Leadership
Our Team & Pilot Cohort
American Scripture Project was founded at the Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation, and our leadership rests upon the sacred partnership between our clergy team and lay leadership.
NVHC Clergy Team
NVHC Prior Clergy (collaborators in developing American Scripture Project)
Additional Support
Emily Hummel, NVHC’s Assistant Director of Congregational Learning
Joe Miller, NVHC’s Executive Director
This program would not have been possible without the thought partnership of Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE), the Aspen Institute, the One America Movement, the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, A More Perfect Union: the Jewish Partnership for Democracy, and Civic Spirit. Since 2018, funding has been provided by the Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Washington, and the NVHC Tikkun Olam Fund.
Visual Identity by Dirty Napkin.
NVHC Rebuilding Democracy Lay Team
Central to our work has been the sacred partnership between our clergy and laity. When rebuilding America’s underlying norms and culture of democracy, faith institutions have the particular advantage of mixing the spiritual, moral, intellectual, theological, and symbolic leadership of clergy with the governance responsibilities of laity (in addition to all of their individual talents, expertise, time, hard work, and generosity). This unique combination enables us to cultivate what John Dewey taught lies at the bedrock of democracy: “a vast mass of sentiments, many vague, some defined, of instincts, of aspirations, of ideas, of hopes and fears, of purposes.”
Ellen Goldman*, Chair
Andy Cohen
Bess Eisenstadt
Eric Eisenstadt*
Larry Katzman
Jill Klein
Andy Lacher*
Eli Lehrer
Ira Merin
Frank Newman
Michelle Probst*
Ellen Ranard
Avril Rodney
David Rodney*
Marc Rosenberg*
Susan Trivers*
Ruth Ann Whalen
Gershom Young
*peer coach for American Scripture Project
2023-2024 Pilot Cohort
We are enormously grateful for the insights gathered from our 2023-2024 Pilot Cohort. Rabbis from these congregations participated in our initial training and monthly coaching, received peer coaching for lay partners, and provided enormous amounts of feedback on our first six sessions.
Rabbi Malcolm Cohen, Kol Ami Synagogue - Tucson, AZ
Rabbi Alan Litwak, Temple Sinai of North Dade - Miami, FL
Rabbi Preston Neimeiser, Temple Beth-El of Providence, RI
Rabbi Brian Michelson, Reform Congregation Oheb Shalom - Wyomissing, PA
Rabbi Rafi Spitzer, Congregation Agudat Achim - Schenectady, NY
Rabbi Cookie Lei Olshein, Temple Emanuel of Tempe - Tempe, AZ
Rabbi Geoffrey Dennis, Congregation Kol Ami - Flower Mound, TX
Rabbi John Linder, Temple Solel - Paradise Valley, AZ
Rabbi Dan Selsberg, Temple Sholom - Bridgewater, NJ
Rabbi Stephanie Crawley, Temple Micah - Washington, DC