Teachers & Leaders

Rabbi Jonathan Omer-Man

Before arriving in Southern California, Jonathan Omer-Man, founder and now Rabbi Emeritus at Metivta, spent 26 years in Jerusalem, where he worked and studied with some of the foremost scholars and practitioners of Jewish mysticism, all the while earning his livelihood in publishing.  In 1981, he was invited to Los Angeles by leaders of the Jewish community, who were concerned with what they perceived as a serious problem of Jews joining cults; after a few months, he convinced his employers that the true challenge was to respond to the fact that many Jews, having experienced some kind of awakening, felt alienated from the Jewish religious institutions that they found to be empty and non-pertinent. From then on, he focused his energy on two planes: on the counseling and teaching of individuals and groups, and on sensitizing the Jewish establishment to issues of spirituality and training rabbis. All of these activities merged in Metivta, the first meditation school in the U.S., and from which a number of fine teachers have emerged. 

Now retired, he lives in Berkeley with his wife Nan and is devoting much more time to the cultivation of new friendships. He has added Classical Arabic and Sufism to a still rigorous regimen of study, has joined a Conservative synagogue—where he delights in praying from the back row and not leading from the front—but has drastically cut back on his teaching. After a hiatus of many years, he has returned to his old passion of writing and is in the process of publishing Perpetual Pilgrim, a collection of 25+ years' worth of his teachings, funded exclusively through public donations (click here to donate).

For more information on Rabbi Omer-Man, please visit his Perpetual Pilgrim blog.

Rabbi Tirzah Firestone

Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, PhD, is an author, Jungian therapist, and the founding rabbi of Congregation Nevei Kodesh in Boulder, Colorado. She was ordained by Rabbi Zalman Schachter Shalomi in 1992 and is a leader in the international Jewish Renewal Movement. She served as Co-Chair of Rabbis for Human Rights, North America (now known as T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights.) Widely known for her work on Jewish feminism and the modern applications of Jewish mystical wisdom, Firestone teaches nationally on Jewish ancestral healing and the common boundary between ancient Jewish spirituality and modern psychology. Her most recent book is "Wounds Into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma." For more about Rabbi Firestone, go to www.tirzahfirestone.com

Rabbi Anne Brener

Rabbi Anne Brener, LCSW is a psychotherapist, spiritual director, and lecturer, who assists institutions in creating caring communities. The author of Mourning & Mitzvah: Walking the Mourner’s Path (Jewish Lights, Third Edition 2017), she has contributed chapters to many publications on Jewish spirituality and healing.. Ordained as a Reform Rabbi in 2008 from HUC/LA, Anne was also a student of Rabbis Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Jonathan Omer-Man. She is Professor of Ritual & Spiritual Development at the Academy of Jewish Religion, Los Angeles and was a founding faculty member of Yedidya's Morei Derekh- Jewish Spiritual Direction Training Program. She serves on the boards of ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal and Los Angeles' Fountain Theatre. Anne was a founder of Project Sanctuary, one of the first shelters for victims of Domestic Violence in California. A New Orleans native, she worked for the Ecology Center of Louisiana for several years in the early years of the environmental movement and spent three months doing relief work in the Gulf South following Katrina.

Rabbi Shefa Gold

Rabbi Shefa Gold is director of C-DEEP: The Center for Devotional, Energy and Ecstatic Practice in Jemez Springs, New Mexico. Shefa composes and performs spiritual music, has produced several recordings, and her liturgies have been published in many prayer books. She teaches workshops and retreats on the theory and art of chanting, devotional healing, spiritual community building and meditation around the world. She is author of Torah Journeys: The Inner Path to the Promised Land and In the Fever of Love: An Illumination of the Song of Songs.

Rabbi Gold will be leading Metivta's 2014 Elul retreat and High Holy Day Services.

For more information about Rabbi Shefa Gold, please visit her website at www.RabbiShefaGold.com.

Rabbi Ivan Ickovits 

Rabbi Ivan Ickovits is a teacher of Jewish spiritual practice. Originally trained as a physicist, Ivan worked for more than twenty five years in aerospace and continues in his love of research by exploring ancient spiritual texts.  He combines the insights of modern physics with those of the spiritual practices found in these texts, providing a living connection with Jewish tradition relevant in today’s dynamic modern environment. 

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