Here you will find a list of all our presenters - first international, then local (just scroll down).  Within each section (local and international), presenters are sorted alphabetically by last name.  The session titles link to the stream page on which the session description can be found.  For more about streams, click here.

David is Social Action Coordinator at JHub (Jewish Social Action & Innovation Hub) in London,
responsible for Big Green Jewish & Fairtrade Campaigns. He also volunteers with Limmud UK.
David is a bit of a Jewish geek (and proud of it!); thinks there’s a Friends/West Wing line for every situation in life; lives with his partner Adam and is a proud uncle to three nephews and one niece.  David also developed and edited “A Land of Milk & Honey: Tales of Goats & Apples” - a collection of six Israeli stories with accompanying discussion questions and educational activities to mark Israel 60.

Sessions:
- What's Big, Green, Jewish and sprouting up all over the world?
- “Waaaaaaaa - It's just not fair!”  So stop crying and do something about it!
- DIY Torah Queeries

Documentary Filmmaker, "Punk Jews"
Evan Kleinman is a four-time Emmy nominated producer/director. He has produced television for NBC, and has worked as an editor and cinematographer on various films covering topics ranging from Coney Island to Women’s Rights. 
Evan’s two biggest passions are to tell compelling and inspiring stories and exploring Jewish identity.  Both of which are evident in his two documentaries, “Punk Jews” which follows a community of artists, activists, and musicians expressing Judaism in unconventional ways and “We are still here”, about his family traveling to Poland to place a gravestone on the site where his grandfather buried his brother who died during the Holocaust.
Sessions:
- Punk Jews: Unconventional and Awesome Expressions of Judaism
- The Holocaust: seeking empowerment around tragedy

David Landau is something of a rarity in Israel: on the left politically, on the right religiously he makes for unfailingly lively, original and thought-provoking debate. His long and celebrated career in journalism – first as diplomatic correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, then as editor-in-chief of the influential Haaretz and today with The Economist –gives him authoritative insight into Israel’s predicament. A frequent guest commentator for the BBC and American networks, he is also an acclaimed author. His 1993 book, Piety and Power, painted an intimate portrayal of the world of Jewish fundamentalism and A Political Biography: Shimon Peres
in Conversation with David Landau was recently published. An Orthodox Jew, Landau emigrated from London to
Israel, where he studied in yeshivas before embarking on a career in journalism. This is his first visit to Australia, a unique opportunity to hear an independent voice reflect on a dramatic period of upheaval in Israel and the Middle East.
Session: The rise of religious fundamentalism in Israel; supporting religious tolerance in Israel 

Professor Moshe Ma'oz is Visiting Scholar of the Shalom Institute (Sydney), professor emeritus and former Chair of the Hebrew University's Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies. Renowned for his expertise in Arab and Middle East Affairs, Prof Maoz is a Hebrew University alumnus and a previous director of the university’s Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace. He is presently a senior researcher at the Institute and a faculty member in its Middle East Unit working with Arab and Israeli researchers, examining the region’s political, economic and ideological trends. He has been a visiting professor, scholar and fellow at many leading universities and institutions around the world, including Harvard, Columbia, Oxford, Brookings and the Woodrow Wilson Center. He has served Israel’s Knesset as an advisor on Arab Affairs, and was a member of official advisory committees that counseled Prime Ministers’ Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin on Arab-Israeli relations. In 2003, Prof Maoz was Co-chair of the Jewish-Islamic Dialogue at Israel's President's Forum. Prof Maoz’s scholarly works focus on Middle Eastern politics, with several published in Arabic as well as Hebrew and English.
Sessions:
- The Arab Spring, One Year On
- Religious Communities and Ethnic Minorities in the Middle East
- Muslim Attitudes to Jews and Israel

Shani Tzoref, a specialist in the Dead Sea Scrolls, is a researcher at the Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem. Before making aliya in 2007, she was the coordinator of the Biblical Studies program at the University of Sydney. Dr. Tzoref has lectured in biblical studies and ancient Judaism at universities in the US, UK, and Israel. Her academic awards include Fulbright and Rothschild Fellowships.

Sessions:
- "Ma Ra ba-Nimusim?" ("What is Wrong With Manners?")
- Dead Sea Scrolls Communities, Then and Now

Jeffrey Yoskowitz is a food writer and Semitic Swinologist in Brooklyn. He is the leading expert on the Jewish relationship to pork and the Israeli pork industry, having written on the subject for the New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Republic, as well as Meatpaper and The Forward. Jeffrey also curates and edits the website porkmemoirs.com, and works in the food world as an importer of gourmet Israeli foods and as a pickler. He does not eat pork himself, but after working on an industrial hog farm in the south of Israel he feels he has an intense relationship with swine.

Sessions:
- Sustainable Judaism: Jewish food in the 21st Century
- Jews and Pigs: A Complex Relationship
- Eating Kosher Animals (Panel Discussion)

Liella has been involved in youth movements since the age of 10, and has a passion for maintaining Jewish traditions. She continues to live out her passions through her involvement in "Kesher" (a young adult group who have communal shabbas dinners laden with music and song), inspiring others to embrace their Jewish roots through music.
Session: Shabbat Singing and Sorytelling

Seraphya is a wandering Jew, having lived in four continents by age 14. After spending time in Yeshiva in Israel and serving in the IDF's education unit, Seraphya is now completing a BSc at The University of Melbourne.
Session: Swords in the Study House

Sidney Bloch is Emeritus Professor in Psychiatry and in the Centre for Health and Society at the University of Melbourne and Honorary Senior Psychiatrist at St. Vincent’s Hospital. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists.  He was chief editor of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry for 13 years and Associate Editor of the British Journal of
Psychiatry for 10 years. He has published 13 books, several of which have been brought out in new editions and/or have been translated into 14 languages. Russia’s Political Hospitals won the Guttmacher Award of the American Psychiatric Association in 1978 and An Anthology of Psychiatric Ethics  a “commendation prize” from the British Medical Association in 2007.
Sessions:
- Wrong Side of the Bus
- Rambam and Your Health

Ellyse has spent the past couple of years of her life learning and volunteering.  By day she has been a Talmud studier, a Jewish Civilization major and a Law student. By night she has volunteered with refugees, with Jewish youth and in non-profit law firms. She has a particular interest in gender and Judaism and a small addiction to the internet. Oh, and she loves cheese.
Session: Gay Marriage and the Rabbinate

Adinah is a local to Melbourne - born, raised and studied. She completed her Bachelor of Arts at Monash University, a Graduate Diploma in Conflict Resolution at La Trobe University and most recently a Bachelor of Social Work at Monash University. She has a passion for philosophy, in particular Jewish Philosophy. She studied for a year in Israel at Neve Yerushalayim and found this to have a profound effect on her perspective. Her objective is to find a means to synthesise halachah and modernity with minimal compromise.
Sessions:
- Free Will or Determinism?
- Women in the Context of Judaism

Kerry has been playing the guitar since the age of 11, and is passionate about combining music and Jewdaism. She is the Volunteer Manager of Shir Madness Jewish Music Festival, and the guitarist at Sydney's musical "Kesher" Friday night dinners.
Session: Shabbat Singing and Sorytelling

Paz Faigenbaum has travelled globally and locally and throughout the journey has developed a passion for Permaculture and Jewish meditation. Paz is the director of FIG (Food Integrated Gardens), which is a new small permaculture business creating edible gardens, water systems, fruit orchards and animal systems in an organic and interconnected way. Paz has a Passion towards creating Jewish awareness meditations as a tool to keep cool, calm, collected and connected to the source.
Sessions:
- Fostering Community: Jewish Ecololgy (with Brett Nathan)
- Awareness Meditation 

Ittay Flescher has been exploring and observing Jewish life for as long as he can remember. He currently teaches at Mount Scopus, The Jewish Museum of Australia’s Adult Education Program and the Ayeka Program for secular Jewish learning. In 2007 he spent a year at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem on the Senior Educators Program, where he completed a major project on teaching Tanach in a pluralist setting.


Sessions:
- A Secular Humanist Shabbat
- How to Be Good - The Difference between Right and Wrong: An exploration of Western Philosophy
and Jewish Morality

Director, Jewish Museum of Australia
Scholar, educator and curator Rebecca Forgasz holds Masters Degrees in Jewish Studies and Women's Studies and a Diploma of Education, as well as being the curator of many a successful exhibition on history and Jewish culture. Under her Directorship, Rebecca has led the Jewish Museum on a journey of self-discovery through an intensive six month Organisational Self-Assessment as a way to ensure the Museum becomes a relevant institution to a changing and contemporary community.
Sessions:
- History, Memory & the Meaning of Things
- Tricksters, Victors & (M)others: New Perspectives on Biblical Women

Shelly has worked as a lawyer - predominately at the Victorian Government Solicitors Office and later at Minter Ellison Lawyers - and was the Principal Solicitor for the Melbourne University Legal Service. Following the law, Shelly worked as a Ministerial adviser in the Bracks Government for the Police, Corrections & Emergency Services Minister and later the Industry Minister. Shelly now runs her own consulting business which specialises in Government relations, Communications and strategic networking.
Session: Our Jewish World

Howard Goldenberg has self-diagnosed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which drives his loved ones crazy, but enables him to write, read, cook, eat, run, think, love and weep manically.  Howard's books, "Raft' and 'My Father's Compass' were highly praised by their author.  He is currently writing a novel and another nonfiction book.
Sessions:
- Three Weeks in Detention on Christmas Island
- Jews and Aborigines (with Anne Sarzin)

Yaron Gottlieb is a cricket fanatic who enjoys dabbling in some mildly intellectual pursuits.
By day he is a humble toilet salesman who enjoys selling the produce of Chinese slave labour, but by night he transforms into a moral utopian who rebuilds entire civilizations and historical events in his own mind, where they have the good graces to remain.
He is also a rabbi, a fact he would rather not be known and sincerley hopes you will not hold against him.
Sessions:
- Why Judaism Has Never Been Itself
- Reverse Q and A
- Torah and the Tragedy of Agriculture 

After obtaining a Masters in Public History from Monash University (focusing on Holocaust history and oral testimony), I worked at the Sydney Jewish Museum and then at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, studied with Yad Vashem, and surprised myself by ending up in Ireland! I am now happily living back in Melbourne.
Session: Elegy to the Holocaust in the Emerald Isle

Born in Johannesburg, Andrew Harris is a writer, editor and photographer with a deep interest in
the disparate outposts and personalities of the Jewish Diaspora. Andrew has contributed to a wide
range books and magazines, in Australia and internationally, with stories about travel, culture,
food, business and adventure. He holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts from the University of Melbourne.
Session: Jews in Strange Places

DJ YeahBro! (aka Daniel Harris) is a Melbourne-based DJ and laptop-performer,  with a preference for reggae, dancehall, balkan and other varieties of fun world dance musics for fun times. He has performed alongside some of the big names of the antipodean dance scene such as Mista Savona (Australia) and Paddy Free (New Zealand). When not performing as a superstar DJ, YeahBro! produces abstract electro-acoustic music and works as an environmental engineer.
Session: Saturday night musical performance

Simon Holloway is a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney, where he tutors a senior biblical studies class. His research interests include the development of Biblical Hebrew, the origins of the halakha, and the Hebrew Bible as literature. Simon teaches courses for Melton and at North Shore Temple Emanuel, collects antique books and once almost met Ringo Starr.
Sessions:  
- Evolution of a Horny Devil: Satan in the Talmud and Midrash
- Enemies of the State

Nathan is a medical doctor, massage therapist and yoga teacher, who has presented massage and yoga workshops around Australia. His workshops are always popular, fun, educational, interesting and hands on.
Sessions:
- Yoga All Levels
- I Need a Massage!!

Alex Kats is a Melbourne based public policy and events manager, who has previously lived in Sydney, Israel, London and New York. He has a relative who was once a General in the Russian army, and another relative who has been excommunicated from the Jewish community. He is also distantly related to Henry Winkler who played ‘the Fonz’,and to Aharon HaKohen from the Bible. With that yichus and a background writing speeches for
politicians and organising conferences for CEOs and attending Jewish seminars around the world, he is completely confused and therefore regularly thinks and writes about contemporary Jewish issues.
Sessions:
- In Each Generation you Should Feel as You Left Egypt: Pesach in Eastern Europe
- Glee: Puck is the Better Jewish Role Model (with Josh Szwarcbard)

Mandi is board member of the New Israel Fund Australia. She is also a former chair of AUJS (Victoria), and prior to having children, was active in progressive Jewish women's groups. She has worked as a lawyer and presently works in risk management in the financial services sector. She is the mother of three teenagers, all attending Jewish day schools In Melbourne. She is emerging from years of domestic 'stuff' and is enjoying once again being communally active and dabbling in writing.
Session: The rise of religious fundamentalism in Israel; supporting religious tolerance in Israel

Brett completed a BA majoring in Psychology and Philosophy, and his Honors in Philosophy of Religion. Since completing his degree, he has been working and studying organic farming overseas, specifically in the area of Permaculture (Perm'a'culture, meaning Permanent Agriculture - a method of sustainable design). He spent one year in Israel studying and then one year in Samoa working on an Aide project, before this year where he returned to Australia.  During his travels, he studied sustainable communities at a hands-on level, and is very interested in the question of what is key to the success of an intentional community. He is also very interested in bringing hand skills back to life and enjoys creative expressions of these.
Session: Fostering Community: Jewish Ecololgy

Liz is a Brisbane-bred doctor working in Melbourne, whose strengths are ingesting coffee via all humanly-possible routes, and searching PubMed.  Her major weakness is describing herself in the third person.
Session: Being Jewish: Is it good for the Jews? 

Jude Perl is a singer, pianist and songwriter who has been performing around Melbournefor several years. Strongly influenced by Stevie Wonder, Carole King and Marvin Gaye, both in musical direction, performance and songwriting, Jude wants nothing more than to share a story with people and make people dance! She also enjoys rollerblading, fried okra and Charlie Chaplin.
Session: Saturday night musical performance

Arielle is studying Arts/Law at Monash University and is majoring in Jewish Civilizations. She has studied at Midreshet Harova and Pardes.
Session: Finding Equality in Halakhic Marriage 

Akiva is a trained Philosopher, with specialist interests in Ethics, Religion, Political and Social Philosophy. In studying Jewish Ethics and Moral Philosophy, Akiva finds the continuities and discontinuities between Religious and Secular Ethics endlessly fascinating. Akiva has tutored Philosophy and completed a Masters degree in this discipline at Monash University.
Session: Judaism and Humanism: Moral Convergence?

Rabbi Meir Rabi is a student of traditional Jewish texts, lecturing to the Jewish community for 30 years. He is also a rabbi who provides kosher certification.
Sessions:
- When is a Bird a Bird: When is a Baby a Life? 
- Eating Kosher Animals (Panel Discussion) 

Malki is a writer, media producer, social activist and chef with a penchant for ancient languages and historical reflection. If there is a way to combine the Talmud with 'Alice in Wonderland' and use Douglas Adams and Egyptian Hieroglyphs to decipher Torah code and the Fibonacci sequence, she is intent on finding it.
Session: Bathhouses, Twirling Chickens and Paganism: Jewish Stuff that isn’t Jewish

Ruth Rosenberg is an English and Hebrew teacher, and a past journalist at the
Jewish News. She is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. She teaches a regular shiur for women on the Parsha and Prophets.
Session: Elijah the Prophet: Jewish Superhero 

David has been playing Piano/Keyboard for more than 30 years. He has a Jewish/secular Music duo ‘Sibling Revelry’ together with his singer/songwriter sister Laiya. Their music styles include Folk, Blues, Jazz, Country, Rock and Ballads. They are in demand for simchas, nursing/retirement homes, festivals, restaurants and more.  David and Laiya have also recorded a CD of original songs on their album ‘First Light’.  David is a Piano / Keyboard / Recording Specialist – working at many of Melbourne’s top musical instrument stores.  He has also arranged and recorded songs for children’s’ school choirs such as Bialik College, and has also recorded songs for Weddings, Bar/Bat Mitzvahs and other occasions.
Sessions:
- Shabbat Singing and Sorytelling
- Havdala and communal singing

Rachel is interested in DIY Judaism, ancient Jewish heretics, rational religion, riding bicycles, environmentalism, and stand-up-paddle boarding. In her professional life, she does research on hepatitis C transmission in people who inject drugs and sexual health promotion on social networking websites.
Session: The psychology of AFL footballers and secular arguments for maintaining archaic Jewish laws and rituals 

Anne, a widely published journalist and editor, has a PhD in English Literature from the University of Cape Town, having written a thesis on the playwright Athol Fugard.  For her Master of Arts degree from UCT, she wrote a dissertation on the political novels of Benjamin Disraeli.  She worked for many years as the University Writer in the Media Unit at the University of Sydney and then, as Editor, at the University of Technology, Sydney. In 2004, she started her own communications business, Write 4 U.  Anne and her daughter, Lisa Sarzin, have co-authored a book, Hand in Hand: Jewish and Indigenous people working together, which was launched in Sydney last year.  Hand in Hand tells the inspiring stories of Jewish and Indigenous Australians engaged in past and continuing joint endeavours to support reconciliation in many different areas, including health, education, culture, and social justice.
Session: Jews and Aborigines (with Howard Goldenberg)

Born as Aubrey, (but known as 'Abraham' or 'Abe' in indigenous/interfaith circles), this father of 3 enjoys 'talking the talk' whilst finding innovative ways to 'walk the walk'. With a career spanning 30 years of youth work/community development, Aboriginal philanthropy and educational tour- guiding in Israel, along with MC'ing at music festivals, the honour of accompanying Yorta Yorta activist William Cooper's family members on their 2 trips to Israel, life is always exciting!
Sessions:
- Aboriginal / Jewish conversation on ‘The Dreaming’... and revisit those immortal words: ‘In the Beginning’ 
- Havdala and Aboriginal Smoking Ceremony

I'm a mother, an Orthodox Jew and a feminist. I believe that to share this world we need to know a little about how other people think, believe and behave. I also believe that we owe it to our children to do the best we can to bring them into a world of love. Our family is the most important element of our lives, so fostering those relationships is important. We have chosen to homeschool our children for this reason.
Session: How do we educate? Why do we educate? What is education anyway? 

Joshua is a Solicitor who grew up in Melbourne, attended Yehsivah College and now works in a general Commercial Law practice. Joshua's interests include politics, music and all things Jewish, which is why he has decided to talk about the television show "Glee" and its connection to Judaism.
Session: Glee: Puck is the Better Jewish Role Model (with Alex Kats)

Keren Tuch is the Education Director of Jewish Aid Australia and a physiotherapist on the side. Her shtick is leading a volunteer and education program to Nepal for Jewish University aged students. She has been involved with many Jewish organisations, including Hineni, AUJS, Jewish Care and – her all-time favourite – Limmud-Oz.
Sessions:
- Charity Begins at Home, but Where Does it End? 
- Eating Kosher Animals (Panel Discussion) 

Helen Webberley is a lecturer in history and art history at the CAE in Melbourne and at Melton Adult Mini School.  She is finding that lecture series on Jewish art,  architecture and patronage in Paris' Belle Epoque and Vienna's Secession are in demand.
Session: Jewish Cultural Patronage in Glamorous Vienna

Debbie Zauder has a Masters in Applied Social Research. Her main interest is in the heath sector, in particular the role and the rights of the consumer. Debbie is currently the Project Manager for the Jewish Community Council of Victoria's (JCCV) Youth Alcohol Project (YAP).
Session: Alcohol and Jewish Youth Today