Maker Kollel - Cohort 2 - 5780
Raizy Lichtenstein
Senior Fellow
Raizy has taught Judaic Studies and English Literature in a wide variety of educational settings. She holds a master’s degree in English Literature from the Hebrew University. In addition to serving as the Atiq Maker Kollel Senior Fellow, Raizy currently works as a Jewish educator at Edah and Kevah.
Liam Ze’ev O’Connor
Liam is an artist and educator based in Alameda & Oakland, CA. Liam received a BA in Sculpture from Lewis & Clark College and a MFA in Sculpture + Expanded Practice from The Ohio State University. Through sculpture, video, and photo-based installation, Liam’s work explores architecture and the complexity of American-Jewish identity. Liam is an educator at Oakland School for the Arts, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, and the Kitchen.
Tom wachs
Tom was born in San Francisco, raised in Mill Valley, and has lived most of his life in the Bay Area. Growing up he was fortunate to have as his backyard the rolling hills, steep ravines, and rocky coast of Marin County. He studied art at UC Davis and Berkeley where he graduated with a BA in Art. Photography and drawing have been continuous threads of activity. Tom worked as a freelance photographer for many years, and had a second career of teaching educational technology in elementary and middle school grades. In the last 3-4 years themes and motifs from Zohar studies have begun, for the first time, to inform his art work and are generating a rich vein of inquiry.
Anna ostow
Anna is a facilitator and lifelong learner from Massachusetts who has made her home on Ohlone land/the East Bay for 10 years. She cares about being silly, making space for grief, relishing the complexities of life, and deep connections.
Jane Simon
Jane is an early childhood educator originally hailing from the East Coast. She received her undergraduate degree from Sarah Lawrence College and a Masters in Education from SUNY Buffalo. She has taught at the Lab Schools at Sarah Lawrence College, Stanford University and at Mills College. In her position as Head Teacher at these schools she has been privileged to guide and support learning journeys for both children and adults. Jane is currently a mentor in new SF Bay area JECELI Program http://jeceli.org. She is thrilled to be in Jewish education, aligning her evolving Jewish learning and identity with her professional work. Opportunities for expression through art and creating are core to Jane’s belief of learning for both children and adults. She has a particular interest in textiles, photography and our relationships to sacred objects, and believes that Judaism that can be transformative, reparative and generative.
Ariel Wolgel
Ariel works as Resource and Support coordinator for Hasidah where she provides support to people in the Jewish community that are experiencing family building struggles. Ariel is a graduate of the Pardes Educators Program in Jerusalem and holds a MA in Jewish Education from Hebrew College in Boston. Prior to moving to the Bay Area in 2016, Ariel worked as a Jewish educator for 7 years at the Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit. Ariel lives in Berkeley with her husband, Aron, and their twins, Tzali and Maayan. She enjoys the beautiful Bay Area scenery, especially from the seat of her bicycle or from behind the lens of a camera.
Andrea Nemerson
Andrea is a writer, educator, maker, and maker-educator who mostly identifies, these days, as a Jewish mother. She has taught and trained volunteers at San Francisco Sex Information and other community organizations, and for many years wrote a popular info and advice column published in the San Francisco Bay Guardian and other weekly papers. She also researched, designed, and built costumes and props for a variety of Bay Area theaters. She never stopped designing and sewing, and is particularly interested in making useful and ritual household objects. She made her own chuppah, makes and decorates a sukkah every year, and learned to embroider so she could make tallitot for her children's bat and bar mitzvah last summer. In recent years, she has developed and taught re-making and reuse projects at the Maker Faire and associated events and was the substitute art teacher and costume designer/design teacher at Tehiyah Day School. She’s always searching for meaningful Jewish connection and community, she attends Creative Commentary and other sessions at the Jewish Studio Project and other Jewish community events, is teaching herself (finally!) to read Hebrew, and explores Jewish craft and cooking traditions. She lives in Oakland with her husband, dog, twin teens Lilah and Avi, and an untidy organic garden, where she is always trying to get her etrog tree to hold onto its fruit long enough to ripen.
Naama Sadan
Naama was born and raised in the old city of Jerusalem. She has taught in Beit Midrash programs at the University of Haifa, Oranim College and at the Hebrew University as well as teaching and developing programs in geography, urban planning and sustainability to high school students and teachers in Jerusalem. She is a PhD student in Urban Policy and Environmental Education at the Hebrew University, currently, a visiting student scholar at UC Berkeley.
Andréa Guerra
Andréa is currently living in the space where Jewish educator and maker/artist overlap and loving it. She is the art specialist at Cong. Beth El (Berkeley) working with K-5, runs the Maker Space at Cong. Sha’ar Zahav (also K-5), and teaches K/1 and Beginning Hebrew at Temple Sinai. She juggles the needs of life with a deep need to work in the studio.