Highlight on Madrich: Marty Towbin
Marty Towbin is a Madrich at Temple Emek Shalom in Ashland, Oregon, where he centers his approach to Mussar through CCM’s concept of semipermeability. Marty explained semipermeability as a “deep calm presence;” a way of being “simultaneously aware of myself and the...
Highlight on Madrichim: Karen Kripke
Throughout her life, Karen Kripke has sought authentic and meaningful ways to express her Jewishness. Although she enjoyed attending Hebrew school and was active in her Reform synagogue in New York, traditional services and liturgy never inspired her. As a college...
Highlight on Madrichim: Hazzan Naomi Hirsch
Hazzan Naomi Hirsch defines a Mussarnik as: “Someone who is committed to improving their life and the life of others. The process entails getting to know oneself in a profound way, including facing challenging truths.This knowing leads to being able to take care of...
Highlight on Madrichim: Adie Goldberg
“When you’re a therapist and slightly neurotic,” smiled Adie Goldberg, “you walk down a lot of self-help paths. Nothing has been more transformative to my personal life journey than my study of Mussar.” A Psychiatric Social Worker by trade, Adie was working as a...
Highlight on Madrichim: Carol Daniels
Carol Daniels grew up in Williamsburg, New York, surrounded by a large extended Orthodox and Hasidic family. Now over a decade into her Mussar studies, she continues to evolve and deepen her own expression of Judaism by integrating meditation and breath awareness into...
Highlight on Madrichim: Elana Eisner
Elana Eisner was raised in a conservative Jewish household and as a teenager discovered a deep interest in Jewish and religious studies. She grew up in a suburb of Chicago where Rabbi Philip Lipis, who served at her local synagogue, kindled her awareness of the...
Highlight on Madrichim – Herb Levine, Ph.D.
Mussar found its way to Herb Levine in 2011 at a serendipitous time in his professional life. “I was receiving feedback from my staff that I didn’t know how to be a supervisor,” Herb said. “I had never been trained to be a boss. I was trained as a professor and as a...
Highlight On Madrichim Featuring: Rabbi Joshua Boettiger
Tell us a little about your spiritual/religious upbringing--were you raised with an active sense of spirituality in your Jewish faith? I was raised by a Jewish mother and an Episcopalian father, who each had a lot of respect for the other’s tradition. It was a...
Highlight On Madrichim – Sonia Voynow
Sonia Voynow was raised in a conservative Jewish home. Though she was bat mitzvahed and enjoyed the holidays with her family, she didn’t find “much in the way of spiritual connection.” It wasn’t until she started her own family that she began a deeper...