Torah, spending time with their two cats, and working to build a more equitable world.
Jess Green
Inclusion Coordinator
inclusion@dorsheitzedek.org
Jess Green (she/her/hers) is thrilled to be joining Congregation Dorshei Tzedek as the Inclusion Coordinator. She will also be teaching first graders in her eighth year at Temple Beth Shalom and leading the Family Learning Circle at Nehar Shalom for the second year. Jess earned her Master's degree on Jewish education with a focus on special education from Hebrew College. She has a strong focus on Jewish spaces that are inclusive for her and believes that everyone can and should learn and live Jewishly and in community. Jess loves to teach about social justice, Jewish food, holidays, and ways to make ritual our own. Originally from New Jersey, Jess has lived in Boston for 16 years and is a member of several different local Jewish communities. She loves to cook for her chosen families, hang out with the kiddos in her life, and be at the beach.
Devora Rohr
Nitzanim and Shorashim Shabbat (3y/o-5y/os)
Devora Rohr (yes, “RAWR!”) (she/her/hers) is excited to introduce the youngest members of Droshei’s community, and their families, to joyful, livable Judaism. According to her 3 kids, this bio should read:
“This is Devora. She has a Masters from Hebrew College. Devora is one of the best teachers in the whole world. Anna loves Yona. Devora is a good teacher. Devora teaches Torah and knows Hebrew. Devora is so great. Devora is a good listener and nice and sometimes calm. Devora is Teddy, Yona, and Anna’s parent. Devora is excited for this job.”
While that conveys what is most important, it is worth adding that Devora is the Tsofim Program Coordinator at Kesher in Somerville and gets her camp fix staffing special needs family camps with Ramah’s Tikvah programs (Poconos and Palmer).
Adah Hetko
Gan (Kindergarten)
Adah Hetko (she/her/hers) is looking forward to returning for her fourth year at Dorshei Tzedek! This year Adah will be Gan Lead Teacher. Adah has designed and delivered educational programming in a variety of settings including Vassar College’s Office of Religious and Spiritual Life and Contemplative Practice, Baltimore Yearly Meeting camps and the Yiddish Book Center. She is also a singer, songwriter, and dance leader active in the local and international Yiddish cultural scenes. Adah performs regularly with klezmer/Yiddish song bands Burikes [Beets], and Levyosn [Leviathan], and she is currently translating a collection of Yiddish songs into English (for use in religious schools and other settings!) with the support of a 2022 Yiddish Book Center Translation Fellowship.
Ali Moss
Kitah Alef (First Grade)
Ali Moss (she/her/hers) is looking forward to returning to the CDT Religious school staff for her eighth year! When she is not teaching about the Jewish holidays to Kitah Alef, she spends her days teaching Preschool/PreK at Nashoba Brooks School in Concord. Ali’s passion for Jewish life and learning was formed in the small Reconstructionist congregation where she grew up, and later cemented during the years she worked at Camp JRF (now Camp Havaya). While Ali is a Philadelphia native, who still proudly cheers for the Eagles, she loves her adopted Boston-area home and the community here. She can’t wait for another great year with CDT first graders!
Andrea Kamens
Kitah Bet (2nd Grade)
Andrea Kamens (she/her/hers) is celebrating her 6th year at Dorshei by moving to Kitah Bet on Sundays, bringing her passion for Torah, deep Jewish connections, and favorite puppets with her. Andrea is a storyteller and teaching artist specializing in inclusion. She's on the board of The Story Space in Somerville (still online for the pandemic), a weekly venue started 30 years ago by the late Brother Blue and his wife Ruth Edmonds Hill to allow for the sacred task of listening to all people. Andrea’s the director of Youth Standing Strong Camp, an online storytelling camp matching mentors with youth tellers across all borders. She also loves tefillah (prayer) and is excited to return to teaching Kitah Dalet on Tuesdays. Andrea and her husband Jon have been Boston residents for over 25 years and have five children.
Rabbi Emily Mathis
Kitah Gimel Sunday and Weekday Teacher
Rabbi Emily Mathis has served communities across much of the Jewish spectrum, most recently in Cambridge and on Boston’s North Shore. Prior to her work in Jewish settings, Emily directed programming in the fields of environmental education, urban gardening and family literacy. In addition to her rabbinic work, she is a family herbalist, and can generally be found in the kitchen working on her next project and drinking coffee. She and her spouse, Hali Diecidue, live in West Newton with their three girls (22, 12, and 5.5) and one labradoodle.
Shira Cohen-Goldberg
Kitah Dalet (Fourth Grade)
Shira Cohen-Goldberg (she/her/hers) is a long-time member of the greater Camberville Jewish community and current member of Temple Shalom of Medford and Cambridge Minyan. She has been an elementary teacher in NYC and CA and was a literacy coach in Chelsea, MA. She is currently Director of Client Services for Hill for Literacy, a non-profit focused on organizational change in literacy education and is also a private reading tutor to many. She is thrilled to be able to teach kids in a Jewish setting again after many years break! She enjoys a rich and busy existence rearing her children Hallel, Ya’ara, and Nesya in partnership with her husband, Ari.
Hannah Limov
Kitah Hey (Fifth Grade)
Hannah Limov (they/she) is deeply excited to be joining the CDT community. They are a first year rabbinical student at Hebrew College, having spent the past 8 years living and working in western North Carolina in a variety of social work positions and at various synagogues. She received her BA in Environmental Studies and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Colorado Boulder and their MSW from Western Carolina University. They believe that Judaism holds powerful wisdom for healing our hearts, minds, and the world; and loves to adventure in the woods, dig their hands into soil tending to plant babies, sing off key with friends, and cuddle her extremely adorable and weird kitties Lily and Padfoot.
Joanna Marcus
Kitah Vav (Sixth Grade)
Joanna (she/her/hers) is excited to be returning for her eighth year teaching at Dorshei Tzedek! Joanna is a violinist, and she recently received a B.A. in Music from Brandeis University. She is interested in how music can be used to promote mental health, well-being, and inclusion of marginalized populations. She loves the way music can convey such a breadth of emotional worlds, and she values the beautiful ways creative arts can impact people and communities. Joanna was a student at Dorshei Tzedek Religious School as a child, and she absolutely loves seeing the current students build their own sense of Jewish identity and create new memories where she once did as a child (and continues to do as a teacher). Joanna is thrilled to be teaching Kitah Vav this year!
Sarah Serrano
Kitah Vav Assistant (6th grade)
Sarah (she/her/hers) is excited to be returning to the Congregation Dorshei Tzedek community. Originally from Chicago, she earned her BA and MAT at Tufts University with concentrations in African and African Diasporic literature and education. Sarah has been a middle and high ELA and Humanities teacher in MA, and also works as a birthworker and childbirth educator in the area. She is looking forward to working and supporting teachers and students this year.
Izzy Feinfeld
Kitah Vav (Sixth Grade)
Izzy Feinfeld (he/they) is overjoyed to be returning to Dorshei Tzedek, this year as an assistant teacher for Kitah Vav. He is a senior at Westwood High School in Massachusetts, and he loves teaching and learning in the Jewish community; recently he has worked as a madriche and B’nei Mitzvah tutor at Dorshei. He has attended the Great Jewish Books Program at the Yiddish Book Center for the past two summers, and thoroughly enjoys Jewish literature and short stories. Izzy was a student at Dorshei Tzedek for most of their childhood, and continues to enjoy working with members of the Dorshei community to explore Jewish values and connect those values to many forms of social justice.
Claire Goldberg
Kitah Zayin (Seventh Grade)
Claire Goldberg (they/them/theirs) is absolutely thrilled to be joining Dorshei Tzedek this year! Claire graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Urban Studies and Architecture. Claire served as the educational director of Jewish summer camp where they solidified their passion for curriculum design and experiential education. In their free time, Claire loves to spend time with dogs, make maps, and grow vegetables!
Liz Krushnic
Kitah Zayin Assistant (Seventh Grade)
Liz Krushnic (she/her/hers) is excited to enter her fourth year working with the wonderful students of the CDT Religious School. Prior to her time at CDT, Liz worked for three years as the Youth & Community Organizer at Boston Workers Circle Center for Jewish Culture and Social Justice, where she ran the Teens Acting for Social Change program. In addition to working at CDT, Liz is Clinical Herbalist Intern at the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism. In her spare time, she loves baking birthday cakes, and spending time in her garden in Jamaica Plain. A Newton native, Liz is delighted to be working in the community where she grew up.
Adina Mailick
Tutor
Adina Mailick (she/her/hers) is excited to be returning to Dorshei Tzedek this year! She has been part of the CDT Religious School teaching team for over 10 years and has had many roles in that time. This year she will be a Tefilah and Ivrit tutor. Adina has a BA from Bennington College in VT with focuses in ceramics and poetry. When time and circumstance permit she writes and explores the visual arts, and where possible she tries to bring these disciplines into her teaching.
Sarah Pollack
Tutor
Sarah is currently a Shanah Bet Rabbinical School. Although she grew up in Florida, she now lives in Cambridge with her wife, Elana. As a child, Sarah felt a strong sense of Jewish identity but lacked formal ways to articulate her spiritual yearning. She immersed herself in Jewish life at The University of Florida while pursuing a BA in Forensic Anthropology. After spending a summer in Uganda as part of a volunteer program with AJWS and a semester abroad at the University of Haifa, Sarah was eager to continue her exploration of Judaism and Jewish Peoplehood. She moved to Jerusalem, where she spent two years learning at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, first as the Social Justice Fellow, and then on the Judaism and Conflict Resolution track. As a Pardes Fellow, Sarah organized volunteer opportunities and facilitated community-building programming. Her professional journey started at Encounter, where she spent the next four years exploring the ways that Jewish American professionals and lay leadership engage with Palestinians. Sarah most recently worked for Honeymoon Israel as the Director of Community Engagement, empowering young Jewish families to explore their relationships to Jewish community and identity. This year, she will be teaching 5th and 7th grade at Dorshei Tzedek, a Fellow at MyZuzah and serving as an Alumni Connector for the Bronfman Fellowship.
Naomi Gurt Lind
Tutor
Naomi Gurt Lind (she) is excited to join the Dorshei Tzedek team as a tefillah tutor. She is in her third year of Rabbinical School at Hebrew College, where she is editor (and occasional writer) for the 70 Faces of Torah blog, and a member of the inaugural cohort of Mayyim Rabbim Fellows at Mayyim Hayyim. This year she serves as rabbinic intern at Congregation Betenu (Amherst, NH), 2Life Communities, and Congregation Shirat Hayam (Swampscott). In her free time, she reads, writes divrei Torah on her blog Jewish Themes, solves crossword puzzles (in pencil!), and bakes a legendary vegan challah. Along with her spouse, she is the parent of two wonderful teenagers.
Children's Education Committee (CEC)
The CEC consists of one parent representative from each grade level in addition to a committee chair. They support, advise, and provide
feedback to Education Director Earnest Arky Solomon as he plans events for the Religious School. The CEC’s participation may include working on upcoming activities or new policies/procedures and helping to publicize school events.
CEC 5783 Members:
Rebecca Ó Murchadha (Committee Chair)
Elana Cutler
Daniel Reeves
Rebecca Bact
Sheryl Koenigsberg
Emily Mathis
Jonathan Lewis
Lisa Keshet
Valerie Graf