Leading through Tumultuous Waters

Benjamin serves as Rabbi of Havurah Shalom in Portland, Oregon. In that role, he strives to listen deeply and accompany others in ways that support healing, growth, and meaning in the lives of individuals and in the community. As a teacher of Jewish meditation and contemplative prayer, he works to inform the pursuit of justice with the wisdom and compassion born of spiritual practice.

Shira Abramowitz is a meditation teacher, social impact leader, and community-builder. She completed the Institute for Jewish Spirituality JMMTT teacher training program, and teaches meditation for various programs online and in-person. She is the founder and executive director of Summit Impact, a 501(c)(3) focused on activating the power of community for social good. And a co-founder of Up & Up Creative, an agency focused on program design, events, and social impact campaigns. Shira holds a bachelors in commerce from McGill University and a masters degree in Mind, Brain, and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she focused on social cognitive neuroscience and adult group learning.

Danny brings a rare integration of contemplative spiritual practice and wisdom traditions with trauma-informed therapeutics for cultivating deeper, richer, and more sacred ways of being alive. A graduate of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a variety of yeshivot, Danny was the founding director of Or HaLev Center for Jewish Spirituality and Meditation and a Guiding Teacher at Mindful Schools. He has guided thousands of people around the world in both mindfulness practices and conscious communication skills, currently lives in Israel and is a member of the Evolve Foundation core faculty.

Carrie Watkins is a practitioner, organizer, and teacher of Jewish Meditation. A third year Rabbinical Student at Hebrew College, Community Manager for Or HaLev: Jewish Spirituality and Meditation, and Rabbinic Intern for the Boston Synagogue, Carrie has been teaching meditation and mindfulness for startups, on silent retreats, for teenagers on backcountry trips, from her living room, and from other peoples’ living rooms, for the last 7 years. A systems thinker with a Master in City Planning from MIT, Carrie is attentive to the ways meditation and mindfulness can bring healing both our own internal systems and to the communal, societal, and ecological systems of which we’re a part. Carrie has a certificate in Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy and is in her second year of the Gates of Awareness: Jewish Meditation Teacher Training program.