Jewish Learning for Everyone

I created Mensch Academy as a reimagined B’nai Mitzvah experience for teens and their parents. It’s built around one big question: what does it mean to become a mensch? Drawing on Jewish wisdom, positive psychology, and honest conversation, we explore character, courage, justice, and gratitude—alongside the practical and spiritual work of preparing for the bimah. The program helps families grow together and gives young people tools for becoming thoughtful, kind, and grounded Jewish adults. We developed this program with multiple stakeholders through a Human Centered Design process I learned through a fellowship with Upstart.

At HEA, I taught the Shalom Hartman Institute’s iEngage Israel curriculum, helping adults and young adults explore the meaning of Jewish peoplehood and the ethical challenges of sovereignty. Following the attacks of October 7, 2023, I helped organize a community series featuring speakers from Friends of the IDF, IAC, JFNA, and JEWISHcolorado, including Israeli survivors and first responders. My goal in all this work is to create learning spaces that deepen connection to Israel while holding space for courage, empathy, and honest conversation.

I love teaching in ways that bring Jewish learning off the page and into people’s lives. In 2019, I helped lead an outdoor Passover seder in the red rock canyons near Moab, Utah—an immersive experience that connected 18 families to the Exodus story through nature, music, and community. More recently, after training with the Jewish Studio Project, I led a Tisha B’Av workshop where we studied texts about loss and then created artistic “boxes for grief.” Whether in the wilderness or the classroom, I try to help learners encounter Torah with their hands, hearts, and imagination.