As a Jew by choice and co-founder of Darshan Yeshiva, it is an honor to serve as a conversion mentor. As someone with a Reconstructionist conversion and post-denominational educational and Jewish service background, I see my role of conversion mentor not as a teacher or gatekeeper, but as a concierge. My goal is to provide you the myriad of Jewish experiences possible, and let you decide what matters to you Jewishly. I am a very “hands off” educator, seeing my responsibility as someone to watch you grow in your spiritual identity, and to be that mentor when needed.

I began the PunkTorah network of websites in 2009 with one dvar torah on YouTube. Over time, that grew into the non-profit we have today. Like you, I have been mentored by amazing people who led us to where we are today. And as I mentioned before, what we have at Darshan Yeshiva is the result of many points of spiritual contact across a variety of expressions of Judaism. I will do my best to draw from those people here and elsewhere who can offer their torah, their spiritual knowledge, to you.

When I am not in the PunkTorah-verse, I am the founding rabbi of Kehillah, the independent-progressive Jewish community of Richmond, VA. I am married to the love of my life, we have a recently adopted teenage son, and two tabby cats.