Storytelling Israel: Personal Narratives and Community Engagement

Mollie is the Senior Program Director of Fellowships at M²: The Institute for Jewish Experiential Education. She has over 18 years of experience teaching in a variety of Jewish educational settings – from formal classroom teaching to nature education, from theatre education to collaborative philanthropy education. Mollie enjoys being in the field as well as building programs and trainings to support others. She holds a double Master's in Midrash and Jewish Experiential Education from the Jewish Theological Seminary, a BA in Religion from Bard College and is a graduate of M²’s Senior Educators Cohort. Mollie lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and children.

Dr. Yakir Englander is the Senior National Director of Leadership programs at the Israeli-American Council. He also teaches at the AJR. Originally from the Ultra-Orthodox community of Israel, Englander obtained his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University in Jewish philosophy and gender studies. He is a Fulbright scholar and was a visiting professor of Religion at Northwestern Universities, the Shalom Hartman Institute and Harvard Divinity School. Englander’s books about body, gender and sexuality in the Ultra-Orthodox and Zionist-Orthodox communities have changed the discourse on sexuality and gender inside the Jewish religious societies in Israel. After leaving Orthodoxy, Yakir was drafted to the Israeli military, spending of his service in an elite unit tasked with the identification of human remains. As a result of his service, he joined as a director at Kids4Peace, an interfaith youth movement in Jerusalem and in North America.