SCHOLARS-IN-RESIDENCE
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Experience a vast array of lectures offered by our esteemed lineup. Whether during a shiur or taking part in a political forum, you will be inspired and eager to participate throughout the chag.
Rabbi Josh Blass
Rabbi Josh Blass has served for the past 21 years as a Mashgiach Ruchani in Yeshiva University. Additionally, Rabbi Blass was a community Rav for nineteen years, the first four in Einstein Medical School, followed by fifteen years in Kehillas Beis Yehudah in Wesley Hills, NY, where he resides to this day. Rabbi Blass holds a Masters in Social Work and has a practice specializing in addiction and trauma. Rabbi Blass has been involved professionally both in a Rabbinic and Mental Health capacity with a number of organizations including Project Tikvah, My Extended Family, Kesher Family and Project Ezra. Rabbi Blass speaks and gives shiurim throughout the Tri-State area.
Professor Marc B. Shapiro
Marc B. Shapiro holds the Weinberg Chair in Judaic Studies at the University of Scranton. A graduate of Brandeis (BA) and Harvard (PhD), he is the author of numerous books, articles, and reviews, and is a popular scholar in residence at synagogues around the world. His most recent book, Renewing the Old, Sanctifying the New: The Unique Vision of Rav Kook, has just appeared. Among his other books are Between the Yeshiva World and Modern Orthodoxy, Saul Lieberman and the Orthodox, and Changing the Immutable: How Orthodox Judaism Rewrites Its History. In 2019 he published a Hebrew volume, Iggerot Malkhei Rabbanan, which contains more than thirty years of correspondence with some of the world's most outstanding Torah scholars. Dr. Shapiro also teaches a weekly online class, for hundreds of listeners, on great rabbinic figures.
Dr. Joseph Shatzkes
Joseph Shatzkes is a Board-Certified Physician in Cardiovascular Diseases, Internal Medicine, Echocardiography, and Nuclear Cardiology. He is a member of Englewood Cardiology Consultants in New Jersey and is an attending physician at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center. His interests include preventative and consultative cardiology and medicine, critical care cardiology, and medical ethics.
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After graduating summa cum laude from the prestigious Brooklyn College BAMD program, he completed medical school at Downstate University Medical Center. There, as well, he graduated summa cum laude and was honored as president of the exclusive Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society, and was nominated by his peers as an inaugural member of the Gold Humanism Honor Society. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center where he was recognized with an award for Excellence in Clinical Medicine. He subsequently completed his cardiovascular fellowship training at Montefiore Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
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Joey resides in Teaneck, NJ, with his wife Shira and their six children.
Dr. Edward Shapiro
Edward Shapiro grew up in Washington, D. C. and graduated from Georgetown University. He attended graduate school at the University of North Carolina and Harvard University and received his Ph.D. from Harvard. He taught at the University of Maryland, St. John's University (Minnesota), and Seton Hall University. He has lectured on American and American Jewish history throughout the United States and in Israel and Europe. He is the author of over two hundred essay and reviews in American and American Jewish history, and has written several books, including "Crown Heights: Blacks, Jews, and the 1991 Brooklyn Riot" and "A Time for Healing: American Jewry Since World War II." He has received research grants from the American Philosophical Society, the Lucius Littauer Foundation, and other organizations and has been as fellow of the Oxford Center for Jewish Studies in England.
Ilana Blass, Esq.
Ilana Blass is an attorney and mediator in the greater New York area, specializing in family law and real estate law. After teaching for a number of years in New York day schools, Ilana attended Cardozo Law School and began her career as an associate in the firm of Debevoise & Plimpton. Upon fleeing big law, Ilana joined the Beth Din of America where she served as administrative attorney of the commercial and matrimonial caseload. Ilana also served as the rebbetzin of the Albert Einstein School of Medicine for four years and then as the rebbetzin of Kehillas Bais Yehuda in Wesley Hills for fifteen years. In addition to her law practice, Ilana gives shiurim in the greater Monsey area. Ilana resides in Monsey with her family and is an avid kickboxer and Peloton enthusiast.