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.

Ernie Cortes Jr., the recipient of a MacArthur “genius” award, is on the executive team of the Industrial Areas Foundation, which engages in community organizing to encourage social change. He is widely known for developing leadership among Latino immigrant communities.

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.”

Jacob J. Staub is director of the Jewish Spiritual Direction Program at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, Pa. He has taught Jewish spiritualism across the country. Rabbi Staub can discuss queer Jewish theology.

Rabbi David Shneyer heads Am Kolel (“an inclusive people”), a Jewish renewal center in Beallsville, Md., and founded Yachad, the Jewish Housing Development Corporation. He is also active in the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, the Montgomery Countryside Alliance and also Rabbis for Human Rights.

Read an essay on how to be a spiritual Jew.

Read an essay on the New Religious Movements website at the University of Virginia, by Timothy Miller of the University of Kansas. Miller examines the 1965 immigration reform and how it changed American religion and paved the way for New Religious Movements and the many “sects” or “cults” inspired by Eastern spirituality.