AOP Incoming Class Fall 2024

Charlie has worked in healthcare information technology for 20 years, focused on user centric design and systems modernization. Outside his day job, he has used his experience to help guide non-profits and synagogues in improving organizational structure and process. He has held multiple lay positions within the Jewish community, from Youth Group President in his teens to Board President of Atlanta’s Congregation Bet Haverim as an adult (and everything in between).  He is a founding board member of the Southern Jewish Research Network for Gender and Sexual Diversity (SOJOURN). Currently, he serves as a religious leader at the Jewish Congregation of Blue Ridge, Georgia where he loves teasing modern relevance out of the wealth of our ancient Jewish tradition.

Baba Lou’s career has spanned the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. He has worked as an attorney, corporate communications executive, political spokesperson, speechwriter, and television news writer, and he has served on several nonprofit boards, including those of Menschwork, the ADL Connecticut Region, and the Jewish Federation of Greater Fairfield County, Connecticut. Additionally, he is a certified yoga teacher (having completed 200 hours training and currently pursuing 500 hours) and is on the faculty of the Merkaz Community High School for Judaic Studies.

As chaplain and community-weaver, Elkah creates safe spaces for prayer, soulful conversation, and play. She works as a chaplain at a small rural hospital and at a Level II Trauma Center. She also serves as Spiritual Leader of Shir HaShalom, a Jewish Renewal community in Bellingham, WA that she co-founded. She loves to integrate meditation into services and to be present to the pastoral needs underlying halachic questions. In these roles and as mom of two daughters, she brings a passion for meeting and honoring people where they’re at, and aspires to lift up this value in Jewish texts. Her BA from Swarthmore College focused on Linguistics, Psychology, and Anthropology.

Bethany Leinweber has been a member, educator and leader at Temple Sinai and in the local Jewish community for many years. She founded and launched the Gan at Temple Sinai preschool and has re-envisioned the religious school “Jquest” program engaging the congregation’s children and teens through a variety of programs and creative curriculum. Bethany earned dual bachelor’s degrees in Jewish Studies and Elementary Education and a master’s degree in Special Education from the University of Miami. She is continuing her Jewish journey as a student rabbi taking classes at the Aleph Ordination Program and by assuming the role of Temple Sinai’s student rabbi. Bethany feels privileged to work alongside Chazzan Abramson and for the opportunity to help lead services as she pursues her studies. Bethany and her husband Josh have three children: Noah, Sage and Alix who are all deeply involved in the Temple Sinai community.

Jennifer Lemberg, PhD, develops and leads professional development programs for middle school, high school, and college educators for the Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights (TOLI). In addition to her work with TOLI, she has taught interdisciplinary seminars at New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study and published essays on Holocaust education, Jewish American literature, graphic memoirs, and television studies. Her co-edited volume, Becoming a Holocaust Educator: Purposeful Pedagogy Through Inquiry, published by Teachers College Press and the National Writing Project, was released in 2021.

Shosh is a community weaver who facilitates pluralistic accessible Jewish ritual and learning. They are supporting the creation of a Jewish Non-Profit in New Orleans and are a community mediator, they previously worked for Avodah and as a guest educator with Kirva and Moishe House. Shosh believes Jewish technology is one approach to the divine and that all humans are deserving of connection. They live in Bulbancha, colonized name New Orleans, and are humbled by the radical justice movements of the South. They co-create home with an intentional community and enjoy walking outside under the live Oaks with their dog, Nachman.

Amy splits her time between her two great loves, Jewish learning and communal singing. She is the Director of Lifelong Learning and Music at Congregation Or Hadash, a Conservative synagogue in Sandy Springs, GA, where she gets to spend her days discussing questions that have no straightforward answers and surrounding herself with the beautiful sound of her davening congregation. She is co-host of the podcast BibleWorm, a weekly interfaith discussion of biblical text that is both academically informed and interested in the resonance of the text with our lives today. In her spare time, she makes up 1/3 of the Atlanta-based vocal trio The Mamalehs, which leads services and sings at Jewish and interfaith gatherings. Amy holds a PhD in Religion (Hebrew Bible) from Emory University, as well as degrees from Harvard Divinity School and Rice University. She makes her home with her husband, Will Robertson, and two wonderful teenagers who appreciate neither her impossible questions nor her propensity to break into Jewish song.

Audra brings her background in the performing arts and her experience as a doula to her rabbinic studies pursuit! Originally from the east-coast, Audra has cultivated roots both in NYC and Los Angeles by serving communities with cantorial soloist appearances as her drag person “Klaus”, leading high holiday services, and hosting her recurring event “Cool Shabbat”. She has taught workshops for doula trainings on the importance of ritual in direct care work and applies this ethos to her own work as a postpartum and birth doula. Audra lives with her fiancé Sadie and cat Django in LA.

Laurie is the cantorial soloist at the Congregation of Reform Judaism, Orlando, Florida, where she leads worship services, manages the Bar/Bat Mitzvah program, works with students in the religious school, as well as supports her Jewish community. She has led High Holiday and Shabbat services, tutored B’nai Mitzvah students, and led and co-led lifecycle events. She has served on several boards within the Jacksonville Jewish community and has held many leadership roles. She has been involved in Jewish education for over 20 years and considers herself to be a life-long learner. Laurie worked as a Special Education teacher for Duval County Hospital Homebound and locations such as the Wolfson Children’s Hospital and the Ronald McDonald House. Laurie is both a wife and a mother with two wonderful boys. People are drawn to Laurie’s warm and friendly personality.