Dalit Kaplan is a co-founder of Beit Midrash Oz. She is a student of Torah and holds Shiurim exploring Jewish sources from an earth-based, feminist, psychological and mythical perspective. In her other life, she is a former lawyer-turned storytelling trainer, an Impact Investor and aspiring writer. Originally from the village of Caulfield, she has lived in the US and Israel and now calls Melbourne, where she resides with her husband (and Beit-Midrash co-founder), two tyrannical children and zen-master cat, home.

Raphael Dascalu is a Melbourne-based researcher and translator. Born and raised in Sydney, he completed his MA at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, his PhD at the University of Chicago, and studied in a number of institutions of Jewish learning, including Yeshivat ha-Kibbutz ha-Dati (Ein Tzurim), the Pardes Institute, and the Shalom Hartman Institute. He is a Senior Research Fellow at Notre Dame University Australia, an Adjunct Research Associate at Monash University, and a student of the mysteries of the cosmos.

Peninah Silverstein is passionate and devoted in seeking ways to connect to others and to the Divine. As the Director of Programs and Community Engagement for Beit Midrash Oz, Peninah encourages others to create deep and personal relationships with Jewish culture and spirituality. With a background in Architecture, Peninah employs her innovative design thinking skills to develop new pathways for connection and communication. She is the founder and director of Dance with the Divine Retreats & Rituals, running yearly Jewish spiritual and creative retreats and workshops, and the manager for GoodVibe, a bi-monthly wellness day retreat.

Dan is a community leader, student and volunteer, and a management consultant by trade, with over 15 years’ experience working alongside community organisations, not-for-profits and government across Australia. He brings a strength-based, human-centred approach to all he does—supporting communities to design, lead and sustain meaningful change. As the Managing Director of Beit Midrash Oz, Dan is deeply honoured and excited to help grow a vibrant and inclusive Jewish learning community. One that explores the ancient texts and celebrates the beauty, richness and diversity of Judaism, and is welcoming, non-political and non-denominational at its core. Additionally, Dan is the founder of The Croftglen Collective, a consultancy firm that supports organisations serving communities, and fosters collaboration between independent consultants. He also serves as President of the Glen Eira Adult Learning Centre (GEALC) and is an active member and volunteer within the Jewish community. Dan lives in Melbourne with his wife, two daughters and puppy.

Ellyse spends her days as a children’s lawyer and her evenings learning and teaching Torah. Ellyse serves as a pastoral care guide at Shira, an inclusive Orthodox community. She is a qualified pre-marriage teacher and certified to appear as a lawyer in rabbinic courts. She received smicha (Orthodox rabbinic ordination) from Beit Midrash Har’El in Jerusalem in 2019.

Nathan Wolski is the Liberman Family Lecturer in Jewish Studies with the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation at Monash University, Australia. He is the author of A Journey into the Zohar: An Introduction to the Book of Radiance (SUNY, 2010), the translator of The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, Volume 10 (Stanford, 2016), and with Joel Hecker, The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, Volume 12 (Stanford, 2017), and more recently, Kabbalistic Yiddish: Aaron Zeitlin’s Mystical-Messianic Poetics (Cherub, 2020). As part of Di Farborgene Khalyastre - a little collective of artists, musos and him - he has produced three Yiddish albums and three illustrated Yiddish books. Often grumpy in shul, he believes that mystical poetry, Beethoven and trees are the only resistance.

Idan Dorshav Dershowitz joined the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation at Monash University in 2024. He was previously Director of the School of Jewish Theology and Chair of Hebrew Bible at the University of Potsdam. His research interests include the evolution of biblical religion and the methods of ancient biblical editors, as well as the development of AI tools to trace the origins of ancient texts. He is the author of The Dismembered Bible: Cutting and Pasting Scripture in Antiquity and The Valediction of Moses: A Proto-Biblical Book. He is currently working on a children’s book on the origins of the alphabet.