Staff

Larisa Blum
Larisa, Executive Director, has been with Chochmat since May 2006. A former litigator, she has turned her life into an on-going spiritual quest. To this end, she feels blessed to work for Chochmat, which allows her to align her analytical and creative skills with her insatiable curiosity for at once asking and experiencing the timeless question/answer of "what is." She also feels extremely lucky to be able to work towards building community and supporting a space that serves as a milestone for many others on their spiritual journeys. When not in the office, you can find Larisa dancing (sometimes in the office, too).

William A. Turner
Will is our IT Guru, Web Master, Customer Service Specialist, and Jack of all trades. Working since December of 2005, he is quite knowledgable about CHL's history. He is proficient in backpacking, Japanese sword fighting, as well as anything relating to computers or technology (especially video games). Give Chochmat a call today and he'll be glad to help!

Kerrick A. Lucker
Kerrick is our Office Manager. He grew up in the mountainous, chilly land of Florida and moved to Berkeley in 2005 for graduate school. He studies museum education, community-based organizations, and how people build community and identity. He's just (re)learning Jewish spirituality, and appreciates the warm welcome here at Chochmat HaLev.

Melanie Grubman
Melanie is a Maggid in Training and a Rabbi to be. She joins Chochmat as our Programming Director, to plan and manage programs and workshops lasting 4 weeks to two years. If you have a workshop idea or something to teach our community, please contact Melanie.

Amielle Zemach
Amielle is our facilities coordinator, events registrant extraordinaire, meditation garden monitor and sunshine spreader. If you have a question about reserving facilities for your life-cycle events or other gatherings, please email Amielle and she'll be happy to help. Amielle, too, dances at Shabbats.

Sean O'Laoghaire
Sean is our resident building manager with a winning, Irish accent. He can be found in the back of the sanctuary during Shabbat services (with the cool kids), manning the sound-board. He can fix anything, and we mean anything!

Board of Directors (Click here for Bios)

• Maurice Abrahms, Vice President
• Susan Berger, President
• Inette Dishler
• Lainey Feingold
• Jeff Fry
• Nan Gefen
• Dolores Leavitt
• Nancy Newman
• Jon Rosenfield, Secretary
• Grace Schoeniger
• Jim Sinkinson, Treasurer
• Abro Sutker
• Rick Zarlow

Religious Service and Meditation Leaders

Brian Schachter-Brooks
Martin Buber asked, "Can there be a religion of Presence? Not of remembrance or of hope, but of Presence?" Brian dedicates himself to answering this question with his life; imperfect and wavering though his answer may be. Brian lives in North Oakland with wife Lisa and son Eidan. He is certified as a Jewish meditation teacher through Chochmat HaLev and holds a Bachelor of Music Composition from The Eastman School of Music. He has written, taught and performed Jewish spirituality for twenty years; perhaps one day it will be said that he lived It.
Click here to visit Brian's Page.

Cyrise Beatty
Cantor Cyrise Beatty has been joyfully singing her prayers with the Chochmat HaLev community for 7 years. She graduated from Chochmat HaLev’s Teacher Certification Program as a Morah L’Hitbodedut (teacher of Jewish meditation) and received her Master of Arts Degree in Creative Writing/Poetry from San Francisco State University in 2004. Cyrise has been teaching and performing music in the Bay Area and beyond for the past 15 years. She is also founder and director of Living Language Camp, a creative writing camp for girls.

Jeffrey Kessler
Jeffrey Kessler, MA, holds degrees in philosophy, mathematics and spiritual psychology. He is a long-time practitioner and teacher of Tai-Chi Chuan. A graduate of Chochmat HaLev's Jewish Meditation Instructor's Training program and a student of various traditions and psycho-physical systems, he is dedicated to the deepening of Jewish Spiritual practice.

Jonah Sharkey
Jonah Sharkey, a graduate of Chochmat Halev's Jewish Meditation Teachers Certification Program, has been a part of the Chochmat Halev community since the High Holy days of 1998. His Conservative upbringing informs his curiosity in finding the sweetness within our liturgy, and his love of the sweet intricacies of Torah leads him to further explore its application in day to day Jewish life.

Laura Goldman
Laura Goldman, L.C.S.W., is a Psychotherapist, Jewish Spiritual Director, and Jewish Meditation Teacher.  She is a graduate of Chochmat HaLev's Teacher's Certification Program in Meditation, and of the Morei Derekh Training Program in Spiritual Direction.  She iscurrently swimming upstream in the cultural current:  cultivating a contemplative life full of quiet, peace, and a growing relationship with the Unknown and the Unknowable.

Zelig Golden
Zelig Golden is an active member of the Chochmat community and a Maggid in training with Yeshivat Simchat Lev. He facilitates morning prayer and meditation, works to bring earth Torah to the community with events like Sukkot on the Farm, and will begin leading vision quests for the Jewish community this summer. During the day, Zelig is a staff attorney with the Center for Food Safety, where he works to challenge harmful food production technologies such as genetically engineered crops and to promote sustainable alternatives.

Maggid shir' Az
Maggid shir 'Az has been a chant, meditation and service leader at Chochmat HaLev since 2002, and has served the greater East Bay in a spiritual leadership capacity since 2000. She completed Chochmat HaLev's Jewish Meditation Teachers Certification Program in 2004 and received smicha (ordination) as a shamanic maggid from Rabbi Avram Davis in 2007. shir 'Az presently works in community development and is an independent teacher, Jewish shamanic healer and spiritual practice advisor.

Jen Miriam Kantor
Jen Miriam Kantor has a rich and unique background as an early childhood educator, musician, teacher, performer, puppeteer and therapist. She has a passion for Judaism and especially loves to create experiences where people of all ages can celebrate together. Check her out at her website at www.jenmiriam.com.

Musicians & Vocalists

• Artyom Ash
• Ben Bernstein
• Jen Miriam Kantor
• Saul Kaye
• Yari Mander
• Sam Markewich
• Josh Miele
• Nina Perlman
• Naomi Robinson
• Eliyahu Sills
• Bon Singer
• Risa Wallach