Jewish Reconstructionist Federation

Dr. Rabbi David Teutsch has been a builder of religious community since becoming a congregational rabbi over thirty years ago. He is the Wiener Professor of Contemporary Jewish Civilization and director of the Levin-Lieber Program in Jewish Ethics at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where he served as president for nearly a decade. He previously served as executive director of the JRF. The editor in chief of the groundbreaking Kol Haneshamah prayer book series published by JRF’s Reconstructionist Press, he has also authored several other books including Imagining the Jewish Future and five volumes in the series A Guide to Jewish Practice published by RRC Press. A renowned consultant and trainer, he pioneered values-based decision making.

Beulah Trey, Ph.D- Born into a South African Jewish family, raised in an orthodox Jewish community, married into a fourth generation Reform family, student of a conservative Rabbi and a member of a Reconstructionist synagogue, finding Mussar has given Beulah a practice that incorporates the diverse paths inside and outside Judaism that have nurtured her soul. Aware of the power of Mussar to transform lives, she pioneers the applications of these practices to leadership, team and organizational transformation. Beulah is a licensed organizational psychologist. In 2007 she founded Vector Group Consulting a management consulting firm that assists leaders, teams and organizations to achieve transformation.  Beulah lives in Philadelphia and teaches the Mazkeh Rabim year of Mussar in Rabbi Ira Stone’s Mussar Leadership Institute.  You can learn more and sign up for a weekly mussar post at www.mussarleadership.org

Rabbi Barbara Penzner has served Temple Hillel B’nai Torah in West Roxbury, MA since 1995. Rabbi Penzner is a past president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association and past president of the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis. She is also a founder of Mayyim Hayyim Mikveh and Education Center (http://jrf.org/Mayyim-Hayyim-Mikveh-Conference). Barbara  is married to Brian Rosman, the originator and keeper of the Homer Calendar, http://homer.jvibe.com/.  They are the parents of two fabulous children, Aviva and Yonah.

Carole Caplan (carolecaplan@livebychoice.com) is proud to be a past president of the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, IL, and to have helped build their new building as the "greenest" house of worship in America. She is a Greenfaith Fellow, a unique multi-faith endeavor which advocates stewardship of the environment as imperative spiritual work (see Greenfaith.org), and lectures on the crossroads between spirituality and environmentalism. Carole is also a Wexner Heritage Fellow, committed to working towards sustainable Jewish life on the local and national level.

Carole's company, Live by Choice, assists clients in making empowered choices for sustainable environments including ‘green’ building processes and building products, water filters, air filters and cleaning products. A 500 RYT certified meditation and yoga instructor, Carole teaches to both children and adults in the Chicagoland area.