Scholars

Dr. David I. Bernstein has led more than 60 Jewish heritage trips to Europe. He brings a wide-angle lens to the story of Jewish life in Europe by illuminating the big picture of European history, while zooming in to intimate stories of the dynamics of Jewish life. The son of refugees who came to the U.S. after the Second World War, he brings a personal sense of mission to his work as he shares the story of these famous Jewish communities. David earned a BA, MA, and PhD from New York University and was a visiting graduate fellow at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He served for more than a decade as the Director of Midreshet Lindenbaum and for 25 years as the Dean of the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies, where he currently serves as Dean Emeritus.

Tamara Chavez has been guiding specialized tours in the four corner states, including New Mexico, since 2000 and Jewish group tours since 2016. She has served as a volunteer for the National Park Service at Chaco Canyon and at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center as a museum docent. As a tour guide, Tamara loves to showcase authentic local history, cuisine, scenic beauty, art, and culture.

Dr. Maritza Corrales is a Cuban historian who has dedicated her life’s work to researching the history of Jews in Cuba. Born in 1948, she is a graduate of the University of Havana (1972) and lives in Havana. She has been a consulting scholar to numerous research and academic institutions in Cuba and has published numerous articles on the history of Cuban Jews. As the author of articles and books, including The Chosen Island, Corrales has lectured at universities in Israel, Spain, Mexico, and Cuba.

Grace Gary is an architectural historian with degrees from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College and the University of Virginia. A veteran leader of more than 30 tours with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, she and fellow National Trust lecturer Dwight Young are the authors of Nemours:A Portrait of Alfred I. duPont’s House. Grace also authored two volumes in the Trust’s “Information” series and has served as director of the Trust’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Office in Pennsylvania. Grace most recently served as the executive director of Nemours Mansion and Gardens in Wilmington, Delaware, where she oversaw an award-winning, multi-year, $70 million restoration of the building and gardens.

Ariel Goldstein was born in Uruguay, studied Latin American history in Montevideo and tourism at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. CEO of Tiyul-Jewish Journeys, he has led more than 50 tours throughout Israel, Europe, Persian Gulf, Latin America, China, India, Africa, and the US. Ariel speaks Spanish, English, Hebrew, and Portuguese and is the author of From Moses to Moisesville (2024).

Dr. Ron Hart, PhD, is a cultural anthropologist with postdoctoral work in Jewish Studies and a career as a research director in South America, who currently serves as Executive Director of the Institute for Tolerance Studies in Santa Fe. Former President of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico, Dr. Hart is author of many award-winning books, including Crypto-Jews: The Long Journey (2020) and Fractured Faiths: Spanish Judaism, the Inquisition and New World Identities. He has received awards from the New Mexico Jewish Historical Society, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, the National Science Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Fulbright among others.

Rachel Kolsky is a prize-winning London Blue Badge Tourist Guide who focuses on the “human stories behind the buildings.” Author of Jewish London: A Comprehensive Guidebook for Visitors and Londoners, Rachel leads tours that are as fun as they are informative. She is also the author of Whitechapel in 50 Buildings, Secret Whitechapel, and Women’s London. Previously, Ms. Kolsky was an award-winning information professional in the financial-services industry for more than 25 years. She also supports her local independent cinema, The Phoenix, East Finchley, where she was a trustee for over 20 years.

Sid Leiman, PhD, is professor emeritus of Jewish history and literature at Brooklyn College, and he teaches at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Yeshiva University. He has taught at Harvard, Yale, and Oxford, as well as the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Author of Rabbinic Responses to Modernity (2007) and The Canonization of Hebrew Scripture (1991), as well as hundreds of articles and numerous publications, Dr. Leiman has contributed entries to Encyclopaedia Britannica and Encyclopaedia Judaica. He frequently leads Jewish historical tours to Central and Eastern Europe.

Miriam Levinson’s passion for travel and history was inspired by listening to her father talk about those subjects from her earliest recollections. Since her teens, Miriam has traveled extensively, focusing on Jewish history and culture of different countries. Miriam has presented on Latin American Jewish migration to numerous audiences and organizations throughout the United States. For the past eighteen years, Miriam has designed, organized, and led hundreds of trips to her native land, Cuba. Her knowledge and understanding of Jewish Latin America and, primarily, Cuba add a truly distinctive dimension to her portrayal of these communities. Levinson’s unique personal knowledge and experiences of life in Cuba bring a new perspective. She is presently writing a book on her recollections of life in Cuba.

Aryeh Maidenbaum, PhD, with a strong background in history, psychology, and Jewish studies, has over 28 years’ experience in organizing and leading educational programs, including psychology seminars and conferences and travel programs focusing on Jewish culture and history. Director of the New York Center for Jungian Studies, he earned his doctorate from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and is a former faculty member at New York University. Dr. Maidenbaum is a contributing author to Current Theories of Psychoanalysis and editor and contributor to Lingering Shadows: Jungians, Freudians, and Anti-Semitism and Jung and the Shadow of Anti-Semitism. Some of his other publications include Psychological Type, Job Change, and Personal Growth; The Search for Spirit in Jungian Psychology; “The Jungian Dilemma,” a chapter in the recently published book Psychiatry and Anti-Semitism; and “The Golem of Prague: An Archetype,” forthcoming in the journal Psychological Perspectives.

Raquel Orensztajn was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She studied Modern History and Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and dedicated her professional life to teaching the Holocaust and its significance in Jewish memory and identity. Raquel is the co-initiator and founder of ‘When Memory Meets Art’, a project that specializes in creating artistic content based on primary sources of the Holocaust. She is a scholar and educator of Jewish Journeys programs and has participated as a trip scholar throughout Jewish Europe. Raquel developed the study curriculum in Prague and Theresienstadt for the Jewish Agency and led the March of the Living in Poland. She also teaches Hebrew as a second language to participants of the Masa Israel Journey program. Raquel works in the International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, as a developer and writer of online teaching courses and content coordinator of seminars for educators from Israel, Europe, and Latin America. Raquel is fluent in English, Hebrew, Portuguese, and Spanish. She lives in Tel Aviv.

Dr. Antony Polonsky is Emeritus Professor of Holocaust Studies at Brandeis University and Chief Historian of the Global Education Outreach Project at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. Originally from South Africa, he has authored many historical works on the Holocaust, most recently the three-volume The Jews in Poland and Russia and an abridged edition, The Jews in Poland and Russia. A Short History. 

Dr. Polonsky holds honorary doctorates from the University of Warsaw, the Jagiellonian University, and the Polish University Abroad (Polski Uniwersytet na Obczyźnie) and was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland and the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Independent Lithuania.

Jacobo Raijman was born in Mexico City, studied human resources and holds a master’s degree in outdoor education. CEO of Vivencia Educativa (Educational Experience), he has more than 35 years’ experience in the field of youth leadership and educational travel for people of all ages and has worked with more than 50 schools and embassies, as well as Jewish Federations of the US.

Lucy Rapoport, trip leader, has guided and accompanied many previous Jewish heritage tours, all to great acclaim. Born and schooled in England before moving to Italy as a young adult, Lucy is fluent in Italian, German, French, and Spanish and has been a tour manager for over twenty years. Specializing in Europe, she has accompanied previous Jewish groups to such places as Lithuania, Krakow, Prague, Berlin, Croatia, Spain, Romania, Serbia, France, northern and southern Italy, and Sicily. With Lucy’s attention to detail, knowledge of history, and considerable expertise in guiding groups, participants will be well served on this trip.

Marta Nunez Sarmiento is a retired professor in the Department of Sociology and a researcher at the Center for Studies of International Migrations (CEMI) at the University of Havana. Her research concentrated on transition projects for Cuba, women and employment in Cuba, gender studies in Cuba, images of women in Cuban mass media, and images of Cuba in Cuban and foreign mass media. At the University of Havana, she taught courses related to methodology and methods of sociological research, gender studies, and contemporary Cuba. She served as a consultant for several agencies of the UN (1988-2003), the Association of Caribbean States (1999), and several NGOs.

Raymond P. Scheindlin, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of Medieval Hebrew Literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary and a former Guggenheim Fellow. Dr. Scheindlin’s main field of research is the encounter of Hebrew and Arabic cultures in Spain, especially as embodied in the poetry of the two traditions. His books on medieval Hebrew poetry — Wine, Women, and Death: Medieval Hebrew Poems on the Good Life, dealing with secular poetry; and The Gazelle: Medieval Hebrew Poems on God, Israel, and the Soul — reflect both the academic and the literary aspects of his career. He is the author of a widely-used textbook, A Short History of the Jewish People, and co-editor of The Literature of Al-Andalus and The Song of the Distant Dove: Judah Halevi’s Pilgrimage. His most recent book is Vulture in a Cage: Poems by Solomon Ibn Gabirol.

Chaim Seidler-Feller recently celebrated his 40th year of working with students and faculty as the executive director of the Hillel Center for Jewish Life at UCLA. Currently director emeritus, he also serves as director of the Hartman Fellowship for Campus Professionals. An ordained rabbi, he also completed a master’s degree in rabbinic literature. Chaim has been a lecturer in the Departments of Sociology and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA and in the Department of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University. He is also a faculty member of the Shalom Hartman Institute, North America, and of the Wexner Heritage Foundation and was rabbinic consultant to Barbra Streisand during the making of the film Yentl. The International Hillel Center has granted Chaim the Hillel Professional Recognition Award “for blending the love of Jewish tradition with the modern intellectual approach of the university.”

Therkel Straede is professor of contemporary history at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense and one of the world’s leading experts on the October 1943 rescue (and deportation) of the Jews from Denmark. His newest book, about the networks and motives of Jewish and non-Jewish rescuers, will be published in 2023, the 80th anniversary of the German assault on Denmark’s Jews. Recently, Professor Straede worked with the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City on an exhibition designed for children and their families about the Danish rescue. He operates a website about the Danish deportees in the Theresienstadt ghetto (www.danske joe deri theresienstadt.org) and has received a congressional citation of honor by the U.S. House of Representatives for his achievements in Holocaust research and education.

Marcin Wodziński is a professor of Jewish history and literature and head of the Department of Jewish Studies at the University of Wrocław. His academic interests range from the social history of Jews in the 19th century to the history of Jews in Silesia and Jewish material culture, especially the history of Hasidism and Haskalah. His publications include more than 100 articles in Polish, English, Hebrew, French, and Czech, nine books authored and one coauthored, and six volumes coedited.

His publications include: Hebrew Inscriptions in Silesia from the 13th to 18th Centuries (1996); Bibliography on the History of Silesian Jewry II (2004); Haskalah and Hasidism in the Kingdom of Poland (2005); The Polish Kingdom Authority Against Hasidism (2008); Hasidism and Politics (2013). Wodziński is the editor of the Makor Academic Series / Sources of Austeria Publishing, Bibliotheca Judaica Series at the University of Wrocław Press, editor-in-chief of “Studia Judaica.”

Maciek Zabierowski is head of Learning at the Auschwitz Jewish Center, a role he has held since 2006. He designs and runs workshops on Jewish history in Poland, the Holocaust, and human rights for Polish and European students of all ages and Polish law-enforcement officers. Zabierowski received a master’s degree in history in 2006 from the Jagellonian University. In 2012, he was featured as a scholar for Facing History and Ourselves’ Holocaust and Human Behavior international seminar. He is also a licensed tour guide in Kraków, specializing in Jewish walking tours.