New Rabbinic Students at Leo Baeck College
Monday, 19 July 2010
Leo Baeck College is pleased to announce the new intake of UK and international rabbinic students for the coming year. Emily Jurman, Naomi Spencer, Jonas Jacquelin and Adam Frankenberg will spend their first year of studies in Israel and Esther Hugenholtz, Jessica Lenza and Alexander Grodensky will join the third year of the rabbinic programme in London this September.Emily Jurman
Born and raised just outside of Toronto, Canada, Emily Jurman recently graduated with a BA in religious studies, specializing in Jewish studies from York University. Emily worked in various positions in her home synagogue of Solel Congregation as a Bet Sefer teacher, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah tutor, a song leader, and a youth advisor. It was at this congregation under the leadership of Rabbi Larry Englander that Emily began to dream of joining the rabbinate. She is excited to begin her studies at the College and looks forward to serving the British Reform and Liberal communities.
Naomi Spencer
Naomi Spencer was born in Britain in 1979. Throughout childhood, she belonged to both Liberal and Reform congregations and is currently a member of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in St Johns Wood. Studying in London, Naomi graduated with a first class geography degree and became an urban planner. Throughout her twenties, Naomi specialised in urban regeneration and worked on projects relating to the government’s sustainable communities agenda. She served the Greater London Authority (GLA) and then Transport for London (TfL). After devoting lots of time and energy to the public sector, Naomi is keen to dedicate herself to serving the Jewish community and is delighted to be to studying at Leo Baeck College. Her interests include healthy living and she is a keen sportswoman.
Adam Frankenberg
Adam is a long time member of Menorah Synagogue and has for almost as long as he can remember wanted to be rabbi. He really enjoys Jewish education and as well as activities at his synagogue and has attended Limmud on a regular basis for many years. His first degree was in chemistry and biochemistry at Keele University from where he graduated in 2001. He then attended Manchester where he achieved an MA in Jewish studies in 2004. Adam is currently in the very final stages of his PhD at Manchester where he is researching non-Orthodox halachah.
Jonas Jacquelin
Jonas Jacquelin was born and grew up in France. He studied history and Jewish literature at the Sorbonne. He oriented his research on the reception of Maimonidies’ work and on the controversies surrounding this work. He was also involved in his community (MJLF-Paris) where he taught Judaism to children and adolescents was shaliah tzibbur and launched a weekly paper explaining the parasha.
Alexander Grodensky
Alexander holds a bachelor-level degree in public administration from North-West Academy of Public Administration in St. Petersburg, Russia with the major in public policy and religion. He has studied Judaism and Jewish education in Israel and Russia, and has played an active role in the Jewish community of St. Petersburg and later Vienna, for the last five years working in education management and as an educator. Alexander has completed a master’s degree in international marketing and management at Lauder Business School in Vienna. During the year 2009-10 Alexander is Walter Benjamin fellow at Paideia – The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Stockholm, Sweden.
Jessica Lenza
Jessica Lenza grew up in New Jersey, USA where her interest in Jewish communal life first developed at Temple Shalom under the mentorship of Rabbi Joel E. Soffin. In 2005, she graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Lafayette College receiving her Bachelor of Arts in both Religious Studies and Music. Immediately upon completing her college degree, Jessica matriculated into the School of Sacred Music at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion to pursue a career in the cantorate. After two years of study there, she left the school realising that her true passion was in the rabbinic field. Since then, Jessica has honed her teaching skills as a full time educator for Central Synagogue in Manhattan. She is very excited to move across the Atlantic to serve the Progressive Jewish community in the United Kingdom.
Esther Hugenholtz
Esther Hugenholtz (1978) was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She completed the first two years of her rabbinical training at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, a seminary affiliated with the Conservative movement of Judaism and interned as a Rabbinic Fellow at the American Jewish University. She is a regular columnist for the Dutch interfaith website ‘Nieuw Wij’ (‘a new we’) and regularly publishes articles for different Dutch Jewish media. She is also the writer of a booklet on modern uses of mikveh for the Liberal community of Amsterdam, to be published this autumn. Furthermore she has given lectures on Jewish themes. She has also been involved with the organization of Limmoed.nl, the Dutch branch of Limmud (a Jewish festival of learning) where she has also taught a session and has taught Hebrew school at the Amsterdam Liberal community. She will continue the remaining three years of her rabbinical training at Leo Baeck College.
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