Adam Zachary Newton is interim director of Jewish studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He is an expert on modern Jewish thought. He has published a number of books in the areas of Narrative Theory, American Studies, Contemporary Jewish Philosophy, and Comparative Literature. His focus is on modern Jewish thought and literature.

David Nelson is director of the Jewish Studies Program at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. He is author of Judaism, Physics and God: Searching for Sacred Metaphors in a Post-Einstein World (Jewish Lights Pub, 2005).

Richard Golden is director of the Jewish Studies Program at the University of North Texas in Denton.

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.