Our Board + Advisors

Fred Claar, a retired business owner, is actively involved in Jewish education as a Board Member, teacher, and lifelong learner. He is the co-author with Joyce, his wife of 58 years, of Values and Ethics: Torah Topics for Today, a book that easily brings Judaism into family discussions.

Alisa Robbins Doctoroff has been active on the boards of a wide spectrum of organizations that promote engagement with Jewish life and identity and that invest in the development of Jewish educational and religious leadership. Alisa is the immediate past chair of the Jim Joseph Foundation and past president and chair of UJA-Federation of NY. She is also a past president of the Abraham Joshua Heschel School and was instrumental both in founding its high school division and expanding its campus. Alisa has served on the boards of the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Hadar Institute, and Montefiore Health Systems. Alisa graduated from Harvard College, holds an MBA from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, and an MA from the Jewish Theological Seminary. She lives in New York City with her husband, Dan. They have three grown children and two grandchildren.

Rabbi David Gedzelman is President & CEO of The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life, which is dedicated to revitalizing Jewish identity through innovative initiatives that build connections with the richness of Jewish civilization, the Hebrew language, and the life and culture of Israel. He holds a B.A. from Hamilton College, an M.A. from Duke University in Comparative Religion, and Rabbinical Ordination from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. In addition to the OneTable Board, he serves on the Boards of The American Pardes Foundation, the Council for Hebrew Language and Culture, and YAFFED. He lives in Harlem with his wife, Judith Turner, and their three children, Nomi, Anina, and Ziv.

Why did you join the OneTable Board?
I joined the OneTable Board at the inception of the project in early 2014 in order to help realize Michael Steinhardt’s vision for harnessing the power and meaning of the Friday night Shabbat dinner experience to give American Jewish young adults opportunities for Jewish expression and connection.

What does Shabbat mean to you?
Shabbat provides the metronome of my life, setting a rhythm whose spiritual discipline opens a window to the infinite in the context of the finite.

Rabbi Lisa Goldstein is a teacher, coach, and consultant with almost 25 years of executive experience. She teaches a wide variety of online courses with an emphasis on spiritual resilience, meditation, and the teachings of R. Nahman of Breslov. Educated at Brown University and Hebrew Union College, Rabbi Goldstein has worked as the director of Hillel of San Diego and the Executive Director of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. She is a faculty member for Jewish Pedagogies for Well-Being at M2, a research program for master educators, and is currently working for certification in NARM, a therapeutic approach to healing developmental trauma.

Rabbi Matt Green is the Associate Rabbi of Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn, where he is also the director of the Brooklyn Jews community. Matt was ordained from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York in 2018, the same year he was named one of the New York Jewish Week’s 36-Under-36 for his surprising experiments in building queer Jewish community.

Alison Kur obtained a Master’s degree from the Hornstein Program at Brandeis University after a career as an attorney and child advocate and made the career change to Jewish education. She is the Executive Director of Jewish Living at Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley, MA. Prior to TBE, Alison worked at Combined Jewish Philanthropies.

Dr. Jon Levisohn is the Mandel Associate Professor of Jewish Educational Thought at Brandeis University, where he also directs the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education. A philosopher of Jewish and general education, his recent publications include the edited volume “Beyond Jewish Identity” and two position papers for the Applied Research Collective on American Jewry at NYU: “A New Paradigm of Jewish Literacy” and “Producers Not Possessors.”

Rabbi Jessica Minnen is a writer, ritualist, and liturgist committed to the discipline of delight. Inspired by user-centered design, she consults with organizations across the country to create, deliver, and scale transformative Jewish learning. She was a part of the founding team of OneTable and served as Rabbi in Residence from 2014-2021. Originally from Paducah, Kentucky, Jessica is an alumna of Washington University in St. Louis, the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, Paideia: The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden, Baltimore Hebrew University, and the Jewish Theological Seminary. She is also a Fellow of Rabbis Without Borders, Reboot, the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Women’s Leadership Mission, and the Ruskay Institute for Professional Leadership. Jessica lives in Denver, Colorado, and is mom to one amazing dog and one amazing human.

Rabbi Vanessa Ochs, Ph.D., is a Professor Emeritus in the University of Virginia Department of Religious Studies and Rabbi Sally Priesand Visiting Professor, Hebrew Union College 2023-2024.

Her books include The Passover Haggadah: A Biography (Princeton University Press, 2020), Inventing Jewish Ritual (winner of a 2007 National Jewish Book Award), Sarah Laughed, The Jewish Dream Book (with Elizabeth Ochs), Words on Fire: One Woman’s Journey into the Sacred, and Safe and Sound: Protecting Your Child In An Unpredictable World. For her writing, she was awarded a Creative Writing Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Kylie Unell is a Dean’s Doctoral Fellow at NYU, concentrating in Jewish philosophy. Her research focuses on the intersection between the Black and Jewish community through the philosophies of Moses Mendelssohn and Booker T. Washington. In 2021, Kylie was named an “aspiring Jewish philosopher” by the New York Jewish Week for their annual 36 Under 36. Kylie has hosted two #1 Jewish podcasts with Tablet Studios: “How to Fix a Soul in 30 Days” and “49 Days to Stretch My Soul.” She has also hosted a YouTube series on the history of the relationship between the Black and Jewish communities with Unpacked, which has amassed over 1.2 million views. She currently lives in Upstate New York with her canine sidekick, Miley.

Why did you join the OneTable Board?
I joined the OneTable Board because I am passionate about the journey of Jewish self-discovery and exploration and the spaces like OneTable that support Jews in that process.

What does Shabbat mean to you?
Shabbat means a time of supercharging. It’s stepping into a space in time where I joyfully receive energy from the Divine without the expectation of giving anything in return.