Professional Leadership & Administration

Board of Directors

Rabbanit Chani Bloom is an attorney, advocate and educator. She has worked extensively in the private, non-profit and government sectors, and taught for educational institutions in both the United States and Israel. She holds a JD from NYU School of Law, a BA from Columbia College, and Ordination from Yeshivat Maharat. She lives with her husband and four children in Washington DC.

Jonathan Canel is a real estate developer from Highland Park, IL. He specializes in mixed-income multifamily housing development and affordable housing preservation. Jonathan received his JD from Harvard in 2014 and his BA from Stanford (in history) in 2010. Jonathan is married to Shiran and has one daughter, Eliana, who is presently 18 months old.

Jonathan was an auditor of the YCT semikha program in 2020-2021 and came to admire the honesty and intellectual integrity of the YCT Rabbinical staff and appreciates the sensitivity they exhibit, both in their teachings and in their psak, to the factual realities – scientific, social, and spiritual – of our world today. He believes that as a result of their work, YCT stands uniquely positioned to heal many of the rifts within the contemporary Jewish world.

Behnam (Behn) Dayanim is a partner with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, where he
is global head of digital commerce & gaming. His practice focuses on gaming, fintech and payments, AI, data and sanctions & trade controls. Behnam lives in Silver Spring, MD, is married to his college sweetheart (YC/Stern) and has four+one children – Tamar (married to Yona Kornsgold) of New York and a rising music executive (!), Danya (a graduate student at UMD), Ezra (undergraduate at Columbia/JTS) and Atira (a rising high-school sophomore at the Berman Hebrew Academy in Maryland). In his communal life, Behn currently is a vice president of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington and on the boards of the Federation of Greater Washington and of JOFA. In years past, he has served as president of the Berman Hebrew Academy, founding chair of the Lay Advisory Council of the Beltway Vaad, and national vice president of the Orthodox Union, among other involvements. He also is an actor, appearing in Renegades: The Requiem (Parts 1 and 2), available on your finest streaming venues.

Rabba Yaffa Epstein serves as the Senior Scholar and Educator-in-Residence at the Jewish Education Project. Previously, she was the Director of the Wexner Heritage Program at the Wexner Foundation, and the Director of Education, North America, for the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. She has taught educators, rabbis and lay leaders from across the spectrum of Jewish denominations and is passionate about making Jewish learning accessible, exciting, and inclusive to all who wish to participate. She received Orthodox Rabbinic Ordination from Yeshivat
Maharat, earned an additional private Ordination from Rabbi Daniel Landes, holds a Law Degree from Bar-Ilan University, and studied at the Talmud Department at Hebrew University.

Dr. Michelle Friedman is the Founder and Director Emerita of YCT’s Pastoral Counseling program. She received an MD from the NYU School of Medicine and has completed advanced training at the Columbia University Psychoanalytic Center for Training and Research. Dr. Friedman is a highly respected psychiatrist who focuses on the Jewish community and has a special interest in the rabbinate and pastoral counseling. In addition to her private practice and her role at YCT, Dr. Friedman is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York.

Ari Hait, Secretary of the Board, is a Partner with the law firm of Kaye Scholer LLP where for over twenty-five years he has specialized in commercial real estate and real estate finance. Ari is a graduate of New York University School of Law and Yeshiva College. He is a former President of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale. Ari and his wife, Beth, live in Riverdale, New York.

Dr. Adena Klineman is a clinical psychologist with a specialty in the treatment of eating disorders. She earned her doctorate in clinical and developmental psychology from the University of Pittsburgh, with a focus on interpersonal relationships and communication of emotion. Adena has served as a volunteer or lay leader in the Cleveland Jewish community since 2003. She served as the first female president of Green Road Synagogue, an Orthodox Synagogue in Beachwood, Ohio, from 2017-2021. During her tenure, Green Road Synagogue engaged Rabbi Binyamin Blau as their full-time spiritual leader, hired a Yoetzet Halacha, expanded youth and family programming, developed a partnership with the Community Beit Midrash to expand adult learning opportunities, and experienced a growth in membership, particularly among young families. Adena spearheaded fundraising and oversaw construction of the synagogue’s new facility and campus. Currently, she is serving as a Vice Chair of Women IN Philanthropy, a division of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland. She and her husband, Jonathan Klineman, live in Beachwood, Ohio and are the parents of three sons.

Dr. Steven Laufer, Chair of the Board, is a researcher at the Meyers-JDC-Brookdale Institute in Jerusalem. Prior to making aliya in 2019, he worked as a principal economist at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C., where he conducted research and advised Board members on issues related to housing and mortgage markets. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard University and a PhD in Economics from New York University. He has been a member of Ohev Shalom the National Synagogue in Washington and of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale – the Bayit, and served as board president of the Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School of the Nation’s Capital. Steven and his wife, Chani, are the proud parents of three children, Shoshana, Ari and Erez.

Rachel Lieberman has spent the last 15 years working in the nonprofit sector and is passionate about partnering with mission-driven organizations to strengthen their financial and operational backbone in order to expand their impact. In January 2026 she became the VP of Finance at a Stamford non-profit called Inspirica.

Previously Rachel served as the Director of Finance & Administration at Youth INC, a nonprofit capacity builder. During her six-year tenure, Rachel built out and scaled Youth INC’s Operations function, creating durable and replicable processes for all Finance, HR/People Operations, Board Governance and Strategic Planning workflows.

Rachel has consulted for a range of organizations in the public and Jewish communal sector through her work with BDO (formerly FMA: Fiscal Management Associates), NYC Service, and LimmudNY. Previously, Rachel worked as the Assistant Director at JOFA, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, where she expanded the organization’s programming and fundraising portfolio. Rachel also serves on the Finance Committee of the Board of Directors at the Center for Jewish Life at Princeton University.

Rachel earned an MPA in Nonprofit Management and an MA in Hebrew and Judaic Studies from NYU. She earned a BA in Religion and a certificate in Judaic Studies at Princeton University. She also completed a certificate in Fundraising and Philanthropy at Yeshiva University, and has studied at Yeshivat Hadar (year fellow), Pardes (summer beit midrash) and YCT (summer beit midrash). Rachel currently lives in Stamford, CT with her husband and two children.

Steven Lieberman, Chair Emeritus, is a partner at the firm of Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck in Washington, D.C. He specializes in intellectual property and constitutional law, and his current clients include The New York Times Company, Dow Jones, Fox, McGraw-Hill, NBC, CBS and Time Warner. Mr. Lieberman has also devoted a substantial portion of his practice for the past 25 years to pro bono work on behalf of the Jewish community. Mr. Lieberman has served on the Board of YCT since its founding.  He is currently a Vice President of Beth Sholom Congregation & Talmud Torah in Potomac, Maryland and a member of the Board and Vice-President of the Association for Safe International Road Travel (“ASIRT”); he has also served on the Board of Directors of the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School. He has been honored by Ohev Sholom – The National Synagogue, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School, and the Association for Safe International Road Travel for his work on behalf of those organizations.

Jeremy Novich, Psy.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist. He earned his doctorate from Long Island University, Post Campus, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stevens Institute of Technology. Dr. Novich has worked on LGBTQ concerns as a clinician, researcher, and community educator. He published a chapter, titled Gay Jewish Men in the Orthodox Community: Striving for Selfhood, that summarizes his doctoral dissertation. In addition to his clinical work relating to sexuality, identity, and LGBTQ issues, Dr. Novich specializes in helping people with problematic substance use. He is a full-time psychologist at JQY and maintains a private practice as well.

Dr. Kenneth Prager, Chair, is a pulmonologist and Professor of Clinical Medicine at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is Director of Medical Ethics and Chairman of the Medical Ethics Committee of Columbia University Medical Center. He lectures annually at The Ben Gurion University Medical School for International Health in Beersheba. In the 1980’s, he traveled to the USSR and was deeply involved in the medical and humanitarian problems of Soviet Refuseniks. Kenny and his wife Jeannie have lived in Englewood, New Jersey, for 40 years and are affiliated with Congregation Ahavath Torah. They have four children and six grandchildren. Kenny and Jeannie were both active leaders in Moriah School of Englewood when their children were young.

Shep Rosenman is the managing partner at the boutique transactional entertainment law firm, RLG LLP, where he represents clients in motion picture, television, publishing, videogame, merchandising, digital, social media, and new media transactions including authors, writers, directors, actors, and producers.  Prior to joining RLG in 1997 (then called Katz, Golden & Fishman), he was an associate at Browning, Jacobson & Klein (1995 – 1997), VP and General Counsel of GRB Entertainment (1994), a business negotiator for CBS Productions (1993), an associate at Christensen, White, et al (1992), an associate at Walter, Conston, et al (1989 – 1991).  Mr. Rosenman lectured in Bible Studies at the Ziegler Rabbinic School and the Fingerhut School of Education at the AJU and he regularly leads workshops about the entertainment industry, the comic book business, negotiation, leadership, effective and respectful communication, Bible study, prayer, songwriting, and community-building.  An alumnus of the Wexner Heritage Foundation, Mr. Rosenman is the Co-Founder of LimmudLA, was the founding president and chairperson of Limmud North America, and was a trustee and board member of the Global Limmud board for ten years.  Each Limmud organization is dedicated to the growth of learning, volunteerism and diversity in the Jewish community.  He was on the LA Steering Group of Eshel, which seeks to educate the Orthodox Jewish community about issues facing LGBTQ+ individuals.  He spent many years advising organizations such as Pardes (a Modern Orthodox institution that seeks to expand Jewish learning opportunities regardless of gender and background), and Lomda (which assists Haredi men and women in getting the education they need to find employment).  Mr. Rosenman is a 2014-2015 AJWS Global Justice Fellow.  He posted the 54Mosaics project, which seeks to explore Torah education through the creative arts.  Mr. Rosenman currently is writing a song cycle based on the Psalms and is producing a podcast called, The Rest is Commentary, consisting of conversations about the big issues in life inspired by those songs and Psalms. 

Email: shep@rlgllp.com

Web: www.rlgllp.com

Rabbi Benji Shiller is the chair of the Limudei Qodesh Dept at the Abraham Joshua Heschel High School in New York. Benji was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He spent two years studying at Yeshivat Har Etzion in Israel and received his BA in English Literature and Fine Arts from Yeshiva University and smikha from YCT. Benji also served as a combat infantry soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, and has led and taught Jewish high school students on trips to Poland and Israel. At the Heschel High School, Benji teaches Talmud, Tanakh, and Jewish Ethics. He also facilitates a daily tefillah group that incorporates creative arts into prayer practice. He currently lives in New Rochelle, NY with his wife, Atara, and their four daughters.

Rabbi Seth Winberg is the Executive Director of Hillel at Brandeis University, where he also serves as Senior Jewish Chaplain for the university. He has led Hillel at Brandeis for nearly a decade, including a capital campaign to build the university’s first dedicated home for Jewish life. He previously served at the University of Michigan Hillel and Metro Chicago Hillel, and on the boards of the Ann Arbor Hebrew Day School and Jewish Women International’s Rabbinic Advisory Board. Seth received semikha from YCT in 2011 and is a doctoral candidate at Brandeis under Professor Jonathan Sarna, writing a dissertation on a Hungarian-born Orthodox rabbi’s journey to America and his influence on Jewish legal culture surrounding death and mourning. He lives in Newton, Massachusetts, with his wife and three children.

Advisory Board

Rabbi B. Elka Abrahamson is President of The Wexner Foundation. Prior to her assuming her current role in 2011, Elka served as Director of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program and Vice President of Wexner Foundation for close to a decade.

Ordained at HUC-JIR, New York, Elka began her career as associate rabbi at Peninsula Temple Beth El, San Mateo, CA. She then served, with her husband, Rabbi Martin (Misha) Zinkow, as co-senior rabbi at Mount Zion Temple in St. Paul, MN.

Abrahamson, a dynamic speaker and an engaging teacher, is optimistic about the Jewish future owing to the remarkable leaders she encounters in her rabbinate, many of them Wexner Alumni. She has been widely published and is a popular scholar-in-residence, presenter, and keynote speaker for a wide variety of Jewish organizations. She received the Bernard Reisman Award as an outstanding member of the professional Jewish community.

Elka is an avid student and dedicated teacher of Mussar. She also loves a good football game, especially if the Vikings (or Buckeyes) are winning.

Stephen G. Bodurtha is a Managing Director at Citi Private Bank in North America, and has spent his career building and transforming investment and wealth management businesses.  Prior to joining Citi Private Bank in 2009, Steve led the investments, wealth management and insurance organization, as well as the retirement business, at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He is a co-creator of the $80+ billion Sector Spdrs exchange traded funds and was featured in the book The Super Traders.  Mr. Bodurtha has an MBA from Harvard Business School, and graduated magna cum laude from Wesleyan University with a BA in Government. He has been a coach in the Fairfield County Connecticut Jewish Little League and has served on the board of Bi-Cultural Day School and Congregation Agudath Sholom in Stamford, Connecticut.

Eric D. Fingerhut is the President and CEO of The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA). Prior to his appointment at JFNA, Fingerhut served as the President of CEO of Hillel International from 2013-19. At Hillel, Fingerhut led the organization’s Drive to Excellence, which resulted in a doubling of the number of students engaged by Hillel each year and the total funds raised annually. Fingerhut’s emphasis on recruiting, training and retaining top talent for the system, and on building a data and performance driven organization, have become models for the non-profit sector.   From 1997 to 2006, Eric served as an Ohio state senator, and from 1993 to 1994, represented Ohio’s 19th congressional district in the U.S. Congress.

Fingerhut received a juris doctorate from Stanford University Law School and a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife Amy, sons Sam and Charlie, and beagles Pedro and Lulu.

Peter Gefen is highly esteemed educator, widely known for his founding of major schools and initiatives. Peter began his career with the creation of the Park Avenue Synagogue High School in 1967 and founded The Abraham Joshua Heschel School in New York City in 1983. He most recently founded and serves as President of The KIVUNIM Institute. In the summers of 1965 and 1966 he served as a civil rights worker for Dr. Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in Orangeburg, and soon afterwards served as a civilian volunteer during the Six Days War. He is married to Susie Kessler, and they have two sons: Jonah and Daniel, and a daughter, Nessa. Peter was born, raised in and has lived in New York City throughout his lifetime.

Jeffrey S. Gurock is the Libby M. Klaperman Professor of Jewish History at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies of Yeshiva University and a former board member of YCT. An internationally-recognized expert in the discipline of American Jewish history; with special interest in the history of American Judaism, the history of New York Jewry and Judaism and American sports. He is the author or editor of twenty-four books, including, recently, Jews in Gotham: New York Jews in a Changing City  (NYU Press). An elected fellow of the American Academy of Jewish Research and the New York Academy of History, Gurock is also an avid sportsman who has run the NYC Marathon 12 times.

Dr. Steven Laufer, Chair of the Board, is a researcher at the Meyers-JDC-Brookdale Institute in Jerusalem. Prior to making aliya in 2019, he worked as a principal economist at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C., where he conducted research and advised Board members on issues related to housing and mortgage markets. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard University and a PhD in Economics from New York University. He has been a member of Ohev Shalom the National Synagogue in Washington and of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale – the Bayit, and served as board president of the Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School of the Nation’s Capital. Steven and his wife, Chani, are the proud parents of three children, Shoshana, Ari and Erez.

Aaron Lerner is the incoming President and C.E.O. of the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles Selects. Prior to being named to this position, Aaron served as Executive Director of Hillel at UCLA from 2012-2022, where he helped expand Hillel’s leadership training program to include approximately 150 student leaders who reach nearly 1,800 Jewish students every year at UCLA. He has also played a key role in Israel advocacy and education on campus and in the national arena.

Aaron is passionate about creating inclusive and empowered Jewish community. He believes that Jewish tradition enriches and informs every aspect of life, and particularly enjoys encouraging college students to apply Jewish values as they grapple with life’s major questions during their most formative years. A Wexner Graduate Fellow, Aaron received ordination from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah with an emphasis in education.

Steven Lieberman, Chair Emeritus, is a partner at the firm of Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck in Washington, D.C. He specializes in intellectual property and constitutional law, and his current clients include The New York Times Company, Dow Jones, Fox, McGraw-Hill, NBC, CBS and Time Warner. Mr. Lieberman has also devoted a substantial portion of his practice for the past 25 years to pro bono work on behalf of the Jewish community. Mr. Lieberman has served on the Board of YCT since its founding.  He is currently a Vice President of Beth Sholom Congregation & Talmud Torah in Potomac, Maryland and a member of the Board and Vice-President of the Association for Safe International Road Travel (“ASIRT”); he has also served on the Board of Directors of the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School. He has been honored by Ohev Sholom – The National Synagogue, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School, and the Association for Safe International Road Travel for his work on behalf of those organizations.

Rabbi Dov Linzer is the President and Rosh HaYeshiva of YCT Rabbinical School. Having served as YCT’s Rosh HaYeshiva for over 20 years, Rabbi Linzer became its President in 2019 and assumed both the institutional and Torah-based leadership of YCT. In this dual capacity, Rabbi Linzer has set the vision for YCT as a Center of Torah and Torah Leadership, and, with an amazing team of colleagues and partners, oversees its growth, reach, and further development.

An acclaimed Torah and halakha scholar, Rabbi Linzer has been a leading rabbinic voice in the Modern Orthodox community for over 25 years. He has published over 100 teshuvot (responsa) and scholarly Torah articles, and hosts a number of highly popular Torah podcasts.

In his capacity as a mentor, Rabbi Linzer provides religious guidance to the yeshiva’s students and the over 150 YCT-ordained rabbis who are serving in the field. He answers hundreds of halakhic questions from YCT rabbis and broader community each year, which are available to the public on his blog, psak.yctorah.org.

Jonathan D. Sarna is University Professor, the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, and Director at the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. From 2008-2018, Sarna served as chair of the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program. He is past president of the Association for Jewish Studies, Chief Historian of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia and in 2009, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dubbed by the Forward newspaper in 2004 as one of America’s fifty most influential American Jews, Sarna is recognized as a leading commentator on American Jewish history, religion, and life. Dr. Sarna has written, edited, or co-edited more than thirty books. He is best known for the acclaimed American Judaism: A History. Winner of the Jewish Book Council’s “Jewish Book of the Year Award” in 2004. He is married to Professor Ruth Langer, and they have two children, Aaron and Leah.