Presenters - K

Deborah works as the Teaching Fellow in Judaism at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) in 2008-09, a lecturer in Bible at Leo Baeck College and as a rabbi at Southgate and District Reform Synagogue. She is working on a PhD in Bible at the University of Sheffield.

Sessions:

• The Future is Female
• Torah Commentary as a Vehicle for Social Change

Organisation: New Jewish Thought
Website: http://www.newjewishthought.org/

Keith Kahn-Harris is a sociologist based at the centre for urban and community research, Goldsmiths College. He is currently co-writing a book on Jewish communal leadership in the UK since 1990. He is the convenor of New Jewish Thought - an organisation seeking to develop dialogue within Anglo-Jewry.

Sessions:

• Arguing about Israel: Is There Another Way?
• How Secure is Anglo-Jewry?

Organisation: Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religio

Jason Kalman is assistant professor of classical Hebrew text and interpretation at the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Insitute of Religion (Cincinnati, USA) and a research fellow at the University of the Free State (Bloemfontein, South Africa). He specialises in the history of Jewish biblical interpretation.

Sessions:

• A Tree Uprooted: Reading the Book of Job After the Holocaust
• King David: Messiah or Mob Boss?
• Suffering is All in the Mind: The Medieval Philosophers and Mystics Interpret the
• Tell Me Text
• There is No Suffering without Sin: The Rabbis Interpret the Book of Job

Organisation: Israel Religious Action Center
Website: http://www.irac.org/

Gilad is an associate director of the Israel Religious Action Center. He is responsible for guiding the public policy, social action and legal work of the IMPJ. He works as IRAC’s lobbyist in tracking legislation in the Knesset, represents the interests of Progressive Judaism in Knesset committee meetings, in local government, and the Israel Supreme Court.

Sessions:

• Chanukah and Christmas, Hillel and Shamai, Particularism and Universalism vs. Chanukiah Candles
• From Isaac to Isaac - Revisiting the Story of Isaac’s Life
• Who is a Jew?
• Writing a Constitution in Israel – An overview of the State of Israel’s Basic Principles

Organisation: Jewish Historical Museum Amsterdam

Petra Katzenstein is manager of the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam,where she leads the educational department. She has also served as a shlicha tsiboer in the Liberal Congregation 'Gelderland' for more than 20 years. Petra is in 'shaliach tsibur- training' at the Levisson Institute (Rabbi David Lilienthal and Professor Eli Schleiffer).

Sessions:

• The Jewish Historical Museum for 'Children' (from 4 to 120!)

Organisation: Liberal Judaism
Website: http://www.liberaljudaism.org/tent

Liberal Judaism’s young adult worker, Avivit Katzil runs UK-wide 'tent' events, including Shabbat services, residential programmes and cultural activities. She previously trained at Reidman International College for Complementary Medicine and worked as a Shiatsu Therapist for seven years in Israel, America and London, offering individual treatments and group workshops.

Sessions:

• A Shiatsu Workshop: Nefesh Bri'ah b'Guf Bari
• Borrowing the Sheitel - Cross-Dressing in Judaism
• Visions of LGBT Jewish Life: What Can we Learn from the US?

Organisation: Jewish Agency

Warren is the Rav Shaliach of Bnei Akiva. He studied at Yeshivat HaKibbutz HaDati and received Semicha from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. He holds a masters degree in Jewish history. Warren serves as a Rabbi in the IDF and is active in Tzohar. He is married with four children.

Sessions:

• The Darker Side of Jacob: Forefather or Magician
• When and Where was the Torah Given?

Organisation: London School of Jewish Studies
Website: http://www.lsjs.ac.uk/

Maureen is Head of Educational Programming at the London School of Jewish Studies. She is a UJIA Ashdown Fellow, is currently doing an MA in Jewish Education at Kings College London and is very proud to have been involved with Limmud since the beginning.

Sessions:

• A Guilty Diaspora? (1 of 4)
• A Guilty Diaspora? (2 of 4)
• A Guilty Diaspora? (3 of 4)
• A Guilty Diaspora? (4 of 4)
• A Woman Loved, A Woman Scorned: The Story of Michal
• I Thought I Could Change The World
• Singed Eyelashes: The Extraordinary Story of Jewish Women Partisans

Brian Klug is a senior research fellow in philosophy, St. Benet's Hall, Oxford and honorary fellow at the Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations at Southampton University. He is an associate editor of Patterns of Prejudice as well as a writer, lecturer and broadcaster on subjects of Jewish interest, including race, antisemitism, identity and Zionism.

Sessions:

• Anti-Zionism in the Jewish East End, 1890-1948
• Next Year Where? Thinking About the Jewish Future
• Taking Offence on Religious Grounds

Tony Klug has written widely on the Arab-Israeli conflict for 40 years and advocated the two-state solution in the early 1970s. Authored the recent acclaimed Fabian pamphlet 'How peace broke out in the Middle East'. Tony is vice-chair of the Arab-Jewish Forum and special advisor on Middle East to Oxford Research Group. Prior to that, he was a senior official at Amnesty International.

Sessions:

• Is it Too Late for the Two-State Solution?

Daniella Kolodny is a Conservative rabbi on active duty in the US Navy bringing Yiddishkeit to the fleet. Daniella came on active duty when she learned that most Jewish sailors did not have a contact with a rabbi while in the Navy. DISCLAIMER: Daniella Kolodny does not represent the US Navy.

Sessions:

• 'When you take the field against your enemies…'
• The Future is Female
• The Omnipresent Grape: Origins of Wine in Religious Celebration

Ashira Konigsburg is a graduating rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. She currently works as the Secretary to the Conservative movement’s committee on Jewish law and standards. She is also a certified pilot and is excited to be attending Limmud Conference for the third time.

Sessions:

• Violence, Misogyny and Sex: The Seamy Side of the Book of Esther

Organisation: Emory University
Website: http://www.jewsandothers.com/

Melvin is an American professor (non-practicing MD, anthropology PhD), avidly pro-Israel, and a lapsed orthodox Jew. He was long a single father of three, now grown. His nine books include 'Unsettled: An Anthropology of the Jews', and 'The Jewish Body' (forthcoming in the Nextbook/Shocken “Jewish Encounters” series).

Sessions:

• Avraham Sutzkever (3 of 4)
• Tell Me Text
• The Jewish Body: An Anthropological View (4 of 4)
• Unsettled: An Anthropology of the Jews: Ancient Times (1 of 4)
• Unsettled: An Anthropology of the Jews: Non-Ashkenazi Cultures (2 of 4)

Admiel Kossman holds a Ph.D. in Talmud from Bar-Ilan University. His academic research deals with Judaism, gender and spirituality. Kosman is the academic director of Abraham Geiger College, and is a professor at the School of Jewish Studies at Potsdam University, Germany. He has published eight poetry books.

Sessions:

• Calling Names
• Feminine Spirituality in the Midrash
• Love Actually: Rabbi Akivah And Rachel
• The Jewish Body and New Theology

Organisation: Fair Play Campaign Group

Arieh is director of the fair play campaign group (FPCG), the Jewish community's vehicle against boycotts of Israel and other anti-Israel campaigns. FPCG coordinates Jewish and pro-Israel organisations, and supports grassroots campaign groups. Arieh worked on the stop the boycott campaign and other projects to support Israel in Britain.

Sessions:

• Boycotts of Israel
• How To Be a Political Activist

Organisation: Initiative for Islamic Studes
Website: http://www.halimakrausen.com/

Halima Krausen is a Muslim theologian based in Hamburg, Germany. She teaches theology and law at universities, colleges, and in Muslim study circles and is involved in various interfaith projects in Germany, Britain, the Middle East and America.

Sessions:

• A Muslim's Experience of Yom Kippur
• Friendship Across the Borders
• Pathways in the Garden: Muslim and Jewish Ways of Reading Sacred Texts
• Qur'anic Perspectives on the Torah

Organisation: Bar Ilan University
Website: http://www.jameskugel.com/

James Kugel is a Starr professor of Bible at Harvard University (ret.). He now teaches at Bar Ilan University in Israel and specializes in Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient biblical interpretation. His books include: 'The Idea of Biblical Poetry', 'In Potiphar's House', 'On Being a Jew', 'The God of Old',' How to Read the Bible'.

Sessions:

• The Bible's Most Ancient Interpreters
• The Dead Sea Scrolls on the Near-Sacrifice of Isaac (The Akedah)
• The Talk Show With … (1 of 4)
• What Have They Done to the Torah? (1 of 2)
• What Have They Done to the Torah? (2 of 2)