Presenters - A

Website: http://www.bangor.ac.uk/creative_industries/nathan_abrams.php.en

Nathan Abrams teaches Film Studies at Bangor University. He is a regular Limmud presenter and author of Jews & Sex (2008), Caledonian Jews (2009) Norman Podhoretz and Commentary Magazine (2010) and The New Jew in Film: Exploring Jewishness and Judaism in Contemporary Cinema (forthcoming).

Sessions:

• Caledonian Jews
• Jews, Loos and Taboos
• A Grey Zone: Unusual Representations of the Shoah on Film

Organisation: Peres Center for Peace

Yitzhak was one of the fathers of Israel’s international development cooperation program. In the 1950s, he helped pioneer Israel’s settlement of thousands of immigrants in desert lands newly converted to agriculture. He then founded Israel’s agricultural development cooperation department. Today, he manages Arab-Israeli cooperation projects and speaks worldwide on development.

Sessions:

• Can Israel Redeem Africa?

Organisation: Acoustic Café Team

Acoustic Café is Limmud’s perennial favourite open mic session, back for another year. Anyone welcome to take part! Plus Acoustic Lunch, daily lunchtime sessions where you can join in or just relax and enjoy the entertainment. Contact David Hoffman if you want to know more or to book a slot.

Sessions:

• Acoustic Café
• Acoustic Lunch
• Acoustic Café
• Acoustic Lunch
• Acoustic Café
• Acoustic Lunch
• Acoustic Café, Featuring a Limmud Poetry Slam
• Acoustic Lunch
• Acoustic Café

Organisation: COHAV

Gerry Adler is a retired international lawyer (Canada,Israel UK practices). He has presented previously at Limmud Conference and specialises in the legal issues arising from the Arab-Israel conflcit within a historical and political context. He has written extensively on the subject and lectures to non-Jewish groups including university students.

Sessions:

• Historical Roots of the Contemporary Arab-Israeli Conflict

Organisation: Givat Haviva Jewish-Arab Center for Peace, Israel
Website: http://www.givathaviva.org.il/

Journalist, lecturer, informal educator and guide. Originally from Wales, she made aliya 40 years ago and has been a member of Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek since then. She is involved in projects of the Givat Haviva Jewish-Arab Center for Peace for the last 25 years. Lydia is a mother of five, and grandmother of five.

Sessions:

• Dine 'n' Discuss: Either Side of the Divide
• Either Side of the Divide (1 of 3)
• Either Side of the Divide (2 of 3)
• Either Side of the Divide (3 of 3)

Organisation: Leo Baeck College
Website: http://www.scripturalreasoning.org.uk/

Muhammad is Fellow in Islamic Studies at Leo Baeck College, where he teaches rabbis and rabbinical students classical Islamic study of the Quran relevant to Jewish-Muslim relations. His academic research is on comparative Islamic, Rabbinic and Karaite Jewish interpretation of Scripture. He founded the interfaith charity Scriptural Reasoning.

Sessions:

• Scriptural Reasoning
• Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael in the Torah and Quran
• The Quran and Eretz Yisrael

Vetta Alexis is an artist and calligrapher, specialising in Hebrew calligraphy and painted illumination. She has exhibited widely, including at the British Library, the Museum of London, and the Jewish Museum. Vetta teaches Hebrew calligraphy at the London Jewish Cultural Centre, and was at the first Limmud Conference.

Sessions:

• Hebrew Calligraphy (1 of 3)
• Hebrew Letters - an Artistic Exploration.
• Hebrew Calligraphy (2 of 3)
• Hebrew Calligraphy (3 of 3)

Organisation: Jewmongous

NYC's acclaimed comedy song concert Jewmongous is “wickedly humorous” with “lyrics that yield satiric gems” and “part of a new breed of hipster comedy. Singer-songwriter Sean Altman is also known as the founder of the vocal group Rockapella of “Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?” TV fame.

Sessions:

• Jewmongous

Organisation: The Jewish Agency for Israel

Gilad is the community shaliach in Leeds. Born and raised in Jerusalem, he holds his MA in media studies from The Hebrew University. Gilad was a teacher in Giva'at Gonen High School in Jerusalem, and also worked in a public relations company.

Sessions:

• A Prefered Love

Organisation: Tiferet
Website: http://www.tiferet.co.uk/

Daniel Anderson is co-founder of Tiferet, a personal development framework, which is committed to elevating the collective human spirit. He utilises Kabbalistic principles, but in a practical and accessible way, along with Torah-based sources and strategies. He has recently begun the long path towards rabbinical ordination through the Montefiore Endowment.

Sessions:

• The Unity Principle: A Shabbat Meditation
• Human Rights versus Jewish Responsibility
• The Re-awakening of Spirit: A Kabbalistic Response to the Challenges of the 21st Century
• Prayer and the Meditative Experience
• Bringing Heaven Down to Earth: Spirituality Confronts Reality

Hephzibah Anderson has worked as a literary journalist for over 10 years. She was fiction editor at the Daily Mail, covered fiction for the Observer, and reviews for Bloomberg Muse. She can also be heard talking books on BBC Five Live. She is the author of the memoir Chastened.

Sessions:

• Introduction to Life Writing
• Modern Adventures in Old-Fashioned Romance

Organisation: MAKOM
Website: www.makom.haaretz.com www.jphub.org

Yonatan is executive director of MAKOM - the Israel Engagement Network, and of the Jewish Peoplehood HUB. Lecturer and writer in his fields of interest: contemporary Jewry, educational policy-making, experiential education. Born in the UK, he lives in Israel, teaches around the world, serves on various boards including Limmud International, and is former director of UJIA Renewal.

Sessions:

• Your People Shall Be My People – What is the Big Theory of Jewish Peoplehood?
• Am Ehad B’Lev Ehad – One People With One Heart?

Organisation: Jewish Agency For Israel

Alonn Aron is the northern aliyah shaliach, aged 36, married to Avital and father to 5 children. He has lived in Manchester for the last 2 years, and previously lived in the south of Israel, near the Gaza strip. Alonn has been working with youth for more than 20 years and with new immigrants (olim) in the last few years.

Sessions:

• Aliyah is the answer - any questions?
• Why not to make Aliyah

Website: http://www.richardaronowitz.com/

Richard Aronowitz is a poet and novelist. His debut novel, Five Amber Beads, was published by Flambard in 2006 and his follow-up novel, It’s Just The Beating Of My Heart, will be published by Flambard in February 2010.

Sessions:

• Five Amber Beads

Organisation: UJIA JLEC

Anthony currently works as the UJIA Jewish Life Education Centre (JLEC) Youth Leadership Training Coordinator speciallising in leadership and education. Prior to working for UJIA Anthony worked for Habonim Dror as Northern-fieldworker. Anthony qualified in events management, and has managed events including his recent wedding in Israel!

Sessions:

• Protest in Israeli Society (1 of 3)
• Protest - This Time It's Personal (2 of 3)
• Burning Books - other routes in education (1 of 3)
• Protest - Preserving the minority opinion (3 of 3)
• Burning Books: Talking about Tricky Topics (2 of 3)
• Burning Books - Israel (3 of 3)

Organisation: University of Denver and Jewish Mosaic: The Nation
Website: http://www.jewishmosaic.org/

Caryn Aviv is a lecturer in the Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Denver, and Director of Research for Jewish Mosaic: The National Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity.

Sessions:

• Am Ehad B’Lev Ehad – One People With One Heart?
• Torah Queeries: Reading the Bible Through a Bent Lens
• Alternative Jewish Tourism
• Storahtelling's Maven Showcase: Parshat Vayechi
• Why So Few Queer Jews in the Pews? LGBT Inclusion in Synagogue Life
• The Intersection of Israel and LGBT Identity

Organisation: Jewish Agency For Israel

Einav is the head of the Jewish Agency education delegation to the UK and the Federation of Zionist Youth (FZY) shaliach. An officer in the army, Einav had first hand experience of the pressures Israeli soldiers and their families faced. Last year he helped organise ‘walking for Gilad’.

Sessions:

• Return to Sender: The Untold Story of the MIA's