John Efron is a professor of history and Jewish studies at the University of California-Berkeley. His focus is on the cultural and intellectual history of modern Judaism. He wrote Medicine and the German Jews: A History (Yale University Press, Spring 2001) and The Jews: A History, with Matthias Lehmann and Steven Weitzman (Prentice Hall, 2009), among others.

Arnold M. Eisen is a religion professor at Stanford University in California. He co-wrote the book The Jew Within: Self, Family and Community in America (Indiana University Press, 2000). The book looks at the results of surveys Eisen and his co-author conducted with American Jews. The book states that American Jews are less attached to Israel and […]

Gregory Kaplan is the Anna Smith Fine assistant professor of Judaic studies at Rice University in Houston and faculty advisor for the University of Tennessee Hillel Jewish Student Center. He is an expert on modern Judaism.

Byron L. Sherwin is a professor of Jewish studies at the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in Chicago. He is a renowned Jewish theologian, ethicist, scholar of Jewish philosophy and mysticism.

Michael Fishbane is a professor of Jewish studies at the University of Chicago. His research specialties are Jewish mysticism and modern Jewish thought.

David S. Ariel is president of the Laura and Alvin Siegal College of Judaic Studies in Cleveland. He wrote the book Spiritual Judaism: Restoring Heart and Soul to Jewish Life (Hyperion, 1998).

Rabbi Heather Altman, a Conservative rabbi, is a spiritual director, teacher, yoga instructor and healer based in Chicago.

Rabbi Aryeh Azriel of Temple Israel in Omaha, Neb., a Reform synagogue, leads the Spiritual Working Group on Leadership for Synagogue 3000.

Heena Reiter is director of the Gesher Center for Jewish Spirituality, Meditation and Healing in Charlottesville, Va. The center works to promote “personal and spiritual growth based on teachings and practices from traditional and contemporary Judaism.”