B'OR HA'TORAH 23 (2014-2015)

Marvin Gold, PhD, is a professor emeritus of the Department of Medical Genetics and Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Graduate Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Born and raised in Toronto, from the age of four he attended the Eitz Chaim Talmud Torah and then Yeshiva Ha’Maharil Grobart.

After studying biochemistry at the University of Toronto, he completed experiments on the effect of x-radiation on dna replication in mammalian cells, for which he received a doctorate in biophysics. After postdoctoral studies at New York University, he became an assistant professor of molecular biology at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine. In 1967 he returned to the University of Toronto as a member of the department of Medical Biophysics and later, the departments of Medical Genetics and Microbiology.

Professor Gold has published over one hundred papers, including his discovery of the enzymatic methylation of dna in bacteria and bacterial viruses. He also made key findings in elucidating the biochemistry of bacteriophage morphogenesis, which were instrumental in the development of in vitro vectors for gene cloning and dna library formation. At the end of his active career, he devoted his time to solving the mystery of atomic structure of proteins in solution. He was able to use site-directed mutagenesis to engineer enzymes important in metabolism and also for industry. A lifelong student of Talmud and halakhah, Professor Gold started his immersion into Habad Hasidism only in 1979, when he spent a year in Boston as a visiting scientist at mit. Professor Gold and his wife, Miriam, have five children, eight grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. He has been active in several synagogues as a Torah reader, teacher, and gabbai. He currently conducts several hevruta study partnerships in Talmud, halakhah and Hasidism. Professor Gold received rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Dovid Shoichet of Toronto.

marvin.gold@utoronto.ca

Since receiving ordination from the Central Lubavitch Yeshiva in Brooklyn in 1968, Rabbi Sholom D. Lipskar has been an emissary in Miami for the Lubavitcher Rebbe. In 1969 he founded the Landow Yeshiva Center in Miami Beach, Florida. He has served as its principal and dean of its elementary school, yeshivah academy, and high school, and was responsible for training its rabbinical students. In 1981, he founded The Shul of Bal Harbour. As its head rabbi, he is both the spiritual leader and educational programmer for all ages. Also in 1981, Rabbi Lipskar founded the Aleph Institute and the Educational Academy for the Elderly. The Aleph Institute is a non-profit national humanitarian organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for Jews in limited environments, including prisoners and military personnel and their families. Rabbi Lipskar has created alternative punishment philosophies and developed unique educational opportunities for the general public in the field of treatment of closed populations. He directs the pioneering Educational Academy for the Elderly.

Rabbi Lipskar is the founder and chief organizer of the Miami International Conferences on Torah and Science.

rabbilipskar@theshul.org

Editor-in-chief of B’Or Ha’Torah, Joseph S. Bodenheimer is a full professor of electro-optics at the Jerusalem College of Technology (Machon Lev) and president emeritus of this unique college. He received his PhD from the Hebrew University in physics. He did postdoctoral studies in laser spectrometry at Kings College, London University, and discovered two previously unknown phase transitions and also developed a new spectrometric technique.

In 1982, Professor Bodenheimer was appointed head of the electro-optics department of the Jerusalem College of Technology. In 1989 he was elected rector and subsequently, up until 2009, was president of JCT. Under his leadership, JCT expanded dynamically to become a world-class institute, supporting Israel’s position as a global hi-tech superpower while combining Torah and academic studies.

Professor Bodenheimer has endeavored to make Israel a world leader in the field of optical engineering through his students and applied research. Awarded substantial research grants from institutes and foundations throughout the world, he has published over eighty papers and holds eleven patents in a broad range of electro-optical devices and systems. He has served as consultant for numerous high-technology companies in Israel and the United States and as a member of several national scientific committees.

Professor Bodenheimer sets aside time for daily Talmud study, and gives regular shiurim. A founding member of the California chapter of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, he is a member of the Zomet Institute for Halacha and Technology, a member of the board of Nishmat Center for Advanced Torah Study for Women, and the president of Ramban Synagogue in Katamon, Jerusalem.

Fascinated by the combination of science and technology with Jewish studies and ethics, Joseph Bodenheimer is a life-long Zionist leader who loves working with young people, especially his own extensive family. He and his wife, Rachel, have eight children and many, many grandchildren.

ysefb@jct.ac.il

Nathan Aviezer is professor of physics and former chairman of the Physics Department of Bar-Ilan University. The author of more than 140 scientific articles on solid state physics, Aviezer was honored by his colleagues by being elected Fellow of the American Physical Society and Research Professor of the Royal Society of London.

In addition to his scientific research, Aviezer has a long-standing interest in the relationship between Torah and science. He is the author of three books: In the Beginning (translated into nine languages); Fossils and Faith (translated into four languages); and Modern Science and Ancient Faith (recently published). Aviezer teaches a course at Bar-Ilan University on Torah and science, which was awarded the prestigious Templeton Prize. Aviezer is one of the organizers of an annual Torah and science conference which attracts hundreds of participants from all over Israel.

Born in Switzerland and raised in the United States, Professor Aviezer received his doctorate from the University of Chicago and subsequently held a senior research position at the IBM Watson Research Center in New York. In 1967, Nathan and his wife, Dvora, made aliyah. Living in Petah Tikvah, the Aviezers have four children and many grandchildren.

aviezen@mail.biu.ac.il

Rabbi Professor Avraham Steinberg, MD, is an associate clinical professor of medical ethics at the Hebrew University–Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem. He is the author of The Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics, published in seven volumes in Hebrew (two editions) and three volumes in English (translated by Dr. Fred Rosner), for which he was awarded the Israel Prize in 1999. Professor Steinberg is a senior pediatric neurologist at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. He directs the Medical Ethics Unit at Shaare Zedek. Head of the editorial board of the Talmudic Encyclopedia, and Editor-in-Chief of the Talmudic Micropedia, he is also director of Yad Harav Herzog, and a member of national and international societies of child neurology, medical ethics, and Jewish medical ethics.

In Israel, Professor Steinberg is the co-chairman of the National Bioethics Council, chairman of the Dying Patient Committee, chairman of the Organ Transplantation Committee, chairman of the Altruistic Live-Organ Donations Committee, member of the Brain-Death Criteria Committee, member of the Status of the Fetus and Pre-Embryo Committee, and chairman of the Pathological Specimens Committee.

He is the author and editor of 40 books and public reports in 59 volumes, and over 280 articles and chapters in scientific journals and books on Jewish medical ethics, general medical ethics, the history of medicine, medicine and law, and pediatric neurology. He has given over 4,000 expert witness opinions in court cases on pediatric neurology and medical ethics. 

steinberg@szmc.org.il

Estie Neff works as a nurse in the Labor and Delivery Unit at NYU Medical Center in New York City. Previously, she worked with a reproductive endocrinologist at his private clinic, seeing patients with infertility. She received her BSc from New York University in 2013 and her BA in journalism from Yeshiva University, where she graduated with honors in 2011 and served as editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper as well as president of the Stern College community service committee. Neff has been a volunteer for Chai Lifeline, has participated in research conducted at the Hackensack University Medical Center and Columbia University Medical Center, and is listed in Who’s Who among American Universities and Colleges.

Samuel Reisman is currently pursuing a degree in biology at Touro College in New York City. He has been involved in research at the New York School of Career and Applied Sciences, studying the effects of green tea polyphenols on the infectivity of coliphages, and, currently, the comparative evaluation of the toxicity of polyphenols in the absence and presence of a reducing agent. He volunteers at Yeshiva Bonim Lamokom, where he teaches literacy skills to children with Down syndrome. Reisman received a Bachelor’s of Talmudic Law from Beis Medrash Gavoah in 2012.

Natan (Norman) Kopeika was born in Baltimore, MD, and raised in Philadelphia, PA. He obtained BSc, MSc, and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in electro-optics. While preparing for his doctorate, he studied privately towards rabbinic ordination (Yoreh Yoreh), finishing requirements for both before coming on aliyah with his family in 1972.

He joined Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in 1973 and reached the rank of professor in 1987. He has chaired both the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering (1989-92) and Electrooptical Engineering (1998-2005). He is the author of about 190 papers in international professional journals, about 150 conference papers, and two books on electrooptics. He has supervised about fifty graduate student dissertations. His areas of specialization include imaging theory and systems, atmospheric optics, effects of ambient environment on semiconductor device surface states and device properties, interactions of electromagnetic waves with plasma, and thermal and millimeter wave imaging. In 1999, he and his former student and present colleague Professor Shlomi Arnon were recipients of the Thomson Prize from the IEE (UK). Since 1994 Professor Kopeika is the incumbent of the Reuven and Frances Feinberg Chair in Electrooptics at BGU. He has been a Fellow of SPIE since 2000.

He married Miriam Sirota in 1966. They have three children and eight grandchildren with two of the families living in Beersheva and one in Otniel.

For the past several years, he has served as spiritual leader of the historic Hadassah Synagogue in downtown Beersheva, founded and named in 1948 after the medical convoy massacred on Mount Scopus.

Manfred Gerstenfeld, PhD, is a former Board Member of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs for which he served as Chairman from 2000 to 2012.

Gerstenfeld has been an international business strategist for forty years. His background is in chemistry, economics, environmental studies, and Jewish studies. His current work focuses on anti-Semitism and changes in the Jewish world.

Gerstenfeld has authored sixteen books and edited six. Books of his have been translated into seven languages. His books which address environmental issues are: Environment and Confusion: An Introduction to a Messy Subject, first edition 1993, second English edition 2000; Judaism, Environmentalism and the Environment, 1998; Environment in the Jewish Tradition, A Sustainable World, (Hebrew), 2002.

RABBI JOEL PADOWITZ, MBA, CFA, is a successful entrepreneur who has been involved in adult Jewish education for nearly twenty years, specializing in the interface between traditional Judaism and modernity. He is the founder and CEO of Palladium Capital Advisors, LLC, a boutique investment bank that has facilitated approximately half a billion dollars in private placements and acquisitions. He is also the founder and CEO of Jew IQ, LLC, which develops mobile applications, content, and curricula for Jewish education and travel, including most notably the Israel App, Israel’s most popular travel app. He is an award-winning speaker and writer whose articles have been published widely and whose books include Triumph and Tragedy: Journeying through 1000 Years of Jewish Life in Poland. Rabbi Padowitz gives regular classes in Talmud, Jewish thought, and Jewish law, and previously served as rabbi for the Aish HaTorah young professional community in London. In addition to rabbinic ordination, he received his MBA from Bar-Ilan University where he finished first in his class. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and was honored at the White House by President George H. W. Bush for “outstanding achievements in science.”
Padowitz@FAS.Harvard.Edu

Dr. Kenneth Collins was a general medical practitioner in Glasgow for over thirty years. He served twice as chair of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities and as president of the Glasgow Jewish Representative Council. He chairs the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre and was a member of the British Chief Rabbinate Trust for ten years. He has written extensively on Jewish medical history and medical ethics and published several books on Jewish medical history in Scotland. He has written on aspects of Maimonidean medicine and co-edited Moses Maimonides and His Practice of Medicine in 2013 with Fred Rosner and Samuel Kottek. He is the editor of Vesalius, Journal of the International Society for the History of Medicine. Dr. Collins made aliyah in 2009 and is currently a visiting professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

drkcollins@gmail.com

Esther Cameron was born in New York and grew up in Madison, Wisconsin.  She received her PhD in German from the University of California in Berkeley and subsequently turned to Jewish studies. She lived in Israel from 1979-1990 and returned to Israel in 2013. She has written extensively on poetics, and her poems have appeared in many periodicals in Israel and the United States. In 1983 a collection of her poems, Or Mudrag (A Gradual Light),translated by the late Simon Halkin, was published by Hakibbutz Hameuchad; her memoir The Autoanalysis of a Golem, translated into Hebrew by Ruth Blumert, was published by Hakibbutz Hameuchad in 1987. With the help of the Peter Schwiefert prize, which she received in 1985, she completed an epic on the ecological crisis, The Consciousness of Earth, which appeared serially in Bellowing Ark and subsequently with Multicultural Books and B’Or Ha’Torah. Two books of poetry, Gargirei Ha’Omer: Shirei Hitbonenut Limei Hasfirah (2007) and Fortitude or The Lost Language of Justice: Poems in Israel’s Cause (2009) were published by Bitzaron Books. Her works also include The World’s Last Rose: Sonnets to the Prince of Twilight and Rim of Gold: A Cycle of Sonnets on the Weekly Torah Portion; both may be found on her multifaceted website, www.pointandcircumference.com. Her critical study Western Art and Jewish Presence in the Work of Paul Celan is forthcoming with Lexington Books.  She also edits a poetry magazine, The Deronda Review (www.derondareview.org).

derondareview@att.net

Born in Romania, Professor Vera Schwarcz is a China historian and poet. She earned her BA from Vassar, MA from Yale, and PhD from Stanford. The author of eight books on Chinese and Jewish history, including the prize-winning Bridge Across Broken Time: Chinese and Jewish Cultural Memory; The Chinese Enlightenment: Intellectuals and the Legacy of the May Fourth Movement of 1919; Time for Telling Truth Is Running Out: Conversations with Zhang Shenfu; Place and Memory in Singing Crane Garden; and the forthcoming volume: Colors of Veracity: A Quest for Truth in China, and Beyond (Hawaii University Press, 2014). She has also written five books of poetry, among them:  In the Garden of Memory (with paper art by Holocaust survivor Chava Pressburger), Brief Rest in the Garden of Flourishing Grace; Chisel of Remembrance and Ancestral Intelligence: Improvisations and Logographs. Schwarcz holds the Freeman Chair in East Asian Studies at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Her work won a Guggenheim fellowship and is featured on the web at between2walls.com.

vschwarcz@wesleyan.edu

Professor Fred Rosner, MD, MACP is the former director of the Department of Medicine of Mount Sinai’s Queens Hospital Center in Jamaica, New York, and professor of medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He was also visiting professor of medicine at his alma mater, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and is board certified in his specialty of hematology. Among his many awards are the American Medical Association’s Isaac Hays, MD, and John Bell, MD, Award for “Leadership in Ethics and Professionalism;” the Bernard Revel Memorial Award from the Yeshiva College Alumni Association for “Distinguished Achievement in the Arts & Sciences;” and the Lawrence D. Redway Award for Excellence in Medical Writing from the Medical Society of New York.

Listed in a number of prestigious Who’s Who publications, Dr. Rosner has been an international authority, visiting professor, and lecturer on medical ethics. He is a member of the professional advisory board of the Kennedy Institute for Ethics of Georgetown University. He is the founding and former chairman of the Medical Ethics Committee of the Medical Society of the State of New York, and former cochairman of the Medical Ethics Committee of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York as well as coeditor of its popular Compendium on Medical Ethics.

Dr. Rosner reviews manuscripts for nineteen professional medical journals and serves on the editorial board of three of them. He has published thirty-eight books, written chapters by invitation in several dozen books, and is a contributor to the Encyclopedia Judaica and the Encyclopedia of Bioethics. His bibliography has nearly one thousand items. He is author of eight widely acclaimed books on Jewish medical ethics, including Modern Medicine and Jewish Ethics (Ktav, 1991); Medicine and Jewish Law I, II and III (Jason Aronson, 1990 and 1993); Pioneers in Jewish Medical Ethics (Jason Aronson, 1997); and Biomedical Ethics and Jewish Law (Ktav, 2001). Other books include: an English translation of Julius Preuss’s classical reference work, Biblical and Talmudic Medicine (reprinted in 1993); and the Encyclopedia of Medicine in the Bible and the Talmud (Jason Aronson, 2000). Dr. Rosner translated Avraham Steinberg’s three-volume Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics, published by Feldheim in 2003. A world authority on Maimonides, Dr. Rosner is the translator and editor of Moses Maimonides’ Medical Writings (seven volumes published by the Maimonides Research Institute, Haifa); A Medical Encyclopedia of Moses Maimonides (Jason Aronson, 1998); and The Medical Legacy of Moses Maimonides (Ktav, 1998).

Rabbi Yehoshua P. Landes was born in Palo Alto, California, and received rabbinic ordination in France (1984) and New York (1985). He received a BA in Chinese and European History from Murdoch University in Western Australia (1996). He was the founder and director of Chabad of Western Australia from 1988-1996 and served for a decade as the Rabbi of the Prestwich Hebrew Congregation in Manchester, UK. In addition to Lubavitch outreach and rabbinics, Rabbi Landes has also been involved in Jewish education for both adults and teenagers for over twenty years. He taught English and British history at the Lubavitch Boys High School in Manchester, UK. He has recently been appointed Head Teacher of Hillel High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.