Presenters - W

Organisation: Gratz College
Website: http://www.gratz.edu

Saul Wachs holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in education, Jewish education and Jewish music from Gratz College, Temple University, The Jewish Theological Seminary, and the Ohio State University. He is the Rosaline B. Feinstein Professor of Education and Liturgy and Chair of the Education Department at Gratz College.

Sessions:

• A Curricular Approach to Prayer and Prayer Study in the School
• Lessons for Teaching Prayer
• Teaching and Studying a Prayer: Cognition and Affect

Lewis Warshauer is based in New York City and teaches adult education seminars in Judaism. He has served as a rabbi in Kansas City and has presented at Limmud on multiple ways of understanding the Bible, including viewing works of art.

Sessions:

• Taking on Faith: Must Jews Be Believers? (1 of 2)
• Taking on Faith: Must Jews Be Believers? (2 of 2)

Organisation: Yad Vashem
Website: http://www.yadvashem.org.il

Tamara Wassner-Rich works at the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem - teaching and developing online courses, lecturing and conducting museum tours. She has a BA in English and History from the University of New South Wales, a Graduate Diploma of Museum Studies and a Masters degree in Cultural Heritage from Deakin University, Australia.

Sessions:

• Discover History from Your Computer
• Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi's Writings and More Via Your Computer
• Going Beyond Anne Frank
• Online Yad Vashem Courses in Your Time

Website: http://www.lootedart.com

Anne Webber is founder and co-chair of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe, Director of the Central Registry of Information on Looted Cultural Property and a member of the UK Spoliation Advisory Committee. Formerly a documentary filmmaker at the BBC, she is President of Jewish Book Week.

Sessions:

• Nazi Looted Works of Art - Recovering What Is Rightfully Theirs

Rebekka Wedell studied music at Goldsmiths College, and the Guildhall School and has gained a Master of Music qualification. She is a performer and composer specialising in contemporary 'art' music and works as a music teacher and tutor.

Sessions:

• Making Sound-Art (1 of 3)
• Making Sound-Art - a Creative Workshop (2 of 3)
• Making Sound-Art - a Creative Workshop (3 of 3)

Organisation: Melitz
Website: http://www.melitz.org.il

Michael Wegier is the Executive Director of Melitz, one of Israel's premier centres for informal Jewish education. He specialises in using sources, both classic and modern, and websites to enable participants to explore and deepen their commitment to the Jewish people and our capacity to shape our world.

Sessions:

• Against (Jewish) Identity
• Bialik - the Poems, the Person and the People
• Moses and Zippora - the Torah's Most Surprising Story
• Tell me Text
• The Elephant in the Room: What Do British Jews Not Talk About?

Organisation: Hebrew University

Shalva Weil is Senior Researcher at the Research Institute for Innovation in Education at the Hebrew University, specialising in educational programmes for underprivileged populations. She is President of SOSTEJE (Society for the Study of Ethiopian Jewry) and an expert on Indian Jews and the Lost Ten Tribes.

Sessions:

• Tell me Text
• The Mystery of the Ten Lost Tribes (1 of 4)
• The Mystery of the Ten Lost Tribes (2 of 4)
• The Mystery of the Ten Lost Tribes (3 of 4)
• The Mystery of the Ten Lost Tribes (4 of 4)

Organisation: European Masorti bet Din

Chaim Weiner is founder and director of the European Masorti Bet Din. Ordained at the Schechter Institute in Jerusalem, and a graduate of the prestigious Jerusalem Fellows Programme, he is known for his trips to destinations of Jewish interest across Europe. His courses are in demand across the community.

Sessions:

• Jewish Journeys: Fez - a Moroccan Experience (2 of 2)
• Jewish Journeys: Speyer, Worms and Mainz - the Birth of Ashkenaz (1 of 2)
• Untying the Knot - an Introduction to Jewish Divorce (1 of 2)
• Untying the Knot - an Introduction to Jewish Divorce (2 of 2)

Organisation: Tephilharmonic / Ne'imah Singers
Website: http://www.tephilharmonic.org.uk

Jonathan Weissbart has been involved in synagogue services from a very early age. He conducts the Ne’imah Singers choir at St John’s Wood United Synagogue and recently co-founded Tephilharmonic, an organisation which aims to preserve and develop traditional synagogue music in UK orthodox communities. He also leads services and leyns regularly.

Sessions:

• Davening for Dummies?

Barbara Wettstein is a clinical psychologist in Los Angeles and a PhD. She has been a psychologist for about 20 years and was a high school mathematics teacher before that. Educated in modern orthodox day schools in NY, she now continues her learning in her modern orthodox community in Los Angeles.

Sessions:

• A Level Praying Field? Women's Tefilla Groups Across the Globe
• Comforting the Mourners of Zion: A Psychological Perspective
• Four Women Learning Midrash
• Reaching Across the Lines: Al Quds University

Organisation: University of California, Riverside
Website: http://www.philosophy.ucr.edu/people/wettstein/index.html

Howard Wettstein is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the University Honors Program at the University of California, Riverside. A graduate of Yeshiva College and City University of New York, his work on Jewish thought has focused on awe, doctrine, the problem of evil and the viability of philosophical theology.

Sessions:

• God!? (3 of 4)
• God, Evil and the Book of Job (1 of 2)
• Moses Meets Rabbi Akiva: God's Role in Evil (2 of 2)
• Panel Discussion: What Is the Jewish Response to Richard Dawkins' Charge that 'Faith Is Belief Despite the Lack of Evidence'?
• Reaching Across the Lines: Al Quds University
• Satan and Suffering: Four Scholars Attempt the Impossible - Can They Discuss the Misery and Mystery of the Book of Job Without Ruining Your Shabbat?
• Tell me Text

Organisation: Community Security Trust
Website: http://www.thecst.org.uk

Michael Whine is the Government and International Affairs Director of the Community Security Trust and the Defence Director of The Board of Deputies. He also represents the European Jewish Congress in the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. His work currently focuses on four areas: criminal justice, counter terrorism, liaison with Jewish organisations abroad and other faiths.

Sessions:

• The International Campaign Against Antisemitism

Organisation: The Beyond Images Project
Website: http://www.beyondimages.info

Andrew White is a lawyer and the author of the 900-page Israel information website Beyond Images (www.beyondimages.info) which focuses on key messages and background information about Israel and which he runs on a voluntary, non-profit basis. Over 1000 people have attended his seminars on Israel.

Sessions:

• BBC Distortions About Israel: Two Case Studies
• Getting Israel's Messages Across: Winning Battles, Losing the War...?
• Israel's Fundamental Case: Let's Have a Dialogue.....
• Stories the Media Ignores - Idealism, Creativity and Hope in Modern Israel

Organisation: Ta Shma - Melitz
Website: http://www.tashma.org/

Leon Wiener Dow received his BA from Princeton University, MA from the Hebrew University and rabbinic ordination from David Hartman. Founder of Ta Shma, he teaches at the Secular Yeshiva at BINA (the Center for Jewish Identity and Hebrew Culture). He coordinates the Israel program of Hebrew College’s rabbinical school. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife and four daughters.

Sessions:

• Argument 101: Arguing About Why Jews Argue (2 of 4)
• Argument 401 (Advanced): Envisioning a World of Deeper Disagreement (3 of 4)
• The Limits of 'Limmud': Why 'Cross-communal' Isn't Good Enough
• The Limits of Jewish Entrepreneurship: the Case Study of Ta Shma (4 of 4)

Organisation: University of Vienna
Website: http://www.univie.ac.at/recht-religion/en/wieshaider.html

Wolfgang Wieshaider is assistant professor in law of culture and religion. He has published on a wide range of subjects, including issues of religious freedom and the protection of historic monuments.

Sessions:

• A Cemetery, a Mall, the Living and the Dead

Organisation: Church of England

Guy Wilkinson is the Archbishop of Canterbury's Secretary for Inter Faith Relations and National Adviser to the Church of England

Sessions:

• Anglican-Jewish Relationships
• The Anglican Church and the Jewish Community

Website: http://www.ghettoplotz.com

Tanya Winston's been DJ-ing for 12 years, rocking some of the biggest clubs and underground parties around. She's a founder member of GhettoPlotz, a musical collective who've set dance floors alight with their unique brand of klezmer mixed with electronic beats.

Sessions:

• Last Night DJ Mash Up
• P-A-R-T-Y

Jonathan Wittenberg is rabbi of the New North London Masorti Synagogue. His interests include hospice and hospital chaplaincy, literature, tikkun olam and especially the environment. He likes people, animals and plants. He is married to Nicola Solomon; they have three children.

Sessions:

• Donkeys!
• God!? (1 of 4)
• How to Make a Shivah Visit
• How to Make a Visit to Someone Who's Ill
• Interfaith Dialogue - What's the Purpose?
• With Heart and Soul

Organisation: UK Jewish Film Festival
Website: http://www.ukjewishfilmfestival.org.uk

Lindsay Wittenberg is a UKJFF (UK Jewish Film Festival) Board member, working with both the core team and the Board to evolve and develop the Festival's strategy. She runs her own executive coaching business, helping executives and managers to re-focus their careers, accelerate their development, enhance their leadership skills and improve their performance.

Sessions:

• Campfire
• Encounter Point
• Jerusalem is Proud to Present
• Keeping Up with the Steins
• Kike Like Me
• Knowledge Is the Beginning
• Left Luggage
• The 10th Man / Yippee! A Journey to Jewish Joy
• The Year My Parents Went on Vacation

Organisation: SOAS, University of London

Abigail Wood is Joe Loss Lecturer in Jewish Music at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and has also taught numerous sessions on Jewish music in synagogues, at community events, KlezFest London, the London School of Jewish Studies and at Limmud. Her research interests range from Yiddish hip hop to the choirs of elderly Russian immigrants in Jerusalem …

Sessions:

• Gender and Religious Identity in Orthodox Popular Music
• Learn a Klezmer Tune!
• Sing Hasidic Niggunim

Organisation: London School of Jewish Studies
Website: http://www.lsjs.ac.uk

Tamra Wright is director of academic studies at the London School of Jewish Studies (LSJS) and a visiting lecturer at King's College London. A specialist in contemporary Jewish thought, she is the author of 'The Twilight of Jewish Philosophy: Emmanuel Levinas's Ethical Hermeneutics'. Tamra also created and runs the Susi Bradfield Women Educators' programme at LSJS.

Sessions:

• A Level Praying Field? Women's Tefilla Groups Across the Globe
• Beyond the Eclipse of God: Buber, Levinas and Post-Holocaust Philosophy
• God!? (1 of 4)
• God!? (2 of 4)
• God!? (3 of 4)
• God!? (4 of 4)
• Love Stories: Self and Other in Contemporary Jewish Thought
• Love, Learning and Laundry
• Satan and Suffering: Four Scholars Attempt the Impossible - Can They Discuss the Misery and Mystery of the Book of Job Without Ruining Your Shabbat?