Dina Najman is rosh kehillah, or “head of the community,” at Kehilat Orach Eliezer Orthodox synagogue in Manhattan, N.Y. She was given the position even though she is not an ordained rabbi; Orthodox Judaism does not ordain female rabbis. Read an Aug. 21, 2006, New York Times story about her.

Tamara Cohn Eskenazi is co-editor of The Torah: A Women’s Commentary and a professor of Bible at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles.

Mary Jo Iozzio is professor of theology and philosophy at Barry University in Miami Shores, Fla. She edited Considering Religious Traditions in Bioethics: Christian and Jewish Voices (University of Scranton Press, 2000).

Naomi Sheindel Seidman is a professor of Jewish culture at Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif. She has written about Judaism and gender and Judaism and sexuality and is an expert in queer studies.

Rabbi Mike Comins is the founder of TorahTrek, an organization that connects Jewish spirituality to outdoor adventures. He is the author of A Wild Faith: Jewish Ways Into Wilderness, Wilderness Ways Into Judaism. He lives in Los Angeles. Contact him through the form on TorahTrek’s website.

Steven Jacobs is a professor of religious studies and holds the Aaron Aronov Chair of Judaic Studies at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. He can comment on altruism as a scholar of modern Jewish thought and from a post-Holocaust perspective.

Barbara Darling-Smith is an assistant professor of religion at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. She teaches a course on religion and sexuality and is interested in sexuality and gender within Judaism and Christianity.

Emily North is pastor of Shalom Mennonite Congregation in Harrisonburg, Va. She taught a class with Duane Beck, pastor of Raleigh Mennonite Church in Raleigh, N.C., called “Sex and the Pulpit” during a leadership training seminar for Mennonite clergy at Eastern Mennonite Seminary in Harrisonburg.

Emily North is pastor of Shalom Mennonite Congregation in Harrisonburg, Va. She taught a class with Duane Beck, pastor of Raleigh Mennonite Church in Raleigh, N.C., Together, called “Sex and the Pulpit” during a leadership training seminar for Mennonite clergy at Eastern Mennonite Seminary in Harrisonburg.