Smol Emuni US Conference

Rabbi Yosef Blau has served as Mashgiach Ruchani at Yeshiva University for forty eight years.  He is a former president of the Religious Zionists of America.

Dr. Yasmeen Abu Fraiha, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, specializes in internal medicine and is currently completing both a clinical fellowship in critical care at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and a research fellowship at the Middle East Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School. She serves on the board of the New Israel Fund.

Sofia Freudenstein is completing her studies at Yeshivat Maharat while simultaneously finishing an MA in Jewish Philosophy at Bernard Revel Graduate School. Last year, while attending Yeshivat Drisha in Kfar Etzion, she was active in Smol Emuni and Standing Together.

Rabbanit Dasi Fruchter is the founder and spiritual leader of the South Philadelphia Shtiebel, a vibrant and growing orthodox community where groups of seekers, deeply connected to one another across lines of difference, are dedicated to Torah, mitzvot and acts of chesed. Ordained by Yeshivat Maharat in 2016, she holds an MPA in Non-Profit Administration and an MA in Jewish Studies from NYU and is actively engaged in interfaith initiatives throughout Philadelphia.     

Avraham Oriah Kelman grew up in Israel, where he studied and taught in several yeshivot. He is currently a PhD candidate in Religious Studies at Stanford University and an activist with the Bnei Abraham group.

Naama Lazimi is a Member of Knesset, representing The Democrat Party. She is the chair of the Youth Committee and a member of the Finance and Education Committee. A social democrat, she is a peace activist who believes in justice and equality.  

Hanin Majadli is a journalist, publicist and editor at Haaretz and a participant in the Haaretz 21 initiative, which aims to amplify voices and stories from Israel's Arab community. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Middle-Eastern Studies and Arabic and Islamic Studies from Tel Aviv University. Originally from Baka al-Garbiyeh, she now resides in Tel Aviv.

Mikhael Manekin is the director of the Alliance Fellowship Program and an activist in the Israeli Faithful Left. He previously led the progressive think tank Molad and, before that, directed the veterans' organization Breaking the Silence. His book, End of Days: Tradition and Power in Israel, was translated into English in 2023. Most recently, he published a Hebrew collection titled Sermons from the Abyss. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife, Yael, and their three children, Ruth, Sarai, and Noach.

Ruth W. Messinger had a 20-year career in public service that included roles as a New York City Council member and Manhattan Borough President. She also served from 1998 to 2016 as president of American Jewish World Service and is now the organization’s inaugural Global Ambassador. Her work has focused on a range of issues, including social justice advocacy, public education, campaign finance reform, LGBTQ+ rights, neighborhood development, and small.

David N. Myers is Distinguished Professor of History and the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA. He is the author or editor of many books, including, with Nomi Stolzenberg, American Shtetl: The Making of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic Village in Upstate New York (Princeton, 2022) – winner of a National Jewish Book Award – and, with Nechumi Malovicki-Yaffe, New Trends in the Study of Haredi Culture and Society (Purdue, 2024). From 2018-2023, David served as president of the New Israel Fund.

Ordained at Yeshiva University in 1971, Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller served for forty years as the Executive Director of the Yitzhak Rabin Hillel Center for Jewish Life at UCLA. A founding member of Americans for Peace Now, he currently is a faculty member of the Shalom Hartman Institute, North America and of the Wexner Heritage Foundation.

Leah Shakdiel is an Orthodox rabbi and teacher of Torah and democracy. Through teaching, interfaith dialogue and continued activist work with Israeli human rights NGOs like Machsom Watch, Mirkam Azori, Darom4Peace, and Rabbis for Human Rights, Shakdiel works to bring the values of peace, equality, human rights, civil rights, feminism and social justice to the next generation of Israelis.