- Click here for a PDF of our Edu-Palooza 2010 Presenter Bios
Rabbi Michael Balinsky is the Executive Vice President of the Chicago Board of Rabbis, an organization representing two hundred rabbis of all denominations.
Previously, Rabbi Balinsky was Director of Faculty Development for the Florence Melton Adult Mini- Schools. In that capacity he led the work of the organization in formulating its approach and best practices to adult Jewish learning and teaching, integrating the knowledge gained from adult education with insights from Jewish sources on the study of Torah.
Rabbi Balinsky was a Hillel director for twenty-two years, over nineteen of those as the director of the Louis and Saerree Fiedler Hillel Center at Northwestern University, after two and a half years as the Associate Director of Hillel at the University of Michigan.
Rabbi Balinsky has taught courses at The University of Michigan, Loyola University, and in numerous adult education settings including Havurah Institutes and CAJE conferences. In 1998 he instituted and led a Chicago community wide Bet Midrash program involving rabbis and participants from all streams. He has also coordinated, prepared materials and taught for the Bet Midrash at the United Jewish Communities General Assembly.
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David Barany is the Education Director at Congregation Beth Shalom in Northbrook, IL. Prior to assuming his current position, David was the Assistant Director and Education/ Technology Consultant at the Marshall Jewish Learning Center.
Mr. Barany earned a Master of Arts in Education from the University of Judaism in Los Angeles in 1989. He has served as Director of Education at Anshe Emet Synagogue in Chicago, B’nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim Congregation in Glenview, IL and Congregation Solel in Highland Park, IL. David has taken part in planning both National and Midwest Conferences for the Advancement of Jewish Education and is a presenter at Torahthon. He is married to Melissa, and has two children, Avi and Kyra.
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Rolly Cohen is the Director of The Marshall Jewish Learning Center and Center for Jewish Teacher at the Board of Jewish Education of Metropolitan Chicago. She has taught religious school for over 27 years and is a graduate of the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School and the Mandel Teacher Education Institute. Rolly has been part of the BJE Supervisor Teacher program, mentoring new religious school teachers for over 15 years. She has served on the Mazkirut for National and Mid-West CAJE and is a graduate student in the Master’s of Jewish Professional Studies at Spertus College.
Rolly is married to Stuart Cohen and is the mother of Harris and Abra.
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Alicia Gejman is the Director of Makor Or Special Needs Resource Center at the BJE in Chicago. Ms. Gejman also serves as the principal at West Suburban Temple Har Zion since 1998. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Education and Psychology from Bar-Ilan University, a Master's degree in School Psychology from Hebrew University and Educational Specialist degree in Curriculum and Instruction from George Washington University. She served as bilingual school psychologist for the Washington D.C. public school system. Alicia was the bilingual psychology consultant for the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland. She also was employed as a Hebrew instructor and special needs coordinator at several congregations in Maryland. Ms. Gejman was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She made aliyah in1977 and lived in Israel for almost 10 years.
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Rabbi Richard Prass is the Director of Education at Congregation Beth Am in Buffalo Grove, IL. Prior to joining the professional staff at Beth Am, Rabbi Prass served as Director of Education in New Rochelle, New York. He has experience in school administration, teacher development, curriculum design, and youth group work. He is a passionate and engaging teacher. Before dedicating himself to the field of formal and informal Jewish Education, he served as a pulpit rabbi, maintaining full preaching, teaching and life cycle responsibilities. Rabbi Prass has also spent several summers on staff at Olin Sang Ruby Union Institute (OSRUI) in Wisconsin.
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Jane Shapiro believes in helping people bring wisdom to their work in the world. She is the founder of Jane Shapiro Associates, an educational consulting firm specializing in teaching, coaching, mentoring and vision facilitation. Previously, she served as the Associate Director of the Florence Melton School, an international network of schools for adult Jewish learning. She has taught in both in Israel and North America. Her students have included community leaders, philanthropists, young adults, parents and teachers.
She has a particular fondness for coaching emerging leaders and young professionals.
Organizations throughout North America use curricula of her design. These include the United Jewish Communities, the American Jewish Committee, and the Professional Leaders Project. She also co-authored a course on philanthropy for intergenerational family groups. Many of her students who use these materials have reported more inspired and enhanced capacity for their leadership and philanthropic activities. She is currently the lead educator for the Mitzvah Initiative of the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Jane has degrees from Princeton University, Columbia University and certificates from the Mandel Institute for Leadership in Teacher Education and Visioning for Education. She is committed to lifelong learning towards identity enrichment and motivation for work.
In her free time, Jane is the wife of Dr. David Shapiro and the mother of four sons.
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Linda Sonin is the Creative Curriculum Consultant for the BJE/ MJLC. She earned a Masters Degree in Jewish Education and Jewish Communal Service from Brandeis University. Over the past 29 years she has worked as an educational consultant, principal and art educator in a variety of Jewish settings. She loves to help teachers bring greater creativity and love for Jewish learning into the classroom. Linda is the author of Celebrating Israel through the Arts and Walk the Talk: Jewish Values in Action.
She lives in Buffalo Grove with her husband Jeff, and their children Becky and Ben.
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Alan Jay Sufrin is extraordinarily blessed by Hashem in that he has been able to devote his career to his passions. A music producer and informal Jewish educator by trade; Alan Jay Sufrin has also cultivated expertise in graphic design and web design, and recently proudly began working as Educational Technology Consultant at the BJE here in Chicago. Hashem has also blessed him with the talent of being able to write about himself in the third person. Visit his websites at http://www.stereosinai.com and http://www.alanjaysufrin.com.
[Back]
Previously, Rabbi Balinsky was Director of Faculty Development for the Florence Melton Adult Mini- Schools. In that capacity he led the work of the organization in formulating its approach and best practices to adult Jewish learning and teaching, integrating the knowledge gained from adult education with insights from Jewish sources on the study of Torah.
Rabbi Balinsky was a Hillel director for twenty-two years, over nineteen of those as the director of the Louis and Saerree Fiedler Hillel Center at Northwestern University, after two and a half years as the Associate Director of Hillel at the University of Michigan.
Rabbi Balinsky has taught courses at The University of Michigan, Loyola University, and in numerous adult education settings including Havurah Institutes and CAJE conferences. In 1998 he instituted and led a Chicago community wide Bet Midrash program involving rabbis and participants from all streams. He has also coordinated, prepared materials and taught for the Bet Midrash at the United Jewish Communities General Assembly.
[Back]
David Barany is the Education Director at Congregation Beth Shalom in Northbrook, IL. Prior to assuming his current position, David was the Assistant Director and Education/ Technology Consultant at the Marshall Jewish Learning Center.
Mr. Barany earned a Master of Arts in Education from the University of Judaism in Los Angeles in 1989. He has served as Director of Education at Anshe Emet Synagogue in Chicago, B’nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim Congregation in Glenview, IL and Congregation Solel in Highland Park, IL. David has taken part in planning both National and Midwest Conferences for the Advancement of Jewish Education and is a presenter at Torahthon. He is married to Melissa, and has two children, Avi and Kyra.
[Back]
Rolly Cohen is the Director of The Marshall Jewish Learning Center and Center for Jewish Teacher at the Board of Jewish Education of Metropolitan Chicago. She has taught religious school for over 27 years and is a graduate of the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School and the Mandel Teacher Education Institute. Rolly has been part of the BJE Supervisor Teacher program, mentoring new religious school teachers for over 15 years. She has served on the Mazkirut for National and Mid-West CAJE and is a graduate student in the Master’s of Jewish Professional Studies at Spertus College.
Rolly is married to Stuart Cohen and is the mother of Harris and Abra.
[Back]
Alicia Gejman is the Director of Makor Or Special Needs Resource Center at the BJE in Chicago. Ms. Gejman also serves as the principal at West Suburban Temple Har Zion since 1998. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Education and Psychology from Bar-Ilan University, a Master's degree in School Psychology from Hebrew University and Educational Specialist degree in Curriculum and Instruction from George Washington University. She served as bilingual school psychologist for the Washington D.C. public school system. Alicia was the bilingual psychology consultant for the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland. She also was employed as a Hebrew instructor and special needs coordinator at several congregations in Maryland. Ms. Gejman was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She made aliyah in1977 and lived in Israel for almost 10 years.
[Back]
Rabbi Richard Prass is the Director of Education at Congregation Beth Am in Buffalo Grove, IL. Prior to joining the professional staff at Beth Am, Rabbi Prass served as Director of Education in New Rochelle, New York. He has experience in school administration, teacher development, curriculum design, and youth group work. He is a passionate and engaging teacher. Before dedicating himself to the field of formal and informal Jewish Education, he served as a pulpit rabbi, maintaining full preaching, teaching and life cycle responsibilities. Rabbi Prass has also spent several summers on staff at Olin Sang Ruby Union Institute (OSRUI) in Wisconsin.
[Back]
Jane Shapiro believes in helping people bring wisdom to their work in the world. She is the founder of Jane Shapiro Associates, an educational consulting firm specializing in teaching, coaching, mentoring and vision facilitation. Previously, she served as the Associate Director of the Florence Melton School, an international network of schools for adult Jewish learning. She has taught in both in Israel and North America. Her students have included community leaders, philanthropists, young adults, parents and teachers.
She has a particular fondness for coaching emerging leaders and young professionals.
Organizations throughout North America use curricula of her design. These include the United Jewish Communities, the American Jewish Committee, and the Professional Leaders Project. She also co-authored a course on philanthropy for intergenerational family groups. Many of her students who use these materials have reported more inspired and enhanced capacity for their leadership and philanthropic activities. She is currently the lead educator for the Mitzvah Initiative of the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Jane has degrees from Princeton University, Columbia University and certificates from the Mandel Institute for Leadership in Teacher Education and Visioning for Education. She is committed to lifelong learning towards identity enrichment and motivation for work.
In her free time, Jane is the wife of Dr. David Shapiro and the mother of four sons.
[Back]
Linda Sonin is the Creative Curriculum Consultant for the BJE/ MJLC. She earned a Masters Degree in Jewish Education and Jewish Communal Service from Brandeis University. Over the past 29 years she has worked as an educational consultant, principal and art educator in a variety of Jewish settings. She loves to help teachers bring greater creativity and love for Jewish learning into the classroom. Linda is the author of Celebrating Israel through the Arts and Walk the Talk: Jewish Values in Action.
She lives in Buffalo Grove with her husband Jeff, and their children Becky and Ben.
[Back]
Alan Jay Sufrin is extraordinarily blessed by Hashem in that he has been able to devote his career to his passions. A music producer and informal Jewish educator by trade; Alan Jay Sufrin has also cultivated expertise in graphic design and web design, and recently proudly began working as Educational Technology Consultant at the BJE here in Chicago. Hashem has also blessed him with the talent of being able to write about himself in the third person. Visit his websites at http://www.stereosinai.com and http://www.alanjaysufrin.com.
[Back]
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