FOUNDER + EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Dan (he/him) also serves as co-host of the Judaism Unbound Podcast and The Oral Talmud videocast. Dan was Executive Director of the University of Chicago Hillel for six years and Director of New Initiatives at Harvard Hillel for three years. He is a 2009 AVI CHAI Fellow and has also received the Richard M. Joel Exemplar of Excellence award, Hillel International's highest professional honor. In 2010, Dan was named a Jewish Chicagoan of the Year by Chicago Jewish News. Dan attended Harvard College and Harvard Law School, where he graduated magna cum laude and was an articles editor of the Harvard Law Review. Dan has published articles in Ha'aretz, The New York Jewish Week, Zeek, eJewishPhilanthropy, and elsewhere, and he is the translator of The Orchard by Israeli novelist Yochi Brandes and the translation editor of The Secret Book of Kings by the same author. Dan spent five years as a law professor after clerking for Judge Michael Boudin on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. He lives in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago with his wife, two children, and two dogs.

Contact Dan at Dan@JudaismUnbound.com

SENIOR JEWISH EDUCATOR

Lex (he/him) also serves as co-host of Judaism Unbound’s podcast, facilitates many of its live digital events, and is thrilled to be one of the first teachers for the UnYeshiva. He graduated from Brown University with a degree in Judaic Studies, and was ordained as a rabbi in 2021 by ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal. You didn’t ask, but he would like you to know that his rabbinic ordination speech looked at OutKast’s song “Hey Ya” through the lens of Jewish numerology. He has participated in Jewish activist movements including Judaism On Our Own Terms, IfNotNow, and Never Again Action. As an educator, he has taught students of all ages in synagogues, at Limmud gatherings, at IHOP, in 30-hours-straight Zoom events, and anywhere else he gets the chance. His first course for the UnYeshiva was titled “Jewish Discontinuity,” and explored Judaism’s oldest tradition: upending the tradition. Lex teaches new UnYeshiva courses throughout the year. A native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Lex lived for two years in Jackson, Mississippi — working for the Institute of Southern Jewish Life — and he currently lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with his wife Valerie.

Contact Lex via Lex@JudaismUnbound.com.

MARKETING + COMMUNICATIONS + CREATIVE MAVEN

Katie (they/she) makes things beautiful and makes sure people know what’s happening at Judaism Unbound. They have served as a lay-leader and organizer of small, progressive Jewish community events in their adopted home of Manchester, United Kingdom (which they believe is the most exciting place to be Jewish in the world). Katie has served as a marketer, editor, and writer at several justice-focused organizations and nonprofits across the globe. They have long been an advocate of non-traditional, digital-first Jewish life and education having spent most of their adult life in places without progressive English-speaking Jewish communities. Katie was selected for the 2019 Ya’ad Young Adult Leadership Fellowship with the UK Reform Movement and is the convener of New Moons Manchester, a seasonal, earth-based, queer Rosh Chodesh gathering. They have a B.A. in Art History from Washington College and have lived in13 cities around the world, though New Delhi and Cairo will always share their heart. In their free time, Katie enjoys cooking, sewing, and spending as much time as possible exploring the beautiful wilds of the United Kingdom. You can find their writing at Hey Alma and The Tempest.

Contact Katie at katherine@judaismunbound.com.