Toshe Cecev is a Macedonian native, born and raised in Veles. Currently, he is an IT student, and is in his third year at The Saints Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje. He is a history enthusiast, and is an admin and lead writer at About-History. In his spare time, he can be found swimming or watching historical documentaries. You can contact him at
admin@about-history.com.

Talia Lavin is a writer and researcher based in Brooklyn. She loves dogs, cats, and men but owns none of the above.

Lisa Rickey is Archivist / Collections Manager at Special Collections and Archives, Wright State University Libraries, Dayton, Ohio. She was previously Archivist for Digital Initiatives and Outreach at WSU SCA and Reference Librarian / Archivist in the Local History Room at the Dayton Metro Library. Lisa has a Master of Arts in Public History from Wright State University and an MLIS from Wayne State University. She has been interested in genealogy, family history, and local history research for over 20 years. You can find her on Twitter at @lisarickey.

Angela Himsel’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Jewish Week, Forward, Lilith, and elsewhere. Her column “Angetevka” on Zeek.net won two American Jewish Press Association Awards. Angela holds a BA from Indiana University, which included two years at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and an MFA from The City College of New York.

She grew up the seventh of eleven children in rural southern Indiana in a fundamentalist, doomsday, Christian faith. She converted to Judaism and lives in New York City. Her 2018 memoir,A River Could Be a Tree, traces that journey.

Caitlin Wolper is a Brooklyn-based writer and poet whose first chapbook, Ordering Coffee in Tel Aviv, was recently released by Finishing Line Press. A graduate of Penn State's BA/MA in English, her work has previously appeared in Ghost City Review, Longleaf Review, Yes Poetry, and more. Also a journalist, she has bylines in Rolling Stone, Slate, Teen Vogue, MTV News, and Brooklyn Magazine, among others. You can catch her stray observations at @CaitlinWolper.

Dr. Lydia Yaitsky Kertz recently joined the SUNY Geneseo English Department as a Visiting Assistant Professor. She received a Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and served as a visiting postdoctoral fellow at Fordham University’s Center for Medieval Studies. She comes to Geneseo after having taught in the Writing Department at Montclair State University and in the English and Comparative Literature Department at Columbia University. Her research and teaching interests include medieval literature and material culture, romance genre, book history, and medieval visual literacy. Her recent essays have been published in Word & Image: A Journal of Verbal/Visual Enquiry and Journal of the Early Book Society. At Geneseo, Dr. Kertz teaches upper level seminars on early literatures and cultures such as the Global Middle Ages and introductory level seminars in the Humanities Core Program.

Ruth Zakarin spent over 20 years working with survivors of domestic and sexual violence, as well as human trafficking. In May of 2019, Ruth became the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence, which includes over 90 member organizations working in collaboration to address gun violence in our communities. Ruth has particular interest in raising awareness about the intersection of domestic violence and guns, and in engaging youth voices to shape the conversation about community violence. She is passionate about prevention, community organizing, knitting, and coffee. She is the very proud mom of two fabulous teenagers, who are fast developing into our next generation of leaders.

Rabbi Claudia Kreiman is a rabbi at Temple Beth Zion (TBZ) in Brookline, MA. She grew up in Santiago, Chile. In 1994, Rav Claudia’s mother, Susy Wolynski Kreiman, was killed in the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) bombing in Buenos Aires. Rav Claudia moved to Israel in 1996, received rabbinic ordination, and has since energized TBZ’s prayer through the addition of song and music, drawing members and visitors alike to Jewish prayer. Rav Claudia is married to Rabbi Ebn Leader, who is on the faculty of the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College. They have two daughters, Alma and Ariel.

Rachael is originally from the Nutmeg State and has done stints in Newark, DE, Washington, DC, and Portsmouth, NH. She is an alumna of University of Delaware where she received a BA in Agriculture and Communication. She went on to attend George Washington University where she received a MA in Strategic Public Relations. Rachael is the Director of Political Engagement at JALSA Impact, a newly formed 501(c)(4) organization, which harnesses the power of the progressive Jewish community to make electoral change. In her spare time, she can be found taking bachata classes or looking for inspirational events in and around Central Square. You can find her on Twitter at @redubinsky & @qweenofcamb.

Paola Gavin has been a vegetarian for most of her adult life. She studied painting at St. Martin’s School of Art in London before she got married and moved to Rome, where she was inspired to write her first book: Italian Vegetarian Cooking. Since then, she has traveled widely across Europe and the U.S., where she lived for nearly 10 years. Since returning to live in London with her three daughters, she has written three more books: French Vegetarian Cooking, Mediterranean Vegetarian Cooking, and most recently Hazana: Jewish Vegetarian Cooking.

Mary Morris is the author of numerous works of fiction, including her 2018 novel, Gateway to the Moon, as well as The Jazz Palace, A Mother's Love, and House Arrest, and of nonfiction, including the travel memoir classic Nothing to Declare: Memoirs of a Woman Traveling Alone. She is a recipient of the Rome Prize in literature and the 2016 Anisfield-Wolf Award for Fiction. Morris lives in Brooklyn, New York.