Shabbaton Faculty List

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Rabbi Baruch Babaev

Rabbi Baruch Babaev

Rabbi Baruch Babaev has served as Chief Rabbi of the Bukharian Jewish Community from 2012 to the present. He is known as a powerful lecturer, and for his caring and positive impact on young and old alike. Among his many projects was the distribution of more than 50,000 Torah based CD discs in the Bukharian language. Harav Babaev moved with his family from Samarkand to Israel in 1995. He received his Rabbinical ordination in 2002 from the Chief Rabbinate of the State of Israel. After further intense examination by Torah leaders Harav Ovadia Yosef, Rabbi Abarzel and the Chief Rabbinate of the State of Israel, Rav Babaev became a Dayan (rabbinic judge). As a reflection of his involvement and dedication to Bukharian youth, Rabbi Babayev was honored with the JIQ Elementary School Award.
Rabbi Dovber Baitman

Rabbi Dovber Baitman

Rabbi Dovber Baitman is a prominent Rabbi and lecturer from Ukraine.
Rabbi Velvel Belinsky

Rabbi Velvel Belinsky

Rabbi Velvel Belinsky is the spiritual leader of The Ariel Jewish Center and Synagogue, serving the Russian Jewish Community in Baltimore, MD. He was born in Leningrad, Russia, to a family of mathematicians. At a young age he aspired to become a scientist, but he was already playing major roles in the theater and the movies; professionals were recommending an acting career. As he was deciding between two careers, he discovered the beauty of his Jewish heritage. Today, Rabbi Velvel Belinsky is an ordained rabbi and a shaliach—an official emissary of the Chabad Lubavitch movement.
Rabbi Eli Blokh

Rabbi Eli Blokh

Rabbi Eli Blokh, originally from Moscow, is the executive director of the Chabad of Rego Park/Jewish Russian Community Center of Queens. Chabad of Rego Park serves the spiritual and material needs of a very diverse Jewish community. In addition to his rabbinic duties, rabbi Blokh is also the volunteer Jewish chaplain for the Forest Hills Hospital and Elmhurst Hospital and is on the ethics committee for Forest Hills Hospital.
Dr. Marika D. Cherfas

Dr. Marika D. Cherfas

Dr. Marika D. Cherfas specializes in Holistic Medicine as well as conventional Internal Medicine, and works in Brooklyn, New York. She graduated from the Latvian Medical Academy in Riga, Latvia, in 1986. Dr. Cherfas is affiliated with Coney Island Hospital and New York Methodist Hospital.
Bassie Chudaitov

Bassie Chudaitov

Bassie Chudaitov is a much beloved teacher and mentor, who was involved in the Jewish underground in the Soviet Union, secreting Yeshiva students in her home at great personal risk, and an avid supporter of all activities of Chamah since its founding, together with her husband, Rabbi Moshiach Chudaitov.
Rabbi Menachem Chuzhin

Rabbi Menachem Chuzhin

Rabbi Menachem Chuzhin is involved with outreach in the Russian American Jewish Community of New York. He is the director of the Chamah Mobile Jewish Center.
Polina Dorosinskaya

Polina Dorosinskaya

Polina Dorosinskaya is a licensed mental health counselor and art therapist. Her clinical interests include treatment of addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and mood disorders. Polina works at the inpatient and outpatient levels of care bringing expressive therapies to help facilitate therapeutic change.
Rabbi David Eliezrie

Rabbi David Eliezrie

Rabbi David Eliezrie is a veteran Chabad Shliach in Yorba Linda California, and was previously the Jewish Chaplain at the University of Miami. He is president of the Rabbinical Council of Orange County, a member of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel.
Rabbi Eliezrie studied in Yeshiva in Israel and Brooklyn. He is a noted writer and lecturer, married and the proud father of six children and an ever-growing number of grandchildren.
His first book The Secret of Chabad was a finalist in the prestigious 2016 National Jewish Book Awards, his upcoming book is “Undaunted -the life of the Sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson.
Rivka Miriam Fisher

Rivka Miriam Fisher

Rivka Miriam Fisher is a violinist and Jewish Educator who performs and presents workshops on Jewish Music interwoven with Torah teachings. She has played and studied Chabad Nigunim in Crown Heights and Israel. Rivka Miriam studied Music at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Mannes College of Music. She holds a Masters in Education and has taught in both youth and adults in both Jewish and Public School settings.
Rabbi Baruch Gorin

Rabbi Baruch Gorin

Rabbi Boruch Gorin, born in Odessa where he graduated from the “School of the young journalists”. Rabbi Gorin studied at the Yeshiva in Moscow where he founded and headed the Jewish magazine “Lehaim”, as well as a publishing company under the same name. Since 1999 he has headed the Public Relations Department of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia. He is also a member of the Coordinating Council of the World Congress of Russian Jewry. Since 2012 he is Chairman of the Board of the Jewish Museum and Center of Tolerance, in addition to being Editor-in-Chief at the Knizhniki Publishing House.
Rabbi Avrohom Hertz

Rabbi Avrohom Hertz

Rabbi Avrohom Hertz is the Shliach of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in Bensonhurst, Brookyn and spiritual leader of Congregation Tifereth Torah of Bensonhurst. He lectures Talmud classes for graduate students in Yeshiva Oholei Torah, Brooklyn. He also serves as one of the Dayanim/ Rabbinical Judge in Vaad Rabanei Lubavitch.
Elana Ilyayev

Elana Ilyayev

Elana Ilyayev is a co- founder of a Kiruv organization named Sisters Outreach. She is a dynamic speaker who inspires women to come closer to the creator.
Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Jacobson

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Jacobson

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Jacobson (YY) is one of America’s premier Jewish scholars in Torah and mysticism, and one of the most sought after speakers in the Jewish world.
He is recognized as one of the most passionate and mesmerizing communicators of Judaism today, gathering his knowledge from the entire spectrum of Jewish thought and making them relevant to contemporary audiences.
Over the last twenty years, he has lectured to Jewish and non-Jewish audiences on six continents and in forty states. As founder and Dean of TheYeshiva.net, he is teacher and mentor to thousands across the globe via the web, one of the largest Torah classes in the world today.
Rabbi Jacobson is the author of “A Tale of Two Souls”—a 150 audio series on the teachings of the Chassidic classic, the Tanya. He has written more than 1,000 articles on diverse themes of Jewish thought, including Biblical and Talmudic studies, Jewish law, Kabbalah and Chassidism, Jewish history, psychology, philosophy, education, relationships, Israel, and current events.
Ari Kagan

Ari Kagan

Ari Kagan is Brooklyn District Leader, and a much acclaimed TV and Radio journalist; he hosts popular programs on Russian Television Network of America and on Davidzon Radio (620 AM). He was born in Minsk, Belarus, in 1967, and graduated from the Journalism Department of the Lvov Military Political College in 1988. Ari immigrated to America with his family in 1993. He graduated with honors from Baruch College in 1999 with a degree in business administration. Ari is a prominent leader and advocate on behalf of the Russian-American Jewish Community, and has received many awards for his outstanding service.
Rabbi Mordechai Kanelsky

Rabbi Mordechai Kanelsky

Rabbi Mordechai Kanelsky was born in Russia and educated in an underground yeshiva. In 1970 he immigrated to Israel and was a student at the Chabad Yeshiva. He relocated to the United States in 1976, where he continued his higher education. He founded Bris Avrohom in 1979 under the direction of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The organization is dedicated to fostering Jewish identity amongst Jews from the Former Soviet Union. Bris Avrohom has arranged 6,500 brissim and conducted over 900 group weddings in accordance with Jewish tradition. It also provides education for adults and children, daily and holiday services, a summer camp for children, a school for orphans in Zhitomer and sponsors Bar Mitzvah programs in Israel for those in need. Bris Avrohom has contact with over 30,000 individuals worldwide.
Rabbi Kasriel Kastel

Rabbi Kasriel Kastel

Rabbi Kasriel Kastel is the Program Director of Lubavitch Youth Organization (LYO). Since 1968, he has organized Shabbatons, provided counseling and headed the Speakers Bureau of LYO. Following the Six-Day War in 1967, he coordinated the Tefillin Campaign initiated by the Lubavitcher Rebbe and encouraged thousands of Jews to begin laying tefillin. He organized the Jewish Free University with classes for novice Jewish learners on Sunday mornings and has been in operation for over ten years. He is the publisher of the Wellsprings magazine, and founding trustee of AJCP. He received his Rabbinical ordination from the United Lubavitcher Yeshivos in Brooklyn, NY.
Rabbi Aryeh Katzin

Rabbi Aryeh Katzin

Rabbi Aryeh Katzin is Dean of Sinai Academy, a High School for Russian immigrants in Brooklyn, NY. Rabbi Katzin produces a weekly radio program for Davidzon Radio called Jewish Life, reaching out to millions of listeners in the former USSR. He was a Jewish activist in Moscow from 1977 thru 1981, and studied Torah in the underground movement, and then taught Torah and Hebrew language under the watchful eyes of the KGB. His group included Yuli Edelstein and Yosef Begun. He immigrated to Israel in 1981, and continued his Torah Studies in Jerusalem, while being actively involved in educational projects for new immigrants. In 1992 he launched Yevreiski Mir, a Russian language Jewish weekly newspaper. Rabbi Katzin is the CEO of RAJE (Russian American Jewish Experience).
Rabbi Eli Kogan

Rabbi Eli Kogan

Rabbi Eli Kogan born in Moscow, Russia in 1970, is the founder and director of Jewish Russian Learning Center of Staten Island, New York, and the spiritual leader of Congregation Shaarei Teshuva. He is the Editor in Chief of Habad.ru, a Russian version of the Chabad.org website. Rabbi Kogan is a famous lecturer on Torah, Kabbalah and Chassidic Philosophy, who frequently lectures worldwide, and is a songwriter. He is also the host of the daily talk show “Fifth Dimension” on the RUSA Radio, and has a popular YouTube channel.
Rabbi Zeev Kushnirsky

Rabbi Zeev Kushnirsky

Rabbi Zeev Kushnirsky is the director of JRLC of South Beach. He was born in Ukraine during the Soviet regime. He moved to Israel with his parents and siblings where a spark started for his renewed connection with Judaism. As a teen he came to the USA for high school where he started his journey to a more observant life. He went back to Israel to pursue rabbinical studies and came back to America and graduated from Yeshiva Central Tomchei Tmimim Lubavitch.
He has been working with the Russian speaking community since his teens. Today he is the spiritual leader of his community providing counseling, classes, and ceremonies of Jewish life cycle events.
He likes to explain deep ideas with jokes and parables from daily life into deep chasidicm and Kabalistic concepts. He loves and enjoys to teach and lead his community with joy.
Rebetzin Esther Kushnirsky

Rebetzin Esther Kushnirsky

Rebetzin Esther Kushnirsky is the co-director of JRLC of South Beach. She was born in Brazil and grew up following some Jewish traditions. She started her journey towards a more observant Judaism when she was a teen. After college Esther went to Israel for seminary and then came to USA to finish her Jewish studies.
She has been working with the Russian speaking community for more than 15 years. She directs the Hebrew School, Jewish Kids Club, Bat Mitzvah Club, Jewish Women Circle, teaches weekly classes, runs and organizes holidays programs. She loves to speak about how Judaism and Chassidus helps women connect to their femininity and have a improved mental well-being.
Rabbi Benzion Laskin

Rabbi Benzion Laskin

Rabbi Benzion Laskin is the Program Director of Chamah International, Director of the Russian National Shabbaton, and Rabbi of Oceanview Jewish Center in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. He is a sought-after lecturer and has been featured on lecture tours in the U.S, Israel, and Europe. Rabbi Laskin writes a weekly column called “The Jewish Home” in the national Russian newspaper Forum. He also hosts a radio program on Davidzon Radio, the largest Russian-language radio station in America with over half-a-million daily listeners, called Be Jewish. He is a frequent guest on Russian-American TV programs geared toward the Russian Jewish communities, with great success.
Rabbi Baruch Lepkivker

Rabbi Baruch Lepkivker

Rabbi Baruch Lepkivker is the Program Director of Bris Avrohom, an organization that has met the needs of Russian Jewish Immigrants in New Jersey since 1979. Rabbi Lepkivker organizes classes in English (ESL) and Jewish history, counsels families and individuals, lectures and teaches Torah, Chassidic philosophy and Kabbalah. He organizes Jewish holiday celebrations, seminars, and Shabbatons at various venues.
Rabbi Moshe Chaim Levin

Rabbi Moshe Chaim Levin

Rabbi Moshe Chaim Levin is Rabbi of the Chabad Lubavitch of Kensington. He was among the first emissaries of the Lubavitcher Rebbe to the FSU. Together with his wife, Doba, they serve one of the largest Russian Jewish Communities in Brooklyn. He immigrated to America from Russia in 1971 and established the publishing department of F.R.E.E. His lectures on the teachings of Kabbalah and Chasidism in Russian are available on YouTube.
Miriam Lipskier

Miriam Lipskier

Miriam Lipskier co-directs Chabad Student Center at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia together with her husband and Eight children. Hundreds of students participate in the vibrant community of Jewish life and learning that she leads. Known for her quick wit and down-to-earth style, Miriam is a dynamic teacher of Jewish thought and spirituality.
German Nudelman

German Nudelman

German Nudelman was born in Leningrad and moved to Israel after finishing high school. Following demobilization from Israeli Defense Forces, he began his studies at Bar-Ilan University, graduating with the Ph.D. degree in Molecular Immunology. Since accepting an invitation to join the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan as a scientist in the field of Immunology, German had contributed to more than twenty peer-reviewed scientific publications, helping to elucidate the role of genetics in response to the influenza virus infection.
Arsen Pereymer

Arsen Pereymer

Arsen Pereymer is a successful serial entrepreneur, technology visionary, influencer and philanthropist of Jewish causes. His track-record includes scaling many profitable and successful tech businesses, including releasing 400+ apps which amassed more than 100 million downloads and reached the top app store charts globally. Many of Mr. Pereymer’s apps, reached the #1 app in 100+ countries and have been prominently featured by Apple and Google. Mr. Pereymer frequently speaks at events and shares his tactics and strategies to help other aspiring entrepreneurs in growing their businesses on a large scale. He has been giving back to the tech community by mentoring 1000’s of entrepreneurs and helping them scale their businesses into multi-million dollar companies.
Avraham Shneor Zalman Petrosian

Avraham Shneor Zalman Petrosian

Avraham Shneor Zalman Petrosian is an IT specialist, software developer, and author. He is known for such projects as: “Torah Codes”, “Seder ha Dorot” and “Universal dates converter” apps for mobile. He gives lectures about Israel and international law as well as lectures about modern science and how it relates to Judaism and the Torah. He is mostly known for his strong criticism of the Theory of Evolution as well as his criticism of the idea that the world is billions of years old. Avraham speaks fluent English, Hebrew, and Russian.
Rabbi Alexander Pruchansky

Rabbi Alexander Pruchansky

Rabbi Alexander Pruchansky was born in the city of Chisinau. He moved to Israel in the year 1990 were he served in the army and studied in Yeshiva. Since 2005, he has been the head of the Youth Educational Complex, “Kfar Sitrin” in Israel. He is a world-renowned speaker, head of the media group known as, “Moment of Wisdom,” and a messenger of the Lubavicher Rebbe.
Zlata Razdolina

Zlata Razdolina

Zlata Razdolina is a composer, arranger, author, and performer. She has composed over 600 musical pieces in various genres. She is spoken of as a unique and distinguished phenomenon in musical culture. Zlata Razdolina was born in Leningrad where she was awarded the highest musical degree. She is a laureate of many national and international musical competitions. She was forced to flee to Israel in 1989 because of threats by the nationalist, anti-Semitic organization Pamyat. She continued to advance in her musical career in Israel and contributed to many theater and cinema productions. Her composition, “My Dear Esther” won the Sholom Aleichem prize. She has composed song-cycles of many of the best-known Israeli and Russian poets, and is perhaps most famous for her Holocaust-themed requiem, “Song about Murdered Jewish People”. The song was acknowledged by the BBC as the most distinguished musical piece dedicated to the memory of Holocaust victims.
Rabbi Aaron Reichel

Rabbi Aaron Reichel

Aaron Reichel is a rabbi, an attorney, an author, an editor, and an administrator. He wrote, edited, and/or supplemented various books, and wrote many articles on Jewish and secular subjects, some of which were republished by a U.S. Senate Subcommittee. He is most noted for having authored The Maverick Rabbi, about Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein (the R’chash) and 3 monographs on the influential West Side Institutional Synagogue. He was not the author of the biography of Chief Rabbi Cohen (by Frisch & HaCohen) or the book on Judaism and baseball (Rabbi Yisroel Roll), but he edited the translation of the biography of Rabbi Cohen and wrote a chapter which was included in the English translation of the biography of Rabbi Cohen and 2 chapters in the second edition of the book on Judaism and baseball.
Rabbi Dan Rodkin

Rabbi Dan Rodkin

Rabbi Dan Rodkin is the head of the Shaloh House Jewish Day School in Brighton, MA. Tapping into his educational experiences in different countries, Rabbi Rodkin created an engaging, challenging, and well-rounded academic program in both Judaic and secular subjects. Rabbi Rodkin was born in Moscow into a family of educators. At the age of fifteen, he began studying Jewish thought and tradition. Having studied at the most prestigious seminaries in Russia, Israel, and the US, Rabbi Rodkin earned his Master of Arts degree in Theology from the Rabbinical College of America in Morristown, NJ, and his Rabbinical Ordination from Central Lubavitch Yeshiva in Brooklyn, NY. He has published several articles in Hebrew and English on Jewish thought and education.
Sara Rodkin

Sara Rodkin

Sara Rodkin is a co-director of Shaloh House, Russian Jewish Center of Greater Boston. She was born in Latvia and moved with her family to America at the age of 15. She is an educator by profession, having taught elementary and middle school for more than a decade. She organizes and runs women’s events, teaches brides, has a weekly challah class, and speaks on a variety of topics in Jewish thought and philosophy.
Rabbi Yehoram Ulman

Rabbi Yehoram Ulman

Rabbi Ulman is the head of the Rabbinical Court of Sydney, Australia. He is a halachic expert on a broad range of contemporary issues including IVF treatment, stem cell research, divorce, conversion, and other pressing issues.
He was born in Leningrad, USSR.
Rabbi Zushe Winner

Rabbi Zushe Winner

Rabbi Zushe Winner is a renowned scholar who has lectured and published on all aspects of Jewish wisdom. He is the Shliach of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and established the Chabad Neshama Centers and is the spiritual leader of the Sea Breeze Synagogue. He also serves as a Rosh Yeshiva in the Lubavitch Central Yeshiva and is a Rabbinic Judge at the Lubavitch Beis Din.
Rebbetzin Esther Winner

Rebbetzin Esther Winner

Mrs. Winner is the Rebbetzin of the Seabreeze Jewish Center and the Rebbe’s Shlucha in Brighton Beach. She produced the acclaimed video and associated seminar series “A Taste of Shabbos”. She is a well-known motivational speaker, lecturing on a wide variety of topics related to the Jewish woman.
Dr. Marina Yuabova

Dr. Marina Yuabova

Dr. Marina Yuabova is a Family Nurse Practitioner and Assistant Professor at City University of New York. She is also the founder of Integrative health and aesthetics aiming to restore health holistically, as well as beauty. Her extensive training and broad experience make her a unique medical professional with vast knowledge pertaining to functional and alternative medicine. She is also an internationally recognized author.
Rabbi Hillel Zaltzman

Rabbi Hillel Zaltzman

Rabbi Hillel Zaltzman is the President of Chamah. He was one of the founders of Chamah while under the watchful eye of the KGB in Soviet Russia. Chamah has grown to an international organization, extending humanitarian aid to tens of thousands of needy Jews in Israel, Russia, and the United States. Rabbi Zaltzman is the author of the best-selling book, Samarkand, depicting the life of Chassidim and the perils of learning Torah and spreading the light of Judaism under the oppressive Communist regime. The book has received high acclaim and has been published in English, Yiddish, Hebrew, and Russian. It is also available as an audiobook and e-book.