Rebecca Zimmerman Hornstein
(She/Hers)
Executive Director
Executive Director
Rebecca is an experienced grassroots organizer and political educator with a passion for building movements for justice grounded in Jewish community and history. She has a B.A from Macalester College and rabbinic ordination from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.
Rebecca's previous professional roles include working as the organizer for the North Shore Labor Council (AFL-CIO) where she fostered solidarity among union members to build power for all working class people, and working as T'ruah's rabbinic peer educator. She has been a leader in work to organize the North American Jewish community for immigrant justice, for Palestinian equal rights and against the rising threat of white nationalism. She is an alumnus of the JOIN for Justice Organizing Fellowship. She currently lives in Lynn, Massachusetts with her partner, Jonathon, and puppy, Mishka. Reach Rebecca at rebecca@circleboston.org.
Ali Rice
(She/Hers)
Deputy Director
Deputy Director
Ali Rice is a fundraiser and community organizer working to build interdependent and just community spaces. Over the past eight years, Ali's professional roles included working in grant writing, major gifts, communications, and event planning. She has most recently been at JOIN for Justice, a Jewish community organizing training institute and at Rian Immigrant Center and RefugePoint, both immigration and refugee-focused nonprofits. Ali received her BA in International Relations with a concentration in Human Rights from Connecticut College. She loves matchmaking, braiding Havdalah candles, group singing, hiking slowly, and spending time with friends and family. Reach Ali at ali@circleboston.org.
Sandy Martin
(She/Hers)
Director of Operations
Director of Operations
Sandy has worked for, and volunteered with, youth organizations and community coalitions in the Boston area for more than 30 years. She was the coordinator of the South End/Lower Roxbury Youth Workers' Alliance for more than ten years- an organization which became a model for other neighborhoods across the city.
Sandy's parents both grew up in Jewish Roxbury, and she is happy to be working with Boston's Jewish social justice community. She is also very happy spending time with her granddaughter.
Reach Sandy at 617-566-6281 or by email at sandy@circleboston.org
Meira Soloff
(She/Hers)
Education Director
Education Director
Meira has a B.A. in Anthropology and a minor in Near Eastern and Judaics studies from Brandeis University and a Masters in Teaching Early Childhood Education from The Eliot Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development at Tufts University. She has worked as a teacher in the Boston Public schools and in a variety of out of school settings. Prior to that she worked as an advocate for equitable urban development and displacement prevention in Boston and the surrounding areas. She is also an alumnus of the JOIN class of 2010. During her free time, Meira loves singing circles, biking, and reading.
Reach Meira at 617-566-6281 or by email at meira@circleboston.org
Zohar Berman
(They/Them)
Social Justice and Cultural Organizer
Social Justice and Cultural Organizer
Zohar is a Yiddishist and Diasporist who is passionate about building strong and healthy Diaspora Jewish communities. Born and raised in an interfaith household in New Hampshire, they were part of economic justice organizing efforts from a young age. They received a BA in both Politics and Middle Eastern Studies from Mount Holyoke College, where they focused on social movement studies and examined the linguistics of collective organizing. In college they trained and worked as a peer-to-peer social justice educator and facilitator, and served Mount Holyoke's Jewish Student Union as chair.
From 2018-2019, Zohar learned and worked at the Yiddish Book Center, first as a student in the Steiner Summer Yiddish Program, where they helped to transcribe editions of ILGWU's Yiddish newspaper Gerechtigkeit, and later as an indexer for the Wexler Oral History Project. They served previously as fellow for Repair the World Baltimore, assisting food justice activists to improve food distribution and working alongside Baltimore's Black farmers to ensure that Black communities in Baltimore continued to have access to fresh produce. Zohar most recently worked as assistant project manager for the Princeton Geniza Lab, whose team is dedicated to researching documentary materials primarily in Judeo-Arabic from the Cairo Geniza.
Reach Zohar by email at zohar@circleboston.org
Melissa Sawyer Grair
(They/She)
Communications Manager
Communications Manager
Melissa Sawyer Grair (they/she) is Boston-based Midwesterner who has recently made a career pivot to communications after teaching high school English for six years then web development to adults for three years. She earned a Bachelors in Education and a Masters in Teaching from Kent State University. In addition to their duties at BWC, Melissa freelances as a web developer. When she's not building websites or working with the team at BWC, you can usually find them hanging out with their daughter, Moses. Melissa also enjoys spending time with her nieces, reading, listening to audiobooks, taking care of their plants, playing with their furbabies, and being in nature. Reach Melissa by email at communications@circleboston.org
Sarah Binney
(She/Her)
Youth Education Programming Recruitment and Retention Coordinator
Youth Education Programming Recruitment and Retention Coordinator
Sarah (she/her) is an organizer and educator based in Somerville. She has worked in summer camp and afterschool, and is passionate about out-of-school time as a site for transformative education. She has organized with immigrant justice and anti-war movements, and is excited to be building towards the future of the Jewish left at Shule. When she's not organizing, you can find her swimming in lakes, playing clarinet in a HONK band, and cooking extravagant dinners. Reach Sarah by email at youtheducation@circleboston.org
Derek David
(He/Him)
Music Director, A Besere Velt Yiddish Chorus
Music Director, A Besere Velt Yiddish Chorus
Since 2018, Dr. Derek David has been music director of ‘A Besere Velt’. An accomplished composer, conductor, and music educator based in Boston, Derek’s music has been performed in Europe and throughout the United States. Prior to his work with A Besere Velt, he was choir conductor for the men’s and women’s choirs at Walden School (2015-2017). With degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the New England Conservatory, he is currently Lecturer in Music at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
CIRCLE PLAYTIME, SHULE, & TASC TEACHERS
Franny Alani
(She/They)
Circle Playtime (Pre-Shule)
Circle Playtime (Pre-Shule)
Franny Alani (she/they) is currently a graduate teaching fellow at the Newtowne School, a Reggio Emilia-inspired family cooperative preschool in Cambridge and a master’s student in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Studies and Human Development at Tufts University. Franny was first introduced to the Reggio Emilia philosophy while teaching at a Jewish preschool in Colorado, where she was drawn to the idea of learning as a co-constructed process and to the metaphor of the hundred languages. Franny can also be found engaging in community organizing, enjoying long walks, reading in parks, and swimming in creeks.
Meredith-Wynn Barber
(They/She)
Shule Teacher, Pre-K/Kindergarten
Shule Teacher, Pre-K/Kindergarten
Meredith-Wynn Barber (they/them/hers) is a rabbinical student at Hebrew College and a lover of Yiddish. They have been involved with the BWC for the last five years or so via A Besere Velt chorus, and this will be their third year teaching Kinder. In addition to Yiddish, their academic interests lie in linguistics and Holocaust studies. They found great music and great friendships at the Steiner Summer Yiddish Program at the Yiddish Book Center. While their family is comprised of Swabian German Jews, Meredith-Wynn takes particular interest cycling with Galicjaners from the gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau to the JCC in Kraków annually in Ride for the Living. A bisl Yiddish goes a long way there. Meredith-Wynn loves treating their pittie, Lester, to a swim, roller skating (Lester doesn’t know how yet), and trying to convince herself Veggie Galaxy doesn’t make their tummy hurt.
Lara Brennan
(She/They)
Shule Teacher, Alef (1st Grade)
Shule Teacher, Alef (1st Grade)
Lara Brennan (she/they) is a proud member of BWC, and is excited to be returning for her second year at Shule! During the week she works with students ages 5-12 as the program manager at KidsArts Afterschool and Summer Program in Jamaica Plain. She loves working with elementary age students and is inspired by their wisdom, creativity, and ability to imagine a better world! Lara can also be found reading, exploring grassroots theatre, and singing with A Besere Velt Yiddish Chorus.
Julia Silverman
(She/Her)
Shule Teacher, Beys (2nd Grade)
Shule Teacher, Beys (2nd Grade)
Julia Silverman (she/her) is excited to be teaching at Shule for the first time. After attending a BWC-sponsored event in Burlington this spring, she became interested in learning more about how to contribute to the greater BWC community. Growing up in Boston, her first jobs were as a neighborhood babysitter, camp counselor, and landscaping for the city. During and after earning her Bachelor’s degree in history in Ann Arbor, Michigan, she worked as a library aide for five years, while working part time as a tutor, nursing aide, and in a restaurant. Last year she taught at Temple Hillel B’Nai Torah in West Roxbury. She is grateful to be a part of the education team and work collaboratively with staff and families to lift each student to reach their goals and potential!
Shanie Kalikow
(They/Them)
Shule Teacher, Giml (3rd Grade)
Shule Teacher, Giml (3rd Grade)
Shanie Kalikow (they/them) is thrilled to be a first time Shule teacher, thinking, sharing, and learning with the Giml class about immigrants’ experiences across time and place. A native of the Boston area, Shanie has recently returned after a cross-oceanic journey to Amsterdam where they lived for two years while pursuing Masters’ degrees in Philosophy and Jewish Studies. Shanie’s research has largely focused on ‘heretical’ traditions of speaking truth to power in Yiddish speaking Jewish socialist and anarchist communities of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Shanie believes that learning our history means we can better understand our present, and is excited to do so with the Giml class this year. Shanie is passionate about community organizing, drawing little pictures to get through the day, and listening to music that makes them feel something.
Zachary Leiman
(He/Him)
Shule Teacher, Daled (4th Grade)
Shule Teacher, Daled (4th Grade)
Zachary Leiman (He/Him) is a first-time Shule teacher and a History student in his final year of his degree at Clark University. His academic passions center mainly on Jewish history, and particularly on Jewish social movements and labor politics. Zachary has gained a newer interest in Yiddish language and culture after some visits to the Yiddish Book Center. Beyond academics, Zachary has long been involved in activism as a core part of his Jewish experience and identity, starting at age 13 when he made and sold T-shirts to raise money for the Trevor Project. More recently, he has been involved in political and community organizing, as well as mental health awareness activism. As for the personal, when Zachary isn’t out eating sushi or at home stopping Cannoli, his cat, from eating anything crinkly and plastic, he enjoys regularly getting defeated at local trivia nights.
Asher Kaplan Leba
(He/Him)
Shule Teacher, Hey (5th Grade)
Shule Teacher, Hey (5th Grade)
Asher Kaplan Leba (he/him) is an urban planner, community organizer, writer, and musician from Los Angeles, CA. Asher is excited to share what he’s learned working in public housing, grassroots organizations, legal services nonprofits, Jewish summer camps, and city governments with the Shana Hey students this year! Asher volunteers with several Jewish organizations and communities in the Boston area, and in his free time enjoys reading, writing, playing guitar, going down Wikipedia rabbit holes, and spending time with his siblings and baby niece and nephew. A graduate of Oberlin College and Harvard’s urban planning program, Asher lives in Somerville (just by Lincoln Park) with his partner Noa and their tiny dog named Turtle.
Tess Scheflan
(They/Them)
Shule Teacher, Vov (6th Grade)
Shule Teacher, Vov (6th Grade)
Tess Scheflan (They/Them) is a parent, educator, photographer and activist, living in the United States since 2010. They grew up between Israel and South Africa and studied Photojournalism, Middle Eastern History and Arabic. Tess enjoys teaching in ways that center art, justice and action. Tess also teaches at a Brookline Public school and is studying for their M.Ed. Besides behind a lens, you will mostly find them in their classroom, getting into good trouble with their child Pebble, photographing social movements, climbing trees, playing with friends and swimming. Pebble and Tess live in Jamaica Plain with their dog Bastet and two cats- Hades and Ashmedai.
Mateo Alejandro
(He/Him)
Shule TA, Zayen (7th Grade)
Shule TA, Zayen (7th Grade)
Mateo Alejandro (he/him) is an Indigenous immigrant from Paraguay. This is his 6th year teaching at Shule! He is deeply committed to fostering an accessible and inclusive classroom. His favorite Jewish value is “Tikkun Olam- repairing the world”; which is intertwined with the values of Zayen. He is excited to join Zayen this year as Zayeniks explore their Jewish journeys and build community together. Mateo is a proud JOIN (Jewish Organizing Institute & Network) Fellowship Alumnus. When he is not at Shule, you can often spot him around MA leading and participating in direct action protests for all forms of justice and organizing projects to build a better world. You’ll find him volunteering at an Assisted Senior Living Community running Shabbat/Jewish themed activities or playing with his sweet service dog, Tilly!
Louis Stein
(He/Him)
Shule Teacher, Zayen (7th Grade)
Shule Teacher, Zayen (7th Grade)
Louis Stein (He/Him) is passionate about fostering meaningful spaces for Jewish youth. He has experience working in Jewish communities at Beth El Synagogue in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, as well as at Eisner Camp as a camp counselor. Louis is currently a student at Boston University where he is studying to become a school social worker. In his free time, Louis enjoys watching scary movies, listening to reggaeton, and riding his bike. He lives with his fiancee Evie and his cat Mixie in Cambridge.
Jonah Sidman
(He/They)
Shule Teacher, Music
Yiddish Teacher
Shule Teacher, Music
Yiddish Teacher
Jonah Sidman (He/They) A native of Brooklyn and graduate from Oberlin College, Jonah has been participating in the Boston Workers Circle community for years, coordinating events, making music and studying Yiddish. Jonah now teaches Yiddish to adults and music to Shule students at BWC. Jonah can often be found fiddling for American or Irish folk dances all over the East Coast.
AvirLev
(He/They)
TASC Coordinator
TASC Coordinator
AvirLev (he/they) is a second year rabbinical student at Hebrew College. He has a particular dedication to making the terms "justice" and "Jewish" synonymous, and has a special love for more niche Jewish history and culture. He has previously spent five years in the labor, electoral, and environmental movements as both a professional and an activist. In his personal life, he takes bowling way too seriously, plays a good amount of board games and DnD, and collects jokes (so please share any and all jokes – no matter how bad!).
Celia Fischer
(They/Them)
TASC Teacher
TASC Teacher
Celia Fischer (They/Them) is thrilled to be back for their second year at TASC. They hail from the great Jewish diaspora of Brooklyn, New York. They are a senior creative writing student at Emerson College. In High School, they were a part of the Kehillat Community Group of Beijing. Celia is fascinated with Jewish history, global movements and aims to visit every historical Jewish diaspora community. In their free time, they love to read, do crossword puzzles, and pamper their cat Milo.
YIDDISH TEACHERS
Sasha Berenstein
(She/They)
Yiddish Teacher
Yiddish Teacher
Sasha Berenstein (she/they) is a current participant of the Yiddish Book Center's Yiddish Pedagogy Practicum, a Klezmer musician, and LGBTQ+ inclusivity activist on unceded Duwamish territory in so-called Seattle. She began her work in transgender/queer inclusivity in the Yiddish language with compiling a glossary of Yiddish transgender/nonbinary/gender-neutral terms that can be found on the League for Yiddish's “Words of the Week” page and on Medium, which later became the primary vocabulary source drawn from by the authors of Undzer Mishpokhe: A Queer Yiddish Curriculum Supplement. Since then, Sasha has led related workshops and trainings for inclusivity in Yiddish pedagogy, while continuing Yiddish language instruction centering accessibility and identity for queer, trans, and disabled folks. Sasha is also especially passionate about creating inclusive educational environments for immunocompromised folks since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, adapting Yiddish curricula to online formats to meet the needs of the growing demographic of people who can't safely or reliably attend class in person.
Hinde Burstin
(She/Hers)
Yiddish Teacher
Yiddish Teacher
Hinde Ena Burstin (aka Lererin Hinde) is a native Yiddish speaker and a Yiddish teacher,
writer, researcher and literary translator. She has taught Yiddish and Yiddish literature
courses at countless institutions in Naarm/Melbourne, Warrane/Sydney and New York
including, for over ten years at Monash University, where she was awarded a Faculty
Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning. Hinde is a widely published
Yiddish literature scholar who has presented guest lectures on Yiddish literature in New
York, Boston, LA, Montreal, Paris, Brussels and Cape Town, as well as in Naarm/Melbourne
and Warrane/Sydney.
Abby Howell
(She/Hers)
Yiddish Teacher
Yiddish Teacher
Abby has taught Yiddish classes at the Boston Workers Circle for over a decade. Abby first learned to speak Yiddish as a teenager at the University of Texas. She has a B.A. in linguistics and M.Ed. in education of the Deaf. Her infectious enthusiasm and pedagogical expertise combine to create an exciting, inclusive classroom environment for Yiddish learners of all kinds.
Jonah Sidman
(He/They)
Shule Teacher, Music
Yiddish Teacher
Shule Teacher, Music
Yiddish Teacher
Jonah Sidman (He/They) A native of Brooklyn and graduate from Oberlin College, Jonah has been participating in the Boston Workers Circle community for years, coordinating events, making music and studying Yiddish. Jonah now teaches Yiddish to adults and music to Shule students at BWC. Jonah can often be found fiddling for American or Irish folk dances all over the East Coast.