Lori Hope Lefkovitz, Ph.D., Director

Lori Hope Lefkovitz is the Sadie Gottesman and Arlene Gottesman Reff Professor of Gender and Judaism at RRC and founding director of Kolot.

Lori's awards include a 2004 Fulbright professorship at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, an academic fellowship at the Philadelphia Association for Psychoanalysis, a Woodrow Wilson dissertation fellowship in the Women's Studies Division, and a Golda Meir post-doctoral fellowship at Hebrew University.

She holds a B.A. from Brandeis University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Brown University, and held a previous appointment as associate professor of English at Kenyon College.

Her books include In Scripture: The First Stories of Jewish Sexual Identity (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009); Shaping Losses: Cultural Memory and the Holocaust (with Julia Epstein, University of Illinois Press, 2001), Textual Bodies: Changing Boundaries of Literary Representation (SUNY Press, 1997), and The Character of Beauty in the Victorian Novel (UMI Research Press, 1987).  She is widely published in the fields of literature, critical theory, and Jewish feminist studies, serves on editorial, professional, and community boards, and lectures widely in academic and Jewish contexts.

Lori lives in Philadelphia with her husband, Rabbi Leonard Gordon, and their two daughters.

Contact Lori Lefkovitz: (215) 576-0800 x147, lefkovitz@rrc.edu.

Ruth Heiges, Administrator

Ruth Heiges comes to Kolot after 27 years in Israel, bringing with her a longstanding professional and personal commitment to the causes of Jewish pluralism and the advancement of women. She worked most recently for Beit Daniel, the Center for Progressive Judaism in Tel Aviv, in the areas of public affairs and resource development. At the same time Ruth created marketing communications for a range of clients, along with writing feature articles on a variety of topics which have been published widely in the Jewish press around the world, including monthly contributions to the Jewish Exponent for several years.

She edited two magazines in the field of Israel tourism and was managing partner of a firm specializing in marketing communications and publishing that served prominent commercial clients (including a leading Israeli bank, a major hotel chain, and an international jewelry company). The firm also served the non-profit sector, assisting in public affairs, fundraising, and events organization for the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism, Zahal Disabled Veterans Organization, the Israel Women's Network, and the International Center for Peace in the Middle East.

Ruth holds a degree in Speech (Communications) from Penn State.

Contact Ruth Heiges: (215) 576-0800 x149, rheiges@rrc.edu.

Roni Handler, Editor, Ritualwell.org

Roni Handler is a fourth-year rabbinical student at RRC. A native Philadelphian, she received her BA from The George Washington University in international affairs, with a concentration in middle-eastern studies and a minor in anthropology. Roni earned a master's degree in Jewish Communal Service from the Hornstein program at Brandeis University.

She has interned in such settings as Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh and Education Center, The Rashi School (Boston's Reform day school) and for the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation. Roni also has extensive experience teaching Hebrew/Religious School and conducting family education programs. 

Contact Roni Handler: rhandler@rrc.edu

Matthew Silverman, College Programming Committee Intern

Professionally, he has worked at Hillels of Georgia as office manager, taught Hebrew at Congregation Dor Tamid in Alpharetta, GA, and Hebrew at Camp Ramah Darom.

Contact Matt Silverman: msilverman@rrc.edu