Born in Toronto, Canada, Rabbi Tziona Szajman is a graduate of McGill University and The Jewish Theological Seminary of America.  She grew up in an artistic family who provided her with a lifelong love of Judaism and community building.  She spent two years living and learning in Jerusalem where she developed a love of modern midrash.

Visit Rabbi Szajman's blog to read more. 

Eyal Roth is an Israeli tour guide living in Berlin and offering the “Jewish Berlin tour,” along with other historical tours of the city.

Rita Lakin spent twenty-five years in television as a writer on numerous series, movies, miniseries, created a number of dramatic series, finally becoming producer/show runner on her own shows. She is the writer comedy mystery novels featuring Gladdy Gold and her zany geriatric partners in crime-solving.

Her many other awards include Writers Guild of America, MWA Edgar, and the Avery Hopwood award from the University of Michigan. Visit www.ritalakin.com

Julia Rubin is a blogger, writer, editor, educator, translator, and photographer from Boston, Massachusetts. She holds a BA in Psychology from Clark University and is working on her MFA in fiction at UMASS Boston. She believes in writing as a means for advocacy, change, and sharing the human experience. Julia works as a program assistant for Raising A Reader Massachusetts, where she promotes the value of family book sharing and the importance of making literacy accessible to people of all backgrounds. To see more of Julia’s work, check out juliarubinwriting.wordpress.com

Doreen El-Roeiy has a B.A. Magna Cum Laude from Brandeis University in International Relations and an MSc from the London School of Economics in Global Politics. She has worked for the U.S. State Department (Foreign Service Institute), the United Nations (Civil Society Outreach Unit), the University of Pennsylvania (Think Tank and Civil Society Program), and the American Foreign Service Association (Advocacy and Government Affairs Department).

Currently, Doreen is a Fulbright Scholar conducting research on Yiddish as a national minority language of Sweden. She is engaging with the Swedish-Jewish community through qualitative interviews to determine trends and patterns on the multicultural significance of this policy.