Former Secretary of Education (2005-2009) under President George W. Bush. She was one of the main supporters of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act. She now works at the education consulting firm she founded, Margaret Spellings and Company.

Dr. Douglas Laube is a professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He previously served as chair of the board of Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health and president of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Joey Weisenberg is the creative director of the Hadar Center for Communal Jewish Music. He is a mandolin player who is bringing ancient Jewish nigunim, or wordless rabbinic hymns, back into synagogue music. He was named to Jewish Week’s “36 Under 36: The Next Wave of Jewish Innovators” (scroll down).

Rabbi Melissa Weintraub is a Conservative rabbi and co-founder/co-director of Encounter, a nonprofit that brings together Jewish and Palestinian leaders in an effort to foster better understanding and, eventually, peace. She was named to Jewish Week’s “36 Under 36: The Next Wave of Jewish Innovators.”

Daniel Sieradski is the founder of Jewschool, a blog that covers everything from politics to religion to art from a Jewish perspective. It has 50,000 readers and contributors from 80 countries. He was named to Jewish Week’s “36 Under 36: The Next Wave of Jewish Innovators.”

The Rev. John F. Kavanaugh is a philosophy professor at St. Louis University. He wrote the book Who Counts as Persons? Human Identity and the Ethics of Killing.  

Rabbi Elie Kaunfer is a co-founder of Mechon Hadar: An Institute for Prayer, Personal Growth and Jewish Study, an independent minyan in New York City that has led to a network of similar, postdenominational minyanim across the country. He was named to Jewish Week’s “36 Under 36: The Next Wave of Jewish Innovators.”

Jen Taylor Friedman is one of the few known female Torah scribes in the world. Last year, she became the first female scribe to complete an entire Torah scroll, for the United Hebrew Congregation, a St. Louis Reform synagogue that commissioned it. She is also the creator of Tefillin Barbie, a version of the Mattel icon wearing […]

Sue Fishkoff is the author of The Rebbe’s Army: Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch. She is a frequent contributor to The Jerusalem Post and other Jewish media. She lives in Pacific Grove, Calif. Contact through the form on her website.