Rabbi Melissa Buyer-Witman is the Director of Lifelong Learning at Temple Israel of the City of New York. She received her a M.A. in Hebrew Letters, Jewish Education and Rabbinic Ordination from HUC-JIR, the Reform Movment’s Seminary, in Los Angeles. She has been on the cutting edge of innovative educational programs for nearly 18 years. Additionally, she serves as an active member of the clergy team that makes living and learning Judaism relevant and meaningful for Jews and those who love them. In addition to her role at Temple Israel, Rabbi Buyer-Witman is the Editor for the CCAR’s Mishkan HaNefesh for Youth and serves as the Dean of faculty for the URJ’s Crane Lake and Eisner Camps.

Rabbi Buyer-Witman comes from a loving family that includes members of multiple faith traditions. Her journey to and through the rabbinate ultimately lead her to the Rukin Rabbinic Fellowship, where she will continue to harness her passion to create inclusive communities that see diversity as a blessing.

Rabbi Emily Cohen is the rabbi of West End Synagogue: a Reconstructionist community on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. She graduated in 2018 from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia and prior to joining West End spent two years as the Jewish Emergent Network Rabbinic Resident with Lab/Shul in New York City. An artist from an early age, Rabbi Emily’s “side projects” have included Passover parodies (“The Hamilton Haggadah”), a podcast (“Jew Too? Tales of the Mixed Multitude”) and a great deal of Jewish music. She also writes regularly for Alma.

Rabbi Emily is part of the growing population of American Jews raised by one Jewish parent and one non-Jewish parent. Her interfaith roots lead her to look always to the edges of Jewish community and to center the voices that are least heard.

Andy Kahn is the assistant Rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in New York City. He grew up in Tacoma, Washington, attended Kenyon College for his BA. He went to Queen’s University and Jewish Theological Seminary for graduate school, and was ordained by HUC-JIR, the Reform Movement’s Seminary, in New York in 2018. He is excited to work with 18Doors to help create a Jewish world that embraces people of all backgrounds, and is willing to both enrich and be enriched by all who seek a connection to Judaism, regardless of their Jewish status.

Rabbi Alexis Pinsky was ordained from the N.Y. campus of the Hebrew Union College’s Jewish Institute of Religion, and is a member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. She is currently the Associate Rabbi at Temple Israel of the City of New York. She has previously served as the Associate Rabbi/Educator at B’ShERT (Beth Shalom v’Emeth Reform Temple) in Brooklyn, N.Y., the Associate Rabbi at the historic Touro Synagogue in New Orleans as the Musical and Liturgical Clergy in Residence, and as Assistant Rabbi at Congregation Gates of Prayer in Metairie, La. where she focused on outreach and engagement to young families and young adults.

Rabbi Yael Rapport (she/her/hers) is the Director of the Gottesman Center for Jewish Living and the The Selma and Lawrence Ruben Center for 20s + 30s at the Marlene Meyerson JCC of Manhattan on the Upper West Side of New York City. She served as the Associate Rabbi of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, the LGBTQ synagogue of New York City, from 2016-2022. Prior to her work at CBST, she worked as a Chaplain Resident in the Mount Sinai Health System at Mount Sinai Beth Israel focusing on inpatient and outpatient oncology and the Gender Affirmation Surgical Unit. Her passions include visual art, new food traditions and she is certified as a yoga teacher.