Past Shabbat With 10 Strangers Hosts
+ David Shyovitz
March 2013
David Shyovitz is an assistant professor in the NU History department, where he teaches courses on medieval history and Jewish history. His research interests include medieval attitudes toward nature and the human body, the history of monstrosity, and Jewish-Christian and Jewish-Islamic relation. Before coming to NU in 2010, he completed his BA and Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania and spent several years living and studying in Israel. He lives with his wife, Adina, and their three children in Evanston.
+ Eli Rekhess
May 2013
Professor Rekhess (Ph.D. Tel-Aviv University) is one of Israel’s leading experts on the Arab minority in Israel, Jewish-Arab relations, Palestinian politics, and the Islamic resurgence in the West Bank and Gaza. He published extensively on these topics. A regular public lecturer and television commentator on Arab issues in Israel and the Middle East. He served as a strategic advisor to Ehud Barak during his election campaign (1999) and as an advisor to the Ministerial committee on the Arabs in Israel (1999-2000). He is presently the Visiting Crown Chair in Middle East Studies at Northwestern University and co-chair of its Middle East Forum. He teaches at Northwestern’s History Department. Professor Rekhess is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle East Studies, at Tel-Aviv University. He headed Tel-Aviv University’s Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation (1995-2010).
+ Gail Berger
November 2013
Professor Berger has been at Northwestern for 12 years, teaching undergrads and graduate students in the Kellogg School of Management, McCormick School of Engineering, and the School of Education and Social Policy. After receiving her doctorate in Management and Organizations from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, she consulted to small firms and Fortune 500 companies in the areas of executive assessments, leadership development, and teambuilding. She and her family live in the neighborhood often referred to as Skevanston (Skokie/Evanston).
+ Robin Soffer & Hilarie Lieb
November 2013
Robin Soffer is a lecturer in the BIP program, teaching Accounting and Business Finance. Robin attended the Kellogg School of Management for her MBA and then worked in industry before becoming a lecturer at NU. Robin's husband, Lenny Goldman, is a professor at Booth Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago. He also attended Kellogg for his MBA.
Hilarie Lieb is a lecturer for the Economics Department. She is a labor economist with a particular interest in gender issues. She attended Northwestern for her Ph.D. in Economics.
+ John & Amy Lowenstein
May 2013 • October 2013 • February 2014
Amy Lowenstein has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and John has a JD from the Northwestern University School of Law. Professionally, for most of his adult life, John was COO of Sportmart, Inc., a 70-store sporting goods chain that was sold in 1999 and is now called The Sports Authority. He was also a licensed professional trader and two years ago changed careers to be a Jewish communal professional to pursue his passion of building Jewish community. He is currently VP of Campus Affairs at the Jewish Federation. Before becoming a Jewish professional, John was a long serving member on the board of Jewish Federation, Midwest Chair of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, and very active in multiple day schools. Amy has also been active in the Federation and day schools.
+ Larry Sklar
November 2013 • May 2014
Larry Sklar has worked in the Office for Research at NU for 19 years. He and his wife, Cheryl, are active in a Conservative congregation in Skokie and volunteer with CHUSY. Both have fond memories of their participation in Hillel while they were in college. Their son, Aaron, is a junior at Indiana Univ.
+ Laurie Zoloth
March 2013
Laurie Zoloth teaches ethics in the Department of Religious Studies, and is on the Jewish Studies, Brady Ethics & Civic Life, and Medical Humanities and Bioethics faculties in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and Feinberg School of Medicine. Her research is at the junction of religion and emerging science. She is President-Elect of the American Academy of Religion. She has lived in Evanston with her family for a decade and she serves on the City of Evanston Environment Board.
+ Claire Sufrin & Michael Simon
March 2013 • May 2013 • March 2014
Claire Sufrin is a professor of Religious Studies and Jewish Studies at Northwestern and a great cook. Michael Simon is Executive Director of NU Hillel. They have a 2-year-old, Jacob, who loves trucks, books, and blocks. His favorite Sesame Street characters are Elmo and Cookie Monster.
+ Rick & Barbra Silverman
May 2013 • May 2014
Professor Richard Silverman received his B.S. degree in chemistry from Pennsylvania State University in 1968 and his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Harvard University in 1974. After two years as a NIH postdoctoral fellow in biochemistry at Brandeis University, he joined the chemistry faculty at Northwestern. In 1986 he became Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Cell Biology. In 2001 he was named the Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence, and since 2004 he has been the John Evans Professor of Chemistry. His research can be summarized as investigations of the molecular mechanisms of action, rational design, and syntheses of potential medicinal agents. Professor Silverman has published over 300 research articles, holds 48 domestic and foreign patents, and has written four books (The Organic Chemistry of Drug Design and Drug Action translated into German and Chinese). He is the inventor of Lyrica™, a drug marketed by Pfizer since 2005 for epilepsy, neuropathic pain, and fibromyalgia; currently he has completed Phase I clinical trials of another drug for infantile spasms.
+ Rifka Cook
June 2013 • January 2014
Born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, Rifka Cook completed her high school education in Caracas, and proceeded to pursue her first BA degree, Hebrew teaching, in Israel. Coming back to Venezuela, Rifka completed her BA in Spanish Language and Literature, then her M.Cs. in Linguistics. In 2010 she attended three courses concerning the Sephardic language at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Rifka currently teaches first and second-year Spanish and has developed a few computer projects for Spanish 101 and 115. In addition, Rifka is a Faculty Affiliate of the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities in 2010-2011, a faculty fellow at Shepard Residence College and a member of the Language Proficiency Committee (for Spanish language). Her research interests include the Judeo-Español language, the influence of Hebrew on Spanish, teaching and learning styles, and the use of clickers and other technology tools in the foreign language classroom.
+ Sandy Goldberg
February 2013 • February 2014
Professor Goldberg has been teaching at Northwestern for 6 years, and has been Chair of the Philosophy Department for the past 5 years and he also serves on the Hillel Board of Directors. Before coming to Northwestern, Professor Goldberg taught at the University of Kentucky for 8 years, and 4 years at Grinnell College in Iowa. He lives in Evanston with wife Judy and their three children.
+ Stef Groner
February 2014
Stef Groner graduated from the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications in 2013 and is now working as a technology strategy consultant. She lives in Lakeview, and spends work weeks in St. Louis. She spent the last year traveling to eight countries and celebrating Shabbat in all of them!
+ Rachel Schwartz
May 2014
Rachel Schwartz is a New York City native and graduate of the class of 2013. At Northwestern, she studies philosophy and psychology and was in the Brady Scholars Program for Ethics and Civic life, a scholars program devoted to studying ethics and engaging productively with the broader community. Other extracurricular activities include Hillel Exec, ShireiNU and NUListens, among others. She participated in the NU Public Interest Program fellowship, working for Interfaith Youth Core, a nonprofit whose mission is to make interfaith cooperation a social norm in society by promoting collaborative community service work on college campuses.
+ Benjamin Singer
May 2014
Benjamin Singer graduated from Northwestern in 2010 with majors in Radio/TV/Film and Political Science. As a student, he directed documentaries, participated in the Northwestern University Dance Marathon as the emcee, and started a Jewish environmental group. Some of the jobs he has had after graduating include managing PR, communications, and rebranding for a homelessness non-profit; fundraising for U.S. Senate campaigns, and running campaign finance reform campaigns for Common Cause Illinois. He currently lives in Chicago and enjoys biking, eating plants, dancing, and playing frisbee, though not always at the same time.
+ Aaron Zelikovich & Brian Lasman
May 2014
Brian Lasman is an undergraduate planning to graduate in 2015 with a Bachelor's of Science in Social Policy. Outside the classroom, Brian spends most his time drinking coffee and listening to Miley Cyrus at Starbucks, Unicorn Cafe or Hillel. An avid fan of the television show Survivor, Brian can list the the top 10 contestants on all 28 seasons of the show (in order) and one day hopes to use his ability to memorize names of strangers for good!
Aaron Simon Zelikovich is a Bachelors of Arts candidate at Northwestern University. A student of biology, religious studies, and the world, Aaron has a passion for taking midterms and looks forward to completing his 12th and final Finals Week this spring. In his spare time, Aaron enjoys making a fool of himself at Zumba, yelling really loudly and promising his roommate that he will make him Challah French Toast for breakfast but not waking up in time to do so. Aaron also loves to cook and makes a mean guac that will be featured in an upcoming issue of Spoon Magazine.