Staff

Mira Kessler, Youth & Family Educator & Community Organizer

Mira brings to FTJC a wide background in Jewish Education, having engaged children from toddlers to teens in synagogue and camp settings in New York City and Durham, N.C.  Her experience includes serving as an Inclusion Counselor for campers with learning disabilities. She graduated magna cum laude from Brandeis University with a Major in African & African-American Studies and two Minors in Near Eastern & Judaic Studies and Theater Arts.

Mira grew up in Durham in a Conservative Jewish congregation and as one of the only Yiddish-speaking children within 200 miles! After college at Brandeis, she moved to New York to pursue her love of acting. You may have seen her in New Yiddish Rep’s “God of Vengeance” or “Awake and Sing!” She is thrilled to bring her skills in theater, art, music, and singing to our educational programs in Rimonim: A Family Learning Community at FTJC.

Feel free to reach out to Mira by e-mail, mira.kessler@ftjc.org

Naomi Zaslow, Student Clergy Intern (June 2020 - May 2021)

Naomi Zaslow is a rising fourth-year rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary. She holds a BFA in Visual Art from the University of Michigan, and a Masters in Jewish Education from Hebrew College/Pardes. Naomi served a year of national community service with Americorps and spent two years teaching English in Seoul before diving into the sea of Jewish texts. She has studied Torah of all kinds with Pardes, The Conservative Yeshiva, Svara, JTS, Union Theological Seminary and through two units of CPE. Naomi is currently the rabbinical intern in Fitzgerald Georgia, a UJA Graduate Fellow, and a Slifka Engagement Fellow, bringing progressive egalitarian Jewish learning to all. She loves being a nerd, visiting the Fort Tryon Park dog run with her partner, and watercolor painting.

Feel free to reach out to Naomi by e-mail, naomizaslow@gmail.com