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2005 Western Young Leadership Conference: Featured Speakers

Rachel Fish
Jeff Kaye
Rabbi Paul J. Kipnes, RJE
David Lonner
Joshua Malina
Mark Miller
Joshua Nelson
Alina Gerlovin Spaulding
Mark Wright
Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman

Rachel Fish
Rachel Fish is the director of the David Project's New York office. While a student at Harvard Divinity School, Fish led a protest campaign resulting in the closing of the Arab League's anti-Semitic Zayed Centre think-tank. She has appeared on CBS Evening News, NPR's All Things Considered, and published in the Wall Street Journal.

 

 

 

Jeff Kaye
Jeff Kaye serves as the Director of Resource Development & Public Affairs in the Jewish Agency for Israel. In this capacity, Jeff also holds responsibility for the Israel Education Fund, and the U.S. Government Grant. Prior to joining the Jewish Agency in 2000, he served as the Director of the United Israel Appeal’s Israel Office. His long stint of professional involvement in the Jewish community includes positions at the Jewish Community Centers Association and Melitz. Both of these positions were in Israel. Abroad, Jeff was the Community Emissary (shaliach) to Detroit during the years 1993-97. In addition to his work at the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, Jeff was responsible for all emissaries (shlichim) in the Midwest region of the United States. Jeff also has extensive experience in special education, both as a teacher and supervisor. From 1989-93 he was the principal of the Kiryat Ye’arim Youth Aliyah Village, after having served for seven years as a teacher for children with special needs in schools in Jerusalem. Jeff received his BA in Psychology and Politics from the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. He also received diplomas of Special Education from the David Yellin College of Education, and from the Hebrew University in the area of School Management.  Jeff made aliyah in 1981 from Scotland and still serves as a reserve soldier in the Israel Defense Forces. He lives with his wife and two children in Tsur Hadassah, a community not far from Jerusalem.

Rabbi Paul J. Kipnes, RJE
Rabbi Paul Kipnes is spiritual leader of Congregation Or Ami.  Previously, he served as rabbi at North Hollywood’s Temple Beth Hillel and as director of Malibu’s Camp Hess Kramer. Rabbi Kipnes served for three years as national convention chairperson for the Central Conference of American Rabbis and as a past chairperson of the West Valley Rabbinic Task Force. He sits as a lecturer on pastoral counseling in the Rabbinical School and as a member of the Education School clinical faculty at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles, Calif. Under his leadership, Congregation Or Ami has won national awards for social justice programming and innovative Neighborhood Shabbat Services project, and wins the hearts of its families for its Henaynu caring community, which reaches out during times of need. He creates community-wide programs for Jews recovering from addictions. He most recently traveled to Israel in January 2004 as a fortieth birthday present to himself. Rabbi Kipnes and his wife Michelle November (the Program Director at Stephen S. Wise Temple), have three children.

David Lonner
David Lonner is co-head of the Motion Picture Department at the William Morris Agency (WMA), which he joined in September 2003.  Lonner represents a wide range of highly successful writers, producers and directors including: J.J. Abrams, Audrey Wells, Brad Silberling, Jon Turteltaub, Alexander Payne, Michael Tolkin and Brad Bird.  Lonner is a former board member of the Early Childhood Center at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles and former chairman of the entertainment division of the United Jewish Fund.  He serves on the Board of Governors of the American Jewish Committee and he is a board member of the Phase 1 Cancer Institute. 

Joshua Malina
A series regular on NBC’s Emmy Award-winning "The West Wing," actor Joshua Malina has the impressive distinction of having appeared in every project that Aaron Sorkin has written/produced. As ‘Will Bailey’, Malina fills the slot left open by Rob Lowe’s departure in the hit drama series. Upon graduation from Yale University with a B.A. degree in Theatre, Malina made his professional acting debut in the Broadway production of Sorkin’s "A Few Good Men." He went on to star as Jeremy Goodwin in the critically acclaimed television series "Sports Night," for which he and his castmates were nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for "Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy." Other Sorkin credits include the hit features "The American President" and "Malice."

He recently appeared in Bruno Barreto’s comedy for Miramax, "A View from the Top," with Gwenyth Paltrow and Mike Meyers. Additional film credits include "In the Line of Fire" with Clint Eastwood and "Bulworth" with Warren Beatty and Halle Berry. Malina serves as executive producer on the original Bravo series "Celebrity Poker Showdown," which is filmed on-location at the Palms Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, and has broke ratings records for the network. A fifth installment of the show will launch in January 2005.

Mark Miller
Mark Miller is a third year rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles. Prior to starting HUC, he spent nine years as a Jewish Camp Director -- first with the Maurice B. Shwayder Camp of Congregation Emanuel in Colorado, and then with the Wilshire Boulevard Temple Camps in Malibu, California. In addition to his work with a number of Jewish community organizations in the U.S., Mark is currently chair of the alumni board for Livnot U’Lehibanot, a work-study-travel program for young adults in Israel. Mark and his wife Rachel-Ann (formerly part of the UJC University Programs Department) live in LA, where they recently welcomed a son, Mori, into the world.

Joshua Nelson
Joshua Nelson was discovered when he was eight years old. He has spread the sheer joy and fervent spirituality of Gospel music to audiences from New Jersey to Jerusalem and throughout the world. Nelson has performed in concert halls, synagogues, churches and at various outdoor venues, both solo and with various musical luminaries. Nelson recently embarked on an extensive European tour. He toured Israel (performing in perfect Hebrew as well as English) and had the opportunity to sing "Hatikvah," the Israeli national anthem, at Binyanei Ha'uma Hall in Jerusalem for an audience that included the President of Israel.

Joshua Nelson graduated from Newark's Arts High School in Newark, N.J. He currently serves as the Minister of Music at Hopewell Baptist Church in Newark. He is a proponent of preserving traditional Gospel music and travels worldwide performing the music in its original form. His cultural and religious background and extensive travels through Israel influenced him to create a new form of music, blending Jewish liturgical and African American musical styles.

Alina Gerlovin Spaulding
Born in Ukraine, Alina Gerlovin Spaulding immigrated to the United States with her parents in 1979 at the age of five. Her parents had been Refuseniks, originally denied the right to leave the Soviet Union. When she arrived in the U.S., Alina spoke no English. Not only did she learn English, but she completed her public school education in ten years, then graduated from college in three years and completed her master's degree in a year and-a-half.

 

 

Mark Wright
Mark Wright is a practicing attorney in Tampa, Florida representing clients in a wide variety of civil litigation, with an emphasis on personal injury and wrongful death. Mark is a past co-chair of the United Jewish Communities National Young Leadership Cabinet. He has lectured extensively to dozens of federations and synagogues on such topics as campaign training, young leadership development, overseas needs, Israel at 50 and the Aleph Bets of federation.

Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman
Rabbi Zimmerman received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn. She began her rabbinic studies in 1982 at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She was ordained in 1988. Rabbi Zimmerman has served on the National Outreach Commission for Reform Judaism. She was a founding member of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights and the recipient of the Faith and Freedom Circle of Honor Award. She presently serves on the Program Committee for the Phillips Christian/Jewish Learning Center at St. Thomas University. In addition to teaching at Augsburg Weekend College and Macalester College, Rabbi Zimmerman is currently the president of the Minnesota Rabbinical Association and is on the Robins, Kaplan, Miller and Ciresi Foundation Board. Rabbi Zimmerman has been at Temple Israel for 14 years and was named Senior Rabbi in 2001. Rabbi Zimmerman is married to Frank Hornstein and has three children, Rebecca, Naomi and Max Zimmerman Hornstein.