Rebecca Schisler is a meditation teacher, artist, and Jewish educator. A devoted contemplative practitioner, she has sat intensive retreats in the US and abroad for over a decade, and has trained with Mindful Schools and the Engaged Mindfulness Institute. A core faculty member at IJS, Rebecca also teaches with Or HaLev, Awakened Heart Project, Wilderness Torah, and Stanford School of Medicine. She was previously the Director of Student Health & Well-being at Stanford University’s Hillel, and co-authored the Mahloket Matters Schools Curriculum with the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators. A student rabbi at ALEPH, Rebecca is passionate about integrating ancestral wisdom traditions with innovative approaches to personal and collective healing and liberation. She teaches Jewish spirituality as an embodied, holistic, and accessible path, with relevant and timely wisdom for all. Learn more at www.rebeccaschisler.com.

Sheila H. Katz, PhD, (aka “Yocheved”) loves finding teachings of meditation in Hebrew texts and traditions. She got hooked on exploring the roots of suffering and awakening consciousness from reading Buber’s I and Thou at age 14.
As a Berklee Professor of Contemplative Studies, her courses explore non-dual strands of religious wisdom traditions in global history. Her work with Palestinians and Israelis (Connecting with the Enemy: a Century of Palestinian-Israeli Joint Nonviolence) illuminates how attending to suffering can open paths to compassionate action. She is a co-founding teacher of Nishmat Hayyim ("Breath of Life”) meditation community. Her doctorate is from Harvard University in Middle East History which she taught for 36 years. She co-leads the annual 3-week retreat of the Awakened Heart Project.  Sheilahannahkatz.com

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.

Rahel Stein is a somatic therapist and student of conscious communication and authentic relating. She came to contemplative practice in 2017 under the guidance of Zen Buddhist teacher and psychotherapist, Michael Stone, z’’l. This practice became the jumping-off point for her work as a licensed therapist supporting others to metabolize the bodily energy created by trauma. She was trained in and utilizes Internal Family Systems and Non Violent Communication (NVC) as part of her somatic work. Rahel first discovered NVC in 2017 and it paved a path forward to deepen into authenticity and a wholeness of being. She facilitates small groups where she teaches the practical tools and wisdom of conscious communication and offers practices rooted in interpersonal meditation that allow for empowering self-connection and honesty to flow. Rahel will be our Retreat Manager and Assistant Teacher.