Presenters: S

Stav Salpeter

Stav is the Director of Community Engagement at Yachad. While studying international relations and international law at Edinburgh she co-founded the award-winning Palestinian-Israeli Dialogue Society and was elected to the Union of Jewish Students National Council. Beyond Jewish communal life Stav worked for the Norwegian Red Cross and directed the Edinburgh International Justice Initiative legal clinic.

Jonathan Samuel

When our third child was born with a learning disability, the whole family learned Makaton. This is a system using hand-signs from British-Sign-Language to scaffold spoken communication for people with learning difficulties. This proved invaluable in the early years of our son's life. I extended this to Hebrew prayer.

Leonora Samuel

Leonora is a graduate of London School of Jewish Studies Susi Bradfield programme. She is autistic. She maintains broadly orthodox Jewish practice whilst gaining inspiration from many sources. Leonora is a Pets as Therapy visitor with her golden retriever. She also sings in a choir. In her spare time she has served as an adult educator.

Benzion Sanders

Benzion (Benzi) grew up in New York City. In 2011 he took on Israeli citizenship and was drafted into the Israel Defence Forces where he served in the Sayeret Nahal special forces unit between the years 2012-2015. Benzi spent most of his service stationed in different parts of the West Bank and was also deployed to the northern Gaza Strip during the 2014 war.

Naomi Seidman

Naomi Seidman was raised in a Yiddish-speaking hasidic home in Brooklyn. She is the Jackman Professor of the Arts at the University of Toronto. Her five books include a history of Bais Yaakov. Her podcast, 'The Heretic in the House', was released in November.

Moses Seitler

Moses is the Founder and Director of Screen Share UK and the Communications manager at Refugee Education UK. Before that, he headed up the education and community engagement programme for the human rights advocacy charity René Cassin. He is a graduate of the Chief Rabbi’s Ben Azzai Programme and the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University.

Monica Selo

I am an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher and writer who is passionate about stand-up comedy. It's my dream to perform stand-up comedy at Limmud.

Joshua Shanes

Joshua is professor of Jewish Studies and director of the Center for Israel Studies at the College of Charleston. He has published widely on modern Jewish political, religious and cultural history and is currently finishing a book on Jewish Orthodoxy from its German origins until the 21st century.

Yuval Shany

Professor Shany is the Hersch Lauterpacht chair in international law and former dean of the law faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was a member of the UN Human Rights Committee from 2013 to 2020 and served for one year during that time as chair of the committee.

Hannah Sharron

Raised in Hertfordshire, Hannah has lived in Israel since 2019. She is a keen netballer and writer with two degrees (one from the University of Birmingham), three dogs and boundless enthusiasm for her work at IsraAID - Israel's foremost humanitarian aid and international development organisation.

Daniella Shaw

Daniella is an interfaith activist, an LGBT+ community organiser and a sociologist of religions and community. She splits her time between postdoctoral research on Muslim-Jewish relations in Europe and LGBT+ inclusion work in Jewish communities. Side-gigs include writing a book on LGBT+ people of faith, saying ‘yes’ to stuff and trying to parent.

Dave Shaw

Dave is a marketing communications specialist and founding trustee of KeshetUK – the charity ensuring that no person should have to choose between their Jewish and LGBT+ identity. He also chaired Gay Jews In London, a group with nearly 900 members, programming social activities for those identifying as gay and Jewish in London.

Marvin Shaw

Marvin J Shaw is a poet and author. Seize The Day, his seventh book, launches at this year's Limmud. Marvin has taught Creative Writing, Counselling, Public Speaking and Jewish-related subjects to various audiences. All Marvin's writing and teaching focuses on maintaining and enhancing one's emotional and mental health.

Miki Shaw

Miki is an artist, illustrator, graphic designer and educator. She has created and performed live visuals at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Latitude Festival, Bestival and many Limmuds. Her current project is a graphic novel about motherhood. She also runs creative workshops for children and adults, teaches leyning (reading from the Torah) and facilitates for Mothers Who Make.

Sybil Sheridan

Sybil is rabbi of the Newcastle Reform Synagogue, director of the Lyons Learning Project and founder of the charity Meketa that supports the Beta Israel community in Gondar, Ethiopia. A Limmud veteran of more than thirty years, Sybil is delighted to be back once more to learn and present sessions in person.

Ruben Shimonov

Ruben is an educator and community builder dedicated to Jewish diversity and intercultural understanding. He is the American Sephardi Federation's National Director of Sephardi House and Founding Executive Director of Sephardic Mizrahi Q Network. As an artist, Ruben combines Arabic and Hebrew calligraphy to build Muslim-Jewish interfaith bridges.

Michael Shire

Michael Shire is a rabbi and professor of Jewish Education at Hebrew College Boston. He is the founder of Torah Godly Play.

Adrian Sieff

Adrian has been involved in the Jewish community's environmental work through the Noah Project, and social justice issues through Tzedek and Jewish Support for the Homeless. Adrian and Simone retrofitted their home to an ultra-low energy standard. He is currently completing a master's degree in food policy.

Jordan Siegel

Jordan is a multimedia journalist focusing on refugees and social and political issues, primarily within photojournalism. Her work has taken her to Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan-Darfur and the West Bank. She is currently filming and directing a feature-length documentary about the war in Darfur and the politics of Sudan's conflict.

Joshua Silberstein-Bamford

Joshua grew up in Perth, Western Australia, with his biologist parents and their menagerie. He is currently a doctoral candidate in Human Sciences at the University of Oxford, studying the evolution of music and dance. He has also been a host for Moishe House Without Walls and is a community leader for Humanistic Judaism UK.

Alan Silman

Alan is a professor in health science at Oxford University. Outside his major research areas, aside from being a Limmud trustee, he has a long-standing interest as an epidemiologist in the genetic, historical, cultural influences of Judaism on health and diseases. He blogged and also spoke widely to Jewish audiences about the Covid pandemic.

Judith Silver

Judith is an artist who currently mostly works in the fields of music and writing. Her main projects at the moment are Companion Voices, an organisation bringing comfort to individuals at the end of life through singing, and her play with music, ‘Mum Thumb’, which, having been performed on Zoom in 2021, is now being performed live onstage.

Samer Sinijlawi

Samer Abdelrazzak Sinijlawi is the head of diplomatic, Israel and international relations at the Fatah Shadow Leadership. He leads dialogue within Israeli society and is the Palestinian with the most appearances on Israeli media. He was arrested for five years in 1987, at the age of 15.

Ora Solomons

Ora has spent most of her life in Reading, where she would sing with her family in Shabbat services. She grew up attending Limmud every year - now, with this being her 18th festival, it is the first time she's getting to be a presenter! Ora is in her first year studying an undergraduate degree in music at the University of Birmingham.

Shira Solomons

A lifelong feminist Shira is community director at the Jewish Community of Berkshire in Reading where she organises cheder, community events and Judaism talks at schools. She is passionate about practical spirituality and Jewish education that enables children, women and men to expand their intellectual and spiritual horizons.

Zvi Solomons

One of the last four Jews' College rabbis, Zvi served in Norwich, Potters Bar, Liverpool and Reading. Now the rabbi at JCoB (Jewish Community of Berkshire), he and Shira also serve the student community and hospitals in the area. Besides rabbinic activity, Zvi speaks to thousands of children throughout the South East and on Zoom, teaching on Judaism for Religious Education.

Jessica Spencer

Jessica is a Masorti rabbinical student learning at Hebrew College, the Pardes kollel, and the Yashrut Institute. She is a co-founder of Azara, a new cross-communal British yeshiva opening Jewish texts to everyone. Jessica is an HC-SVARA Talmud Pedagogy Fellow, and sporadically writes a feminist blog about periods.

Vivien Spevock

Vivien is a retired primary and special-needs teacher. She enjoys making beautiful things. In particular, she enjoys crafting; embroidery and cross-stitch are her favourites.

Chlo Spinks

Chlo Spinks is a long-time Limmudnik and music journalist, writing for 'Gigwise', 'The Skinny' and a variety of other publications. As a multi-instrumentalist with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, she likes to dig into the reasons why music affects us, using psychology and music theory to explain the hidden wonders of music.

David-Yehuda Stern

David-Yehuda (‘DY’) is a Rabbi at Radlett Reform Synagogue. He holds a bachelor's degree in film and television studies from Nottingham University and a master's degree in Jewish education from the London School of Jewish Studies. DY studied for the rabbinate at Leo Baeck College - his final year thesis explored the role of kindness in rabbinic thought and practice.

Helen Stone

Helen Stone is co-chair of Generation 2 Generation and leads their training programme. She has 40 years’ experience as a secondary school teacher. Since her retirement, Helen has been presenting the story of her mother, Emmy Golding, to schools and other organisations. She now teaches English to refugees and asylum seekers for New Citizens’ Gateway.

Maurice Stone

Maurice is chairman of the Israeli Dance Institute (IDI) and works for the United Jewish Israel Appeal (UJIA). He has been teaching dance for many years at Limmud in the UK, Russia and Ukraine. He believes that Israeli dance is a fundamental educational tool promoting Jewish identity and a connection with Israel. So let’s dance!

Robert Stone

Robert Stone is the author of The Golden Bell, a novel about the medieval poet and philosopher Yehuda Halevi (1075-1141). He has a lifelong fascination with how people of different religions and cultures relate to each other, developed during his career advising governments on strategies to fight poverty, particularly in the wake of conflicts.

Yoni Stone

Yoni's hobbies are football, reading and spreadsheets. His favourite book is the Haggadah. His favourite food is pasta. His favourite Jewish festival is Limmud.

Katja Stuerzenhofecker

Katja is lecturer in Gender Studies in Religion and a fellow of the Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Manchester. She has a special interest in contemporary Jewish practices and their relation to thought and tradition. For entertainment she organizes the ‘Screen & Talk’ film club at the Centre for Jewish Studies.

Hannah Style

Hannah is an enthusiastic dietitian specialising in mental health. She enjoys cycling to meet service users and collaborate with service leads across London. Beyond the NHS, Hannah advocates for dietary equality; she founded FEAST, a food poverty charity, and is researching the nutrition of homeless people in partnership with university College London.

Simon Style

More usually known to Limmud audiences as a leader of shira sessions, Simon is also a chartered accountant with many years' experience in large and small businesses as well as charities. He is the financial trustee for FEAST with us.

Sarah Sultman

Sarah Sultman is the co-founder of Gesher school, a specialist school for pupils aged 4-16 with mild to moderate special needs. She believes passionately that all children, regardless of any diagnosis, should have the right to access both a Jewish education and communal activities and events whilst having their SEN needs met.

Sydney Switzer

Sydney is a Jewish educator and artist working with diverse Jewish communities, from her native Canada to Scotland, Poland, Hungary, Israel and India. She makes use of traditional methods and skills to explore ideas of Jewish identity, land, home and traditions, blending textiles, photography, writing and community.