Rebecca Schisler is a meditation teacher, artist and ritualist. A devoted student of contemplative practice for a decade, Rebecca has sat numerous intensive Jewish and Buddhist retreats in the US, India and Israel. She taught mindfulness to children, teachers and parents in California schools with Mindful Life Project and teaches on retreat with Or Ha Lev and Awakened Heart Project. She has also guided hundreds of adolescents through Jewish nature-based rites of passage and is trained in women’s ceremonial initiatory arts. As a teaching artist, Rebecca facilitates large-scale community mural projects with youth internationally. She is currently an Arts Fellow at Pardes Institute in Jerusalem before pursuing rabbinical ordination

Rabbi Batsheva H. Meiri, is a 24-year veteran congregational rabbi in Asheville, NC. For the last decade, her primary focus has been the mindfulness training she has pursued in various Jewish, Buddhist and secular settings and discovering the ways those practices can inform and shape the life of the synagogue community she leads. Her practice and teaching draws from the training she has received at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, Awakened Heart Project, Or Halev, Spirit Rock, True Nature Education and Asheville Mindful Living. In the last 4 years, she has co-taught numerous retreats in both Asheville and around the United States alongside her teachers and colleagues..

Sheila H. Katz, “Yocheved,” is a co-founding teacher of Nishmat Hayyim Jewish Meditation Center Boston, and co-leads the annual Awakened Heart 3-week Jewish meditation retreat each winter.  Her practice is rooted in Jewish and Buddhist teachings that address the roots of suffering and support compassionate action. Her retreat practice draws on diverse traditions including: Elat Chayyim Advanced Meditation Program, IJS Teacher Training, Japanese Soto Zen with Norman Fischer, Vietnamese Zen with Thich Nhat Hanh at Plum Village, and Vipassana at Spirit Rock and Forest Refuge. She is Professor of Contemplative Studies and Middle East History at Berklee College of Music and author of Connecting with the Enemy: a Century of Palestinian-Israeli Joint Nonviolence.  Sheilahannahkatz.com