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Summer Senior Staff

Dvora Goodman - Senior Educator and Coach
Dvora will be supporting the community educators in developing and facilitating Expeditions (at Genesis) and the Artists Beit Midrash (at BIMA). Dvora worked full-time at BIMA and Genesis from 2006 to 2012, when she served as Associate Director of both programs and then as Director of Genesis. Before her full-time work, she spent six summers at Genesis as a community educator.  She holds a Masters degree from Brandeis University in Jewish Communal Service.  In August 2012, Dvora and her family relocated to her hometown of Toronto, where she has been consulting with local synagogues on how to approach Israel in a holistic way in the congregational setting. Dvora is thrilled to be returning to BIMA and Genesis for another incredible summer.  

Rori Picker-Neiss - Shabbat and Jewish Life Coordinator
Rori will be the Shabbat and Jewish Life Coordinator at BIMA and Genesis this summer. In this role, she will be working with the staff and participants to plan and prepare for Shabbat, Tisha B'Av and weekday morning she'arim ("gateways" in Hebrew; used at BIMA and Genesis to refer to morning options that include prayer and/or other group activities). Rori is a student at Yeshivat Maharat, a pioneering institution training Orthodox Jewish women to be spiritual leaders and halakhic (Jewish legal) authorities. In the fall, she will be joining the staff at Bais Abraham Congregation in St. Louis, MO as the new Director of Programming, Education and Community Engagement. Rori previously served as Acting Executive Director for Religions for Peace-USA, Program Coordinator for the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, Assistant Director of Interreligious Affairs for the American Jewish Committee, and Secretariat for the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations. Rori is the North American Representative to the Religions for Peace Global Youth Network, a member of the board of the Young Leadership Council of the International Council of Christians and Jews, a CLAL Rabbis Without Borders student fellow, and co-editor of "InterActive Faith: The Essential Interreligious Community-Building Handbook." She received her Bachelor's degree in in Religious Studies and Political Science from the Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College and has studied at Yeshivat Maharat, the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education and Seton Hall University. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Russel, and daughters, Daria and Susanna.

Golan Ben Chorin - Professional Development Coach
In addition to his role as the Genesis World Religions course instructor, Golan will be serving as the professional development coach for the BIMA and Genesis community educators. At BIMA and Genesis, we invest in our staff as learners because we believe it will positively impact their work with our teens. Each educator engages in an "investigation: - an exploration of an area of educational practice - over the course of the summer. Golan will guide and support the community educators in these projects. You can reach Golan's bio here.