Summer Kollel

Dr. R. Jon Kelsen is the Chief Education Officer at Drisha. He previously served as Dean at YCT Rabbinical School and taught Talmud and Pedagogy, and has taught and lectured around the world for nearly two decades.  He earned a doctorate in Education and Jewish Studies from New York University, where he studied as a Wexner Graduate Fellow, and was ordained by Rabbis Daniel Landes and Zalman Nehemiah Goldberg.

Rabbi David Silber is the Founder and Dean of the Drisha Institute. He is a recipient of the Covenant Award, for excellence in innovative Jewish education, and is the author of A Passover Haggadah: Go Forth and Learn (Jewish Publication Society 2011) and For Such a Time as This: Biblical Reflections in the Book of Esther (Koren Publishers 2017). He is also a nationally acclaimed lecturer on the Bible. Rabbi Silber received ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary.

Rabbi Dan Margulies is on the Judaics faculty at the Berman Hebrew Academy in Rockville, MD. He received semikha from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah and from his teacher Rabbi Simcha Krauss, and also studied in the kollel at YU-RIETS. He previously served as the Rabbi of The Riverdale Minyan, as Assistant Rabbi at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, and on the Talmud faculty of the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education. He studied chemical physics and mathematics at Columbia University.

Rabbanit Leora Balinsky is Mashgichah Ruchanit and Gemara instructor at Midreshet Amudim in Jerusalem. She also is currently learning at Yeshivat Drisha and in the Ohr Torah Stone’s International Halacha Scholars Program. Leora is an alumna of Migdal Oz, the Drisha Summer Kollel, and the Center for Modern Torah Leadership’s Summer Beit Midrash, and holds a BA in philosophy and religion from Barnard College and an MSW from Tel Aviv University.

Sara Schatz is the Program Director for the Adult Summer Kollel at the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education. Originally from Teaneck, N.J. and currently a resident of Jerusalem, Sara is an experienced and knowledgeable educator who is passionate about expanding high-level Torah learning opportunities for women. Working in diverse forums, she has taught Gemara, Halacha, Tanach, and Holocaust education, in her positions as adjunct professor at Stern College for Women, educator and coordinator for OU-JLIC Summer Programs, NCSY Chapter Director for Rochester, NY, and tutor for Jewish conversion candidates with the Beth Din of America. She has lectured in numerous communities across the U.S. and Canada and is particularly enthusiastic about teaching Torah in small Jewish communities. Sara is a proud alumnus of Stern College for Women, where she received her B.A. in Judaic Studies and Education, and of Yeshiva University’s Graduate Program in Advanced Talmudic Studies, where she received her M.A. in Biblical and Talmudic Interpretation. In addition to her work at Drisha, Sara serves as a faculty member and program coordinator at Midreshet Torah v’Avoda in Jerusalem and is in the process of completing her M.A. in Holocaust Studies at the University of Haifa.