Teachers

Meet the AMAZING TEAM
of TV/TC Midrasha Educators
for the 2011-12 year

Hi there! My name is Isaak, and I am super excited to be teaching for the Midrasha program this year. I am usually described as intensely enthusiastic, big-hearted and curly haired. I am committed to supporting the growth of a healthy, whole world and to healing the wounds of injustice and oppression. My favorite things to do are to talk to people about things they care about, play board games, cook vegan food, and ride my bike while singing really loudly. I grew up in Berkeley with the Aquarian Minyan and Chochmat community, and am learning about what it means to be to Jewish on a daily basis. I can’t wait to share this time and space with you!

Jack recently made aliyah from Israel to the Bay Area. West Philadelphia born and educated (raised in between in Charlotte, NC), he studied human potential in college, listened to his calling and now spends his mornings teaching a life-changing psychology course at an inner-city charter high school, his afternoons working in a community economic development bank, and his evenings building young adult Jewish community at the Moishe House. He is a professional lover, in the v’ahavta sense. Look for a hug.

Noa was born in Israel, raised in the US, and has lived and traveled in many places. She has been an activist for as long as she can remember (she first wrote a petition at the age of five in protest to the mistreatment of the kids at her school by the recess teachers.) She has worked as a community organizer at Progressive Jewish Alliance, supporting her Jewish communities to get involved in Tzedakah (literally translated as “justice”) by standing side by side with low wage immigrant workers to demand minimum wage, restroom breaks on the job, and basic health and safety. Noa believes that the freedom and liberation of each of us is necessary to the freedom and liberation of all of us- and she believes that young people have WAY more power than we are told we have to HEAL ourselves and to make our world more loving, safe, fair, and just. In her free time Noa likes to dance, give awesome haircuts, study expressive arts and somatic therapy in grad school, hang out with her friends, go to protests, write letters, read books about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer magnificence, go to potlucks, and swim in bodies of fresh water.

Also, Noa knows you are miraculous.

Joti Shephi Levy has been loving Midrasha since she was first invited to join three years ago. She enjoys taking students on adventures in the outdoors, singing songs and spending time listening and sharing with teenagers. Midrasha feels like a second home to Joti, and she is committed to helping with the transformation of these teenagers into healthy adults. With a Masters degree in Jewish Education, a Bachelors in Art Education and a full belly of other experiences, Joti has ample qualities to share with her students. During the past year, she has been spending her time farming, milking goats and taking care of chickens all within commuting distance of Midrasha. Before that, she was doing social justice work in a school garden in San Francisco’s Bayview/Hunter’s Point neighborhood. Joti has also spent time frolicking in the woods with Jewish youth at Teva Environmental Education Center and teaching second grade for three years in New York City. She spent six years in Israel and is excited to share her rich Jewish background with these amazing teenagers.