Rabbi Esther Adler Mount Zion Temple
Rabbi Adler (she/her) has served as a rabbi at Mount Zion since 2000. She also serves part-time as Associate Chaplain at Hamline University. Rabbi Adler graduated magna cum laude from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1980 with a B.A. in Music. She was ordained as rabbi from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, New York in 1987. She has earned a Masters degree from Yale University in Rabbinic Literature and has knowledge of Hebrew, Aramaic, German, French, and Greek. She received her Doctor of Divinity degree from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 2012.
In the Twin Cities, before coming to Mount Zion, she served as rabbi at the Sholom Homes, interim rabbi at Beth El Synagogue, and interim director of Jewish Life at Minneapolis Jewish Day School. She lives in Saint Paul with her husband Rob Lebowitz. They have five grown children.
Cantor Audrey Abrams Beth El Synagogue
Cantor Abrams (she/her) describes Mussar/Tikkun Middot as “walk in the world Judaism” and finds “Mussar moments” everywhere she looks. She has been a facilitator for over seven years and credits this practice for helping her navigate her life with a more open mind and open heart. She is filled with gratitude for being introduced to this practice not just for herself, but also when she hears others talk about how life changing Mussar is for them.
Cantor Audrey Abrams, emerita of Beth El Synagogue, has a B.M. in Music Therapy from Michigan State University and an M.A. in Music Education and Therapy from the University of Minnesota. Her cantorial certification was awarded in 2001 from the American Conference of Cantors. She served Beth El Synagogue for over 30 years; and in retirement is continuing to offer some contemplative opportunities using chant, art, and meditation as alternative doorways into Judaism. Cantor Abrams enjoys walks around the Minneapolis lakes, making art and taking art classes, movies, traveling and the TWINS! Cantor Abrams has two adult daughters, Rachel and Sal, and lives with her husband, David, and their very old cat, Neco.
Rabbi Jill Avrin YourJewish
Rabbi Jill Avrin (she/her) is the rabbi of YourJewish, a new organization in the Twin Cities serving those who are unengaged or under-engaged in Jewish life through creative and independent approaches. She is originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, received her BA from the University of Minnesota in 2004, and was ordained by Hebrew Union College in 2013. Following ordination, she moved to Minnesota to work at Bet Shalom Congregation. She spent 10 years at Bet Shalom, first as Rabbi Educator and then as Associate Rabbi, and left in the summer of 2023 to found YourJewish.
One of the things she loves most about mussar is that it provides the ultimate opportunity to actualize learning in the real world. She finds it personally meaningful and challenging to look inward, take personal stock, and to share my own soul journey with others. She will be facilitating a va’ad this year for those new to Judaism.
Jen Bucklew Temple Israel
Jen (she/her) has worked in the Minneapolis Jewish community for almost a decade and is currently the Director of Women’s Philanthropy at the Minneapolis Jewish Federation. She has been studying Mussar for over 6 years at Temple Israel with her lifelong chevruta and Beloved, Manuel. Through Mussar, personal relationships, and her work in the Jewish community, Jen has embraced our Jewish community, values, and culture. Mussar has had a profound impact on how Jen interacts with, and in, the world and has deepened her own relationship with Judaism.
Jen grew up in rural West Virginia, and has lived in the Twin Cities for almost 25 years. She studied International Studies and Art History at West Virginia University and the University of Pittsburgh.
She and Manuel live in Hopkins with their very hairy Golden Retriever, Chase.
Julie Dean Founder, Living Mussar
Julie Dean (she/her) is the founder of Twin Cities Mussar and supports the growing citywide Mussar initiatives of Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota. She has been a professional, group facilitator for 30 years and has an MS in Educational Leadership. Julie provides advanced facilitator training and mentorship, leads Mussar groups and workshops and helps form new organizational partnerships all focused on Mussar learning and practice. She is providing advanced facilitator training for The Mussar Institute, was a keynote speaker for their 2022 Mussar Kallah, and is a member of the faculty for the 2023 Mussar Kallah.
Julie is inspired by how people experience positive transformation in their lives and relationships by applying insightful Jewish wisdom to the moments of their daily lives. She credits her own Mussar practice with helping her live a life with greater alignment between her behaviors, attitudes and values, resulting in more joy and connection. Julie has lived in St. Louis Park with her sons and husband since 2012 and enjoys engaging with nature, music and community.
Barry Epstein Shir Tikvah
Barry (he/him) has lived in Minneapolis for over forty years and believes this to be both a blessing and a curse. He is blessed that his sons and granddaughter live in town; but feels cursed being a die hard Twins fan!
He has been teaching religious school at Shir Tikvah for 26 years and adores the kids. In 2017, he decided to enrich his inner life by joining a Mussar group. This practice has changed his life. Through studying Jewish character traits and intentionally working on enhancing them, Barry has experienced becoming a better and more joyful person. He cites the Jewish ethic of sharing important teachings with others as a core reason for why he became a facilitator: to help guide others in their journeys with this beautiful Jewish tradition.
Barbara Fermon Temple Israel
Barbara (she/her) was intrigued by Mussar after reading Everyday Holiness by Alan Morinis, and participated in the first Mussar facilitator training with Julie Dean at Temple Israel in 2018. She has been facilitating at Temple since the fall of that year. She also participates in an Alei Shur class at The Mussar Institute (TMI), does occasional facilitation with TMI and facilitates an ongoing monthly TMI chaverim learning group. She recognizes and appreciates the profound impact that Mussar has had on her inner life and in her relationships. Barbara is originally from the Boston area.
Ofer Geller Adath Jeshurun Congregation
Ofer (he/him) began studying Mussar in 2019 to explore a new path of spiritual growth in Judaism. The impact on his life was immediate. He has found the practice of Mussar to be a profound personal awakening and a truly transformative and meaningful experience. He reflects that “the work I have done has made me a more mindful and thoughtful husband to my beloved wife, Susan, and a kinder, gentler dad to our amazing daughter Amy.”
He is profoundly grateful to all who shared their wisdom with him. Ofer is very excited to help Rabbi Kravitz teach the Intro to Mussar class at Adath Jeshurun this Fall and share what he has learned, as the group studies and finds new and unique personal connections with ancient text.
Tony Gleekel Temple Israel
Tony Gleekel was introduced to Mussar over the High Holidays in 2021 and promptly joined amagnificent v’ad at Temple Israel facilitated by Andrea Singer. Living with less judgement, more gratitude and joy have been just a few benefits of Tony’s Mussar practice, all with a Jewish lens. Continuing daily Mussar practice (middot) presents the opportunity for him to feel his holy soul, understand that all others are holy souls and to bring holiness to our fractured world. The world is big, but joining a v’ad and learning to practice Mussar shrinks the world and allows for self-understanding and heighted connection with others. Tony’s goal and aspiration is to be a co-facilitator providing v’ad members a positive and generative place for curiosity and opportunity for v’ad participants to elevate their daily lives.
Rabbi Tamar Grimm Beth Jacob Congregation
Rabbi Tamar Grimm (she/her) studied at the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College. She grew up in Minneapolis, MN and has also lived in Jerusalem, New York City, Los Angeles and the Quad Cities. She earned a B.A. in Anthropology and Sociology from Brandeis University in 2001 and then worked as a Jewish Educator for three years before beginning her rabbinic education. Rabbi Tamar gained her pulpit experience as an intern at The Boston Synagogue, Temple Israel of Sharon, MA and Temple Beth Shalom of Cambridge. She also had a fellowship with CIRCLE (The Center for Inter-Religious and Communal Leadership Education), in which she developed interfaith programming and relationships with colleagues from different religious traditions. In the summer of 2009 she completed an internship in hospital chaplaincy. Before coming to Beth Jacob, she was Rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel in the Quad Cities. Rabbi Tamar has studied in Israel at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, Machon Pardes, the Conservative Yeshiva, Machon Schechter and the Secular Yeshiva in Tel Aviv. She particularly enjoys studying Talmud and Chasidic texts.
Ruth Hornstein Temple Israel
Ruth Hornstein (she/her) is a Clinical Psychologist with over 30 years of experience working with children, adolescents, and adults with a variety of emotional and behavioral challenges. In recent years, Ruth has integrated her passion for helping people address these challenges with her facilitation of Mussar. Mussar has provided both a gateway into her personal spiritual journey while enabling her to share Judaism’s enduring wisdom through sharing middot (character traits) learning with others.
Ruth is beginning her 7th year of Mussar facilitation at Temple Israel and cherishes the opportunity to guide her va’ad in their personal growth in a positive, safe and nurturing environment. Ruth has lived in the Twin Cities for 32 years and enjoys travel, hiking and spending time with family, friends and her two furry companions.
Lisa Hurtubise Pride Mussar, Shir Tikvah
Lisa (she/her) is a retired Occupational Therapist and a seasoned activist. Coming out in 1976 in Columbus, Ohio, she was deeply involved in feminist activism and participated in the blossoming gay pride movement. As an activist, Lisa organized against police brutality, nuclear proliferation, and violence against women. Now, she finds profound fulfillment in facilitating Mussar groups. Over the past seven years, her personal practice of and commitment to Mussar has deepened, inspiring her to weave women’s and Queer voices into the tradition. Based in Minneapolis for the past 26 years, she’s raised four children and now enjoys being a grandmother to eight grandchildren.
Rabbi Harold Kravitz Adah Jeshurun Congregation
Rabbi Harold Kravitz (he/him) holds the Max Newman Family Chair in Rabbinics at Adath Jeshurun Congregation, Minnetonka, MN. He has served the congregation since 1987 when he was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary. He is President of the Rabbinical Assembly, the more than 1600 member global professional association of the Conservative/Masorti Movement. He served on the RA’s Va’ad Hakavod (Professional Ethics Committee) for 18 years and chaired it for six years. He serves on the Rabbinic Advisory Committee of the Center for Contemporary Mussar. He is Past Board Chair of MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger.
Michael Kuhne Mount Zion Temple
Michael (he/him) started studying and practicing Mussar in 2014, and is part of the Living Mussar podcast team. He is also a recently retired community college English instructor and former Mount Zion Temple board president. Mussar has offered Michael a way of being Jewish that combines his love of text and history with a deep spirituality grounded in day-to-day life.
Hope Melton Adath Jeshurun Congregation
Hope (she/her) is an experienced Mussar facilitator and has over 30 years of teaching experience including: high school history and social studies, English and Swedish for immigrants with the Swedish Civil Service Adult Education Institute in Stockhom, and being an adjunct faculty at St. Catherine and St. Thomas Universities. She holds two Master’s degrees: one in American History from Northwestern University and one in City & Regional Planning (MCRP), with a concentration in social policy, from Rutgers University.
For Hope, Mussar brings meaning, inspiration, joy, and spiritual grounding into all aspects of her life. Her Mussar teaching is dedicated to the Jewish covenantal obligation to care for the Other—at the individual, community, and societal levels. The goal is to promote a more equitable, peaceful, and sustainable society based on Jewish ethical values, sacred teachings, and practices. She created Edina Neighbors for Affordable Housing and has led this effort for the past five years, in partnership with Jewish Community Action (JCA) and the Suburban Hennepin Housing Coalition.
Sonya Rapport Beth Jacob Congregation
Sonya Rapport (she/her) began studying Mussar in 2020 at her synagogue, Adath Jeshurun in Minnesota, through a partnership program with the Center of Contemporary Mussar (CCM). She’s had the privilege to learn from incredible teachers at her synagogue, from CCM madrichim and most recently from Julie Dean with Twin Cities Mussar. Sonya is immensely grateful for the positive impact that living a Mussar life has brought her and for the guidance it provides for navigating and building stronger relationships with those around her. This passion has inspired Sonya to serve on the Board for the Center of Contemporary Mussar since 2022, to become a trained Madrichah with CCM in 2023 and to participate in Julie Dean’s Mussar Facilitator Training in 2024. Sonya is eager to bring Mussar to those around her and to share this beautiful Jewish Tradition with the current and next generations.
Laurel Riedel Shir Tikvah
For 30 years, Laurel Riedel (she/her) guided women and families through the miracle and mystery of birth as a nurse midwife at Hennepin Medical Center. Being deeply invested in the transitions into and out of life she now helps people write thoughtful Health Care Directives and more importantly to befriend the conversations about the end of life long before we get there.
Over the past five years Laurel has deepened her own Mussar practice and now facilitates Mussar groups. She values creating a safe space to nurture and explore Mussar soul traits. Laurel shares, “Each morning I wake up to my personal Mussar Focus Phrases: ‘Joy as an act of resistance’ and ‘Trust in God but row the boat to shore.’ She says that Mussar helps her reach towards her best life, for her own holy soul and for Tikkun Olam. As a facilitator, Laurel invites participants to join her in the personal and communal discovery of our best selves.
Mandy Roll-Kuhne Mount Zion Temple
Mandy Roll-Kuhne (she/her) has been a Mussar student and practitioner for 10 years as a member of a va’ad facilitated by Julie Dean. For Mandy, Mussar has provided a meaningful path and connection to Judaism, as well as a series of tools to help her understand and navigate her daily life. Her “soul journey” continues to be one of exploring the relationship between belief and practice and a deepening connection to the divine. As a facilitator, Mandy’s goal is to co-create an environment where va’ad participants can find their own ways to uncover and explore their own holy souls through study, collaborative effort, and intimate spiritual connection to ourselves and to others.
Barbara Rubin-Greenberk Adath Jeshurun Congregation
Barbara (she/her) is a Center for Contemporary certified Madrichah, who was introduced to CCM when Rabbi Ira Stone spoke at Adath Jeshurun several years ago. Barbara has studied Mussar for seven years and continues to study with Mussar teachers.
Barbara is a certified leadership coach with certifications in emotional intelligence and personality type (MBTI). She has also served in many leadership positions at the Adath Jeshurun Congregation.
She has found Mussar to be inspirational and an incredibly effective practice to develop oneself and grow through a Jewish framework. Barbara is committed and passionate about caring for others and helping them grow through Mussar Practice. We live in relationship all the time and Mussar helps us develop ourselves and create healthier relationships that reflect care of self and our nearest others.
Heidi Schneider Adath Jeshurun Congregation
Heidi Schneider (she/her) is a Center for Contemporary Mussar (CCM) certified Madrichah, (facilitator) who was introduced to CCM when Rabbi Ira Stone conducted a Shabbaton at her congregation, Adath Jeshuran, in Minnesota. In the past year, Heidi taught Mussar classes to adults and teens with Rabbi Harold Kravitz at Adath Jeshurun Congregation.
Heidi is also the chair of the Masorti Foundation for Conservative Judaism in Israel and served as congregational president of Adath Jeshurun. She is a volunteer speaker in Minnesota public and private schools on behalf of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas. She keeps a reminder for the middah of Bitachon on a post-it note on her desk to remind her that worry is an opportunity to seek out the other and reconnect in serenity.
Andrea Singer Temple Israel
Andrea’s (she/her) passions include being a mother of two adolescent children, a wife, and a lover of horses and music. Professionally, she has nearly 30 years of experience with teaching, facilitating and training educators.
Studying and practicing Mussar has helped Andrea realize the power of her choices in how she interacts and lives her life. She reflects that Mussar “truly has been a positive, grounding experience.” As a facilitator, Andrea combines her passion for learning and practice while also sharing her love of Mussar with others. She has lived in the Minneapolis area for the majority of her life and wouldn’t have it any other way!
Emma Stout Pride Mussar
Emma Stout (she/they) is thrilled to be engaging in her first Mussar va’ad as a facilitator. She grew up in Roseville, Minnesota and has been living in Minneapolis for the last ten years. She is passionate about inclusion and making sure that everyone feels they have a seat at the table. Emma is a web developer, a Jew by choice, and a beginning mandolin player. She is active in the vibrant community singing and social dance communities in the Twin Cities, and she leads a monthly Jewish song circle called Ilu Finu. Emma lives in South Minneapolis with her two lovable and goofy cats.
Luke Weisberg Shir Tikvah
Luke (he/him) works professionally as a facilitator, advisor, researcher, and leader in the nonprofit and public sectors — primarily focused on making the labor market work better for lower-income adults. Luke has been active in Jewish communal life since his teens, and has focused the last many years on cultivating a steadier spiritual practice including Mussar. Luke reports that the effort has been worth it: “Mussar brings an organizational framework to my thinking, and pushes me everyday to “close the gap” as Alan Morinis describes, between the high ideals we hold in mind and the living truth of how we act in life. Luke is excited to be engaged in, and supporting the growth of, Twin Cities Mussar, and looks forward to welcoming new Mussar learners to Va’adot in the coming months.
Gayle Zoffer Hineni
A native of Pittsburgh, Gayle (she/her) has lived in Minneapolis for nearly 35 years and been an active member of Shir Tikvah congregation for more than 30 years. She began her Mussar study in 2015 with Rabbis Amy Eilberg and Debra Rappaport, was part of the first Va’ad Julie Dean led at Shir Tikvah, and continued her study with the Institute of Jewish Spirituality. She worked with Julie in 2023-2024 to create materials for Twin Cities Mussar facilitators based on Alan Morinis’ book Everyday Holiness and is a member of the 2024 Wise Heart Mussar Facilitation cohort.
For Gayle, Mussar offers an opportunity to apply practical Jewish wisdom in the places and relationships she encounters every day. It reminds her that there are more options for how to think about and act in any situation with compassion, kindness, and gratitude than our well-engrained habits might allow us to see.
Her prior professional work as a community relations professional, program evaluator, focus group facilitator, and teacher in Jewish and adult basic education classrooms provides a foundation for her Mussar facilitation. In her free time, she enjoys singing, walking with friends, knitting, and watercolor art; she lives in downtown Minneapolis with her husband, David, and their cat, Dexter.
Liba Zweigbaum Herman Studio Inside/Out
Liba (she/her) has long been drawn to the transformative power of creative exploration. With a background in Experiential Art and Environmental Education, she first discovered Process Arts while living in Oregon years ago and was deeply captivated by its dynamic and restorative qualities. She later began studying with The Center for Creative Exploration in San Francisco, CA, inspiring her to open Studio INSIDE OUT: An Art Center for Creating and Connecting in St. Louis Park, MN.
Liba is an avid Mussar student and is a recent graduate in the Cultivating a Wise Heart: Mussar Facilitator Training and Mentorship Cohort with Julie Dean. She has worked locally with Courageous HeARTS, Free Arts MN, Minnetonka Center for the Arts, Old Arizona Youth Programs, St. Louis Park Community Education, Sunny Hollow Montessori, Hineni: Center of Jewish Contemplative Studies, Beth El Synagogue, Rimon: MN Jewish Arts Council.