Kahal Fellows (2016)

Aaron Greene is from Cleveland, Ohio. He goes to the University of Hartford, in West Hartford, CT, where he’s currently a Judaic Studies major. He went to Fuchs Mizrachi High school, and before starting college, he spent a year in Israel at Yeshivat Lev Hatorah in Ramat Beit Shemesh. His hobbies include reading, playing basketball, watching movies, and Jewish studies.  

Becca Sirota is currently attending Emory University and will start this fall as a sophomore. Though she’s majoring in Human Health and minoring in Linguistics, she’s planning on applying to and attending Dental school after graduating. Some of her extracurriculars include Club Basketball, TEDxEmory, Emory Students for Israel, and Academic Fellows. In her spare time she enjoys reading, watching Netflix, and hanging out with her friends.

Before graduating from high school in Baltimore in 2014, Dori Coplan interned at the International Rescue Committee, working with refugees and asylees. This past year, Dori studied abroad in Israel where she learned at Midreshet Lindenbaum, a seminary in Jerusalem. While there, she explored Israeli history and culture, deepened her connection to Judaism, and learned to play the cello. As a freshman at Franklin and Marshall, she plans to study computer and environmental science.

Eilanit Kashani is from LA, born and raised, and went to YULA for high school. She is going into her Junior Year at Cal State Northridge (CSUN) where she is a communication studies major. She loves to travel and see how people live in different parts of the world. One of her biggest goals is to see all 50 states before she’s 50.  She loves volunteering, helping out in the community , reading and spending time with her friends.

Hannah Finkel is from Newton Massachusetts. In high school she served as her chapter’s NCSY president. Following high school she spent a year in Israel at Machon Maayan, an all girls seminary program. As a rising  sophomore at the George Washington University she serves on the founding executive board of her TAMID chapter, is very involved in the pro Israel community, and plays on the travel club lacrosse team.

Jake Belinky is from Atlanta, Geogria (born and raised). He graduated from Yeshiva Atlanta High School before attending Eretz Hatzi in Jerusalem for the year. Currently, he is a sophomore studying Finance and Economics and Strategy at Washington University in St. Louis. Some of his interests include golf, tennis, entrepreneurship, and hiking.

Jasmine Schnall is entering her senior year at UC San Diego and will be obtaining a B.S. in Clinical Psychology. She plans to learn more about the mental health field and pursue a PsyD in Clinical Psychology. She is also actively involved on campus and will be serving as Jewish Culture Chair in Alpha Epsilon Phi and V.P. Programming of the Union of Jewish Students during 2015-16. She is excited to start the new year and help promote Jewish life on campus.

Justin Kaminker is from Toronto, Ontario and is a political studies student at Queen’s University. In past years he’s served as a Vice President of Queen’s Hillel and on the executive board of NCSY Alumni Canada. This year, he’s very excited to be Hillel’s Holocaust Education Week coordinator and even more excited to be attending Hebrew University for exchange 2nd semester. His other interests include both watching and playing a lot of sports, attending overnight camp (first as a camper and now as a counselor), and playing guitar. This will be his 3rd year at Queen’s and he is thrilled to help bring Kahal to the campus.

Lauren Sprung is a junior studying mechanical engineering at Stony Brook University. She is very excited to bring the Kahal / Heart 2 Heart program to her campus. This year, she will be the Hillel vice president, and this fellowship gives her additional resources to engage students. She hopes to see Stony Brook’s Jewish community flourish and she wants to be a part of that!

Rachel Waldman is a Business major at the College of Staten Island. She is currently the President of Hillel on campus as well as an active member of many other clubs including the business club, the women’s center, the pluralism and diversity club, etc. She speaks Russian, Hebrew, and English. In her free time she likes to sing, travel and meet new people.

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Samuel Lipovetsky is 20 years old, and is a History major at the University of California Riverside. He is very interested in Jewish History and how it relates to Judaism. He currently lives in San Francisco, but he hopes to make aliyah after graduating college. He hopes to continue building the Jewish community at his university.

Sarah Maron is a sophomore at The College of New Jersey majoring in Communication Disorders and English. Originally from Stamford, Connecticut, she spent a gap year studying and doing chesed in Jerusalem before college. Sarah has volunteered at a variety of different Jewish organizations, including Friendship Circle, One Family, and the Koby Mandell Foundation. She is already active at Chabad and in Jewish life on her campus and is excited to help expand Jewish opportunities and programs at TCNJ

Shaina Stasi is a second year student at the University of Kansas. She is from Overland Park, Kansas, and is studying speech, language, and hearing. She is greatly involved with Jewish life on campus.

Talia Weisberg is a junior at Harvard concentrating in Religion with a secondary field in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. On campus, she currently serves as the co-editor-in-chief of Manifesta, Harvard’s only feminist magazine, and as co-president of the Harvard Hillel Orthodox Student Minyan. She has written about Judaism, feminism, and the intersections of the two for several publications, including the Huffington Post, Jewesses with Attitude, Ms. magazine blog, and Sisterhood blog of the Jewish Daily Forward. In 2013, she was named as one of the Jewish Week’s 36 Under 36 in recognition of her feminist advocacy work. She likes panda bears, iced coffee (American and Israeli versions), Doctor Who, rescue dogs, and writing about herself in the third person.

Kevin Wolf is from Bergenfield, NJ and is a sophomore at the University of Michigan. He attended the Frisch School for high school and was privileged to learn at Yeshivat Orayta for 2 incredible years. He wants to invigorate people’s Jewish identity on campus and have people be proud of and inspired by the meaningful tradition we have been lucky to receive. He tries hard to be someone who is approachable and enjoys dialoguing with others about a manifold of topics related to Judaism.