Presenters: A

Nic Abery

Nic Abery is the Director of LooktoLearn and an education consultant for EFI and PaJeS. Her most recent achievement was creating Israel70: Building Artistic Connections which is being showcased at Festival, having been previously on display at JW3 and Israel.

Vanessa Abraham

Vanessa loves to laugh. Vanessa is a qualified Psychotherapist. She is passionate about her work and promoting wellbeing. Her enthusiasm has lead her to facilitate laughter wellbeing sessions and she takes this seriously and will be delighted to bring this to Limmud this year.

Robert Abrams

Rob is a co-founding member of the group 'Na'amod, British Jews against Occupation'. Previously involved with the All That's Left Collective and the Centre for Jewish Nonviolence, he completed an MA in Transitional Justice and Human Rights at the Hebrew U while living in Jerusalem.

Eli Abt

Apart from his work in architecture and music, Eli's interests include the often surprising meanings behind the striking images in medieval Hebrew manuscripts. He has spoken and written on this subject for many years in the UK and abroad and is currently working on a book on the Catalan Haggadah.

Amira Aharonovich

Amira is the deputy director general and COO of the Jewish Agency for Israel. Amira holds an MA in Business Management and is a graduate of the Mandel Educational Leadership Institute in Jerusalem. Amira has been working for more than 22 years at The Jewish Agency for Israel in management positions

Mohinder Ahluwalia

Mohinder Singh Ahluwalia is the chairman and visionary for the Nishkam Group of Charitable Organisations. One of top 100 most influential Sikhs in the world, he has received many awards for his service in propagating the Sikh faith and engagement in interfaith work.

Vivian Aisen

Vivian started her diplomatic career at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs more than 20 years ago. Prior to her current mission, she served at the Israeli Embassy in Brussels, in London, in Chile and in Kazakhstan. Born in Brazil, she moved to Israel 30 years ago. She is fluent in English, Hebrew, Portuguese, Spanish and French.

Luke Akehurst

Luke has been director of We Believe in Israel since 2011. We Believe in Israel is a BICOM initiative and is a broad coalition of over 17,500 supporters of Israel. Outside of work he was a Hackney Councillor for 12 years, has stood for Parliament twice and served on the Labour Party NEC.

Jamal Alkirnawi

Jamal is the founder and executive director of A New Dawn in the Negev. A passionate visionary, the now 10-year-old organization is a manifestation of his desire to raise the level of education for the Bedouin community in Israel’s Negev region.

Ellen Allard

Ellen is a recording artist, music educator, composer, performer, has a BA in Music, Master’s in Education, is a health coach, teaches kid’s yoga/music and lives in Boston. She has 2 daughters, 2 sons-in-law, 5 grandkids, 2 granddogs, and she extolls the virtues of eating dark chocolate daily.

Daniel Allen

Danny is a consultant psychiatrist working for the NHS and privately. He has a special interest in Jewish medical ethics and his practice is also doing pioneering work with a new Israeli-developed treatment to help people suffering from Alzheimer's.

Emma Alter

Emma is a professional musician and Feldenkrais teacher. She has twenty years experience of both world-class performance and teaching, specialising in working with performers. Her clients come from all walks of life and share a desire to improve their quality of life, through how they move.

Shulamit Ambalu

Shulamit Ambalu recently joined Sha'arei Tsedek, North London Reform Synagogue, as it's new Principal Rabbi. She has taught rabbinic literature as well as vocational skills at Leo Baeck College for some years, and sees teaching and learning as the heart of her Jewish life.

Daniel Anderson

Daniel presents and facilitates thought-provoking lectures, discussions and workshops. He aims to leave attendees with more questions than answers and can be found at CNSS in North London. A former Limmud Programming Chair, in another life Daniel is Deputy Leader on Enfield Council.

Martine Therese Andrevon Gottstein

Therese Martine is a scholar of Jewish-Christian relations. She has studied changes in Christian theology of Judaism and the formation of the landmark declaration Nostra Aetate, in which the Catholic Church made the most dramatic theological about-face, with reference to its teaching in Judaism.

Jane Ansell

Jane founded Sleep Scotland, supporting families of children and young people with additional support needs and sleep problems, and TEENS+ post-school special needs education programme. She co-founded the Edinburgh Jewish Dialogue and Cultural Centre, and delivers various Jewish learning programmes.

Itai Arik

Having worked for various Jewish organizations in the UK, Israel and Canada, Itai decided to make a twist in his career and pursue his culinary passion. After founding Jaffa Mama back in Israel, a social enterprise connecting people through food, he created Lev&Tine and a co-founded Market Polo Group.

Yakov Ashkenazi

Yakov is Israeli in origin and has lived in the UK for seven years. He studied economics at Kings College London and is currently working at Bloomberg LP

Gefiltefest at Limmud

Gefiltefest is the biggest Jewish food event in Europe and brings people together to experience the connection between Judaism and food. Education, enthusiasm and exploration are at the heart of this proud, cross-communal celebration of Jewish food. These values make a perfect fit for Limmud Festival.

Joely Axelrod

Joey is a history teacher. In her final year studying History, she came across one sentence in an article on suffragettes that just said 'the Jewish League for Women's Suffrage existed'. This sparked her interest and so she turned one sentence into a 9000 word dissertation. The rest is history.