Speakers for Masorti Europe Regional Conference in Paris

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Sophie Goldblum, Teacher, Faculty and Programme Coordinator, Paideia

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Chazan Rebecca Blumenfeld from Shema Koleinu and the Oxford Jewish Congregation

Chazan Bex is a Spiritual and Liturgical Leader, and a Jewish educator. She graduated from Hebrew College in Boston in 2015 with cantorial ordination (smicha) and a Masters in Jewish Studies and she moved back to the UK (where she was born) with her family in 2016.

Chazan Blumenfeld works as a freelance Chazan and a Jewish educator. She is a teacher and mentor for EAJL (the European Academy of Jewish Liturgy), she is employed by Masorti Judaism and she works part-time for the Oxford Jewish Congregation.

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Rabbinical students, Heschel Seminary, Germany: Nina Kawohl, Miksa Gáspár, Isaac Cowhey, and David Schapiro

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Rabbi Gesa Ederberg, Oranienburger Strasse, Berlin

The first woman rabbi to serve in Berlin since Regina Jonas, Gesa Ederberg has played an essential role in restoring Jewish life in Germany. Born a Lutheran, Ederberg first visited Israel at age thirteen and slowly fell in love with Judaism. She earned a degree in physics in Berlin while studying Protestantism and Judaism, studied religion at Hebrew University in Israel and the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York before converting in 1995. She returned to Berlin, where she taught Hebrew school at the Oranienburger Strasse Synagogue before earning ordination from the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem in 2003. She was the spiritual leader of the Jewish community in Weiden, Bavaria until 2007, when she was hired as rabbi at the prestigious Oranienburger Strasse Synagogue, where she had previously taught. In 2006 she helped found the European Rabbinical Assembly of Masorti/Conservative Rabbis and as of 2016 continues to serve as its executive vice president and treasurer. She was also a founding member of the General Rabbinic Conference of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. In 2014 she began supervising mentorships for the new Conservative seminary in Berlin, the Zacharias Frankel College.

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Margo Gold, President of Masorti Olami

Margo Gold of Atlanta, Georgia served as International President of The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ) from 2015 through 2018. She has been a Vice President of Masorti Olami since 2019. In addition, she serves on the Va’ad of the USCJ Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center and is a Delegate of the WZO Va’ad HaPoel Hatzioni.

Margo is a respected professional leader and volunteer in an array of nonprofit and communal organizations. She served on the Boards of JTS, the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, MERCAZ USA, and on the Executive Council of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations. Margo was a delegate to the World Zionist Congress in 2015 and 2020.

In Atlanta, Margo served as President of Ahavath Achim Synagogue, President of Congregation B’nai Tora, Vice President of the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta, and on the Board of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta (JFGA), among other leadership roles.

Professionally, Margo is a Managing Director for Hadassah (HWZOA). Previously, she served as Director of Development and Communications for Georgia Appleseed Center for Law & Justice, and was Community Relations Director for the JFGA and active in the national Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

Margo has been honored for her dedication to Israel and to the Jewish nonprofit world by Israel Bonds, City of Hope, Ahavath Achim Synagogue and the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta Women’s Division.

She and her husband, Atlanta attorney Larry Gold, are proud parents and grandparents of David and Emma Dix and their daughters Isabella and Layla (Atlanta); Michael and Mindy Gold and their son, Jackson (Atlanta); and Carolyn and Evan Remer and their children, Daniel and Vivian (Columbus, OH).

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Rabbi Jeremy Gordon, New London Synagogue

Rabbi Jeremy has a first-class honours degree in Law from Cambridge University and subsequently went to work in television for the BBC and a number of independent production companies. His love of Judaism was really ignited at the Limmud Conference in December 1995. This marked the start of a decade of study in England, at the Hebrew University and the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem and the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. He graduated from JTS with Rabbinic Ordination, a Masters in Midrash (Rabbinic Exegesis) and a number of academic awards. 

While in New York, Rabbi Jeremy trained as a hospital Chaplain and spent many hours working as a Chaplain with the Red Cross in the aftermath of the September 11th suicide attacks. He has been active in several social action campaigns – particularly relating to refugee issues and international development – and has served as convenor of a major interfaith dialogue forum in New York. He is married to Josephine who directs two arts-based charities. They have a two sons, Carmi and Harry. His academic interests include Midrash and contemporary Jewish legal responses.

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Dr. Yizhar Hess, Vice Chair of the World Zionist Organization, Executive Vice President, MERCAZ Olami

Following his military service, Yizhar earned a BA in Political Science and Hebrew Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. A member of the Israeli Bar, his law degree is from the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. He holds an MA in Jewish Studies from the Schechter Institute in Jerusalem and his PhD in Sociology and Education from Sussex University in Brighton, England.

Yizhar has a broad range of experience in Jewish communal service. After holding the Deputy Director position at the Shorashim Centre for Jewish Studies, Yizhar served as the Jewish Agency’s community shaliach to Tucson. On his return to Israel, he worked for the Jewish Agency as Director of Partnerships.

Yizhar has professional experience in advertising and journalism. He is a regular contributor to the Israeli press on the subjects of religion and state and is the co-editor of the book, Questions About God, published by Ma’ariv.

Between 2007-2020 Yizhar served as the Executive Director of the Masorti Movement in Israel - part of the worldwide Conservative/Masorti Movement dedicated to a traditional, egalitarian and pluralistic vision of Israel and Judaism. Yizhar represented the Masorti Movement in the negotiations with the Israeli government regarding egalitarian prayer at the Kotel, and he is one of the leading voices in Israel promoting Jewish pluralism.

Yizhar Hess is a 10th generation Jerusalemite. He lives today in Modi'in with his wife Yael, a former colonel in the IDF, and their two children Achiad and Mica.

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Rabbi Cheryl Peretz, Rabbi Cheryl Peretz, Interim Dean, Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and Deputy Director, Heschel Seminary

Since ordination in 2001, Rabbi Cheryl Peretz has served as one of the deans of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, teaching, counseling, advising and programming. In addition to her work at American Jewish University, Rabbi Peretz has served as a pulpit rabbi in synagogues such as Los Angeles’ Sinai Temple, Adat Shalom, and Burbank Temple Emanuel El and has been a High Holiday guest rabbi in synagogues in Florida, California, and Texas. She teaches the broader community through in-home study groups, Adult Education, Talmud classes, and world-wide scholar-in-residence programs.

Rabbi Peretz is a graduate of the double degree program between Barnard College and the Jewish Theological Seminary where she earned degrees in Mathematics and Jewish Philosophy. She also holds a Master’s in Business Administration degree from Baruch College.

Rabbi Peretz is known for creating individually expressive lifecycle rituals, offering interactive and lively teaching, listening compassionately to facilitate insight and meaning in times of transition, and for guiding personal and professional development, integrating corporate principles with spiritual dialogue. She also brings experience from her MBA and years of corporate professional experience in marketing, creating safe space work environments, vision and planning, organizational leadership, personnel supervising, budget and finance, and staff/board development, consulting with both rabbis and congregations to create healthy, productive relationships.

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Dr. Wanda Teplitsky, President of Masorti Europe

Wanda is the current President of Masorti Europe and member of the Executives of Masorti Olami and Masorti Spain. Originally from Buenos Aires, she lives  in Valencia, Spain, where together with other volunteers she founded the  Masorti Community, Aviv.

Wanda is a sociologist and Hebrew teacher and she is currently researching for her PhD dissertation on Jewish life in Medieval Galicia, in north-west Spain. 

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Rabbi Chaim Weiner, Director of the Masorti European Beit Din

Rabbi Chaim Weiner received his smicha [Rabbinic Ordination] from the Schechter Institute of Judaic Studies in Jerusalem. He graduated in 1989, in the second graduating class of the Bet Midrash. He was National Director of NOAM in Israel for three years, (1988-91) before taking up the pulpit at the Edgware Masorti Synagogue (1991-98) in London. He followed Dr. Louis Jacobs as the Rabbi of the New London Synagogue, in London, England. 

Rabbi Chaim Weiner is a graduate of the prestigious Jerusalem Fellows Program of the Mandel School in Jerusalem. As a member of the Va’ad Halacha [Law Committee] of the Masorti Movement in Israel, he published several Teshuvot [Legal Responses]. 

Rabbi Weiner has played a prominent role in the development of the Masorti Movement in UK. He directed the Masorti Teenage Centre in London for 5 years. He played an important role in the NOAM Youth Movement in its early years, and help in establishing the popular NOAM summer camps. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Masorti Bet Din in the United Kingdom, and in its development into the European Masorti Bet Din. He plays a key role in the Assembly of Masorti Synagogues in Great Britain, and is the Masorti Movement representative on cross-communal forums. 

Rabbi Weiner was previously the Director of Masorti Europe. As Av Bet Din (Director) of the European Masorti Bet Din, he oversees the provision of advanced Rabbinic services to European Masorti communities. 

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Rabbi Josh Weiner, Adath Shalom, Paris

Rabbi Josh Weiner grew up in Jerusalem and London, and is currently working as the assistant rabbi at the Adath Shalom synagogue in Paris, and teaching halacha at the Zacharias Frankel rabbinical seminary in Berlin. He also experiments with digital education and podcasts, under the label of ‘58th Century Judaism’s’, and looks for ways to bridge Jewish wisdom and modern challenges.

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