Passover Vacations at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort, Arizona

Rabbi Mark Wildes

Rabbi Mark Wildes is the Founder of Manhattan Jewish Experience (MJE), a highly successful Jewish outreach and educational program that engages young unaffiliated Jewish men and women with Judaism and the Jewish community.  He is also the author of Beyond the Instant: Jewish Wisdom for Lasting Happiness in a Fast-Paced Social Media World (Skyhorse Publishing, 2018) and The 40 Second Challenge: Daily Jewish Insights To Prepare For The High Holidays (Kodesh Press, 2021)

Rabbi Wildes earned a BA in Psychology from Yeshiva University, a Law Degree from the Cardozo School of Law, a Master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University and ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (Yeshiva University). After serving in rabbinic positions at Ohab Zedek, Kehilath Jeshurun and teaching at Ramaz and Stern College, Rabbi Wildes established MJE – dedicated to engaging NYC’s unaffiliated Jewish professionals.  In its 23 years of existence, MJE has reconnected thousands of previously unaffiliated Jewish men and women with Judaism and the Jewish community, hundreds of whom are today living committed Jewish lives and sending their children to Jewish Day Schools.

Rabbi Mark also teaches an outreach training seminar at RIETS, Yeshiva University’s rabbinical school, training new leaders for the future. He and his wife Jill and their 4 children live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan where they maintain an open home for newcomers and friends.

November 24, 2021

Yael Weil

Yael Weil grew up in Memphis, TN and attended Stern College for Women and then Bank Street College for Education. She has taught in Hebrew Schools, day schools and high schools in New York, New Jersey, Michigan and California. Yael has been a proponent of adult education, specifically for women, and has lectured for synagogues, Federations, and women’s groups across the country. She has studied with scores of brides, helping them prepare spiritually, intellectually and emotionally for married life. Yael lives in Teaneck, NJ where she teaches at Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls and gives a weekly parsha shiur in the community. She is a proud mother and grandmother.

March 14, 2022

Dov Zakheim

Dov S. Zakheim is a Senior Fellow at CNA Corp. and a Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He was Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) and DoD Chief Financial Officer (2001-2004) and DOD coordinator of civilian programs in Afghanistan (2002-2004). From 1985 to 1987 he was Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Planning and Resources.  He is an Executive Advisor to the Chief of Naval Operations. He has served on government commissions and the Defense Business Board and chaired the National Intelligence Council’s International Business Practices Advisory Panel. He has a B.A. from Columbia and a D.Phil. from Oxford and earned his rabbinic ordination from the noted Gaon Rabbi Shmuel Walkin zt”l. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences.

Dr. Zakheim is the author of Flight of the Lavi: Inside a US-Israeli Crisis (Putnam’s, 1996), A Vulcan’s Tale: How the Bush Administration Mismanaged the Reconstruction of Afghanistan (Brookings, 2011), Nehemiah: Statesman and Sage (Maggid, 2016), The Prince and the Emperors: The Life and Times of Rabbi Judah the Prince (Maggid 2021) as well as hundreds of monographs, chapters in edited volumes, articles and book reviews on national security issues, Jewish history, and Halakhic themes. His writings have been translated into Arabic, French, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese and Norwegian. He appears frequently in the media and is a regular contributor to The Hill and The National Interest.

Dr. Zakheim sits on several corporate, think tank and non-profit boards including the American Jewish Committee and the Friends of the Jewish Chapel of the United States Naval Academy. He chairs the Advisory Board of the Jerusalem Strategic Tribune and is a member of the Global Advisory Board of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security. He previously served on the board of the American Friends of Bet Hatefutsoth, and YCT Rabbinical School.

Dr. Zakheim is the recipient of numerous awards for his government, professional and civic work, including the Defense Department’s highest civilian award three times, the United States Navy’s Award for Distinguished Public Service and the Achdut Yisrael Award from Yeshivat Sha’alvim.

January 26, 2022

Farley Weiss

Farley Weiss is the former president of The National Council of Young Israel which is one of the major Jewish organizations in America that represents over 110 Synagogues and around 100,000 Jews. Farley is an intellectual property attorney for the law firm of Weiss & Moy.

January 26, 2022

Payom Benson

Payam Benson is board certified physician in Internal Medicine and Nephrology. He is the Regional Medical Director for St Barnabas Health System as well as the Designated Institutional Official and Director of Medical Education of Prime Healthcare at St. Clare Hospital, St. Mary General Hospital. He is interested in all aspects of patient care. After graduating from Yeshiva University as an undergraduate Magna Cum Laude, he then went on to Albert Einstein University and subsequently completed his residency in Internal Medicine and his fellowship in Nephrology at the University Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Dr. Benson is currently on staff at Community Medical Center in New Jersey. While still being interested in academic medicine, he is the Assistant Dean for Clinical Education at Touro Medical School and Clinical Professor at St George Medical School. He looks forward to discussing enthralling medical issues facing society currently. Dr. Benson resides in Teaneck with his wife and three children and enjoys physical fitness in his free time.

December 9, 2021

MODI

Voted one of the top 10 comedians in New York City by The Hollywood Reporter, MODI is one of the comedy circuit’s most sought after performers. Featured on HBO, CBS, NBC, ABC, Comedy Central, Howard Stern, and E! Entertainment, MODI has received rave reviews in The New York Times, Time Out NY and The New York Post.

Born in Israel, MODI moved to the United States at the age of seven. After attending college at Boston University, MODI worked as an investment banker and had no plans to become a stand-up comedian until one open mic night changed everything.

MODI has appeared in several feature films and played leading roles in two: Waiting for Woody Allen, which won the LA Film Festival, and Stand Up, a feature-length film. According to Variety, MODI delivers a “naturally funny performance with a tremendous amount of energy on screen.”

A regular performer at the New York and Los Angeles comedy clubs, MODI also headlines around the country and across the globe. He has toured in the United Kingdom, Holland, and Israel and performs in comedy festivals and special venues, including Montreal’s Just for Laughs Comedy Festival and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

October 21, 2021

Shulem Lemer

Shulem Lemmer, known professionally simply as “Shulem,” is an American Belz Hasidic singer from Borough Park, Brooklyn. He is the first born-and-raised Haredi Jew to sign a major record contract with a leading label, Universal Music Group, under its classical music Decca Gold imprint. In April 2019, Lemmer sang “God Bless America” at Citi Field. He has toured in American and Israeli cities, and sung in London, Krakow, Frankfurt, and Zurich.

The music on his November 2019 major label debut album, The Perfect Dream, is produced by Jon Cohen and accompanied by London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It consists of English, Hebrew, and Yiddish songs, including the Israeli song “Jerusalem of Gold,” and “Bring Him Home” from the Broadway musical “Les Misérables.

One of the most sought after Jewish singers today, Shulem has performed in front of a wide range of audiences across the Jewish spectrum as well as those of other faiths. Shulem provides an authentic taste of Jewish music and culture with his proud Jewish appearance and style.

November 5, 2021

Dini Klein

Dini Klein is a food host, recipe developer, former private chef, and  founder of the Prep + Rally family meal prep service.

Prep + Rally was Dini’s solution to getting a wholesome dinner on the table on those busy weeknights when juggling mommy-ing and work life felt almost impossible. Her system now helps thousands of busy families all over the world get through the week stress-free with her uniquely designed meal plan structure. Dini has created food content for brands such as Walmart, Starbucks, Weight Watchers, Popsugar, Barilla, Campbell’s and more. Her work with Tastemade airs on Roku, Amazon, and Apple TV and she’s appeared live on KTLA, The Hallmark Channel, KSDK and The CW sharing the Prep + Rally method. Her recipes have been published in cookbooks such as Starbucks Coffee, Dawn to Dusk, and Pediatrician’s Guide to Feeding Babies and Toddlers. Dini has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and Goop and she’s on a mission to help every busy family enjoy more and stress less with the Prep + Rally system. Her first cookbook entitled Prep + Rally is due out Fall ’22. Dini and her husband Mike live in Los Angeles with their three kids.

November 3, 2021

Elliot Steinmetz

Elliot is the head coach of the Yeshiva University Maccabees men’s basketball team. Under Elliot’s leadership, in the 2019-20 season, the Macs won their second Skyline Conference Championship in the past three years going undefeated in conference play and advancing all the way to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division III Tournament before the season was cancelled due to COVID19. YU earned its first national ranking in school history, finishing the season as the 8^th ranked team in the country. The Maccabees extended their nation longest win streak to 36 wins in a row by going 7-0 during the truncated 2020-21 season and finishing as the 3^rd ranked team in the country. Elliot was named National Coach of the Year in NCAA Division III basketball by three separate outlets, along with various regional and conference awards. Elliot has transformed the Yeshiva University men’s basketball team into a nationally recognized program in just his sixth year at the helm, earning a career coaching record of 117-53. The Maccabees have finished with a winning record in each of the six years Elliot has led the team and earned a berth in the Skyline Conference Championships in each season. The Maccabees will start the 2021-2022 season as the #2 ranked team in the country.

October 21, 2021

Jacob Steinmetz

Jacob is eighteen years old and is currently a starting pitcher in the Arizona Diamondbacks minor league system. He is a 6’6 right hander who was selected early in the third round as the 77^th overall pick in the 2021 Major League Baseball player draft. Upon being selected by the Diamondbacks, Jacob became the first Orthodox Jew to be selected into Major League Baseball. Jacob’s fastball was clocked as high as 97 miles per hour during his senior year of high school and his breaking ball has recorded spin rates that are well above Major League average.

Jacob graduated from the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway in 2021. He was committed to go to Fordham University on a baseball scholarship following high school but decided to sign with the Diamondbacks and become a professional baseball player. Besides for baseball, Jacob also played varsity basketball at HAFTR and was a member of the National Honors Society. Jacob is from Woodmere, New York, and currently resides in Scottsdale, Arizona.

October 21, 2021

Johnathan Hajdu

Jonathan Hajdu is the co-winemaker at Covenant Wines and the owner/winemaker at Hajdu Wines. Originally from Long Island, Jonathan started his winemaking career while studying in Melbourne Australia. From there, he took jobs at a number of wineries around the globe including Herzog Wine Cellars and Carmel Winery in Israel, before settling in northern California and accepting a full-time position as associate winemaker at Covenant in 2008. Today, Hajdu runs the operation’s 7,000-square-foot urban winery in downtown Berkeley, which produces about 10,000 cases per year.  In 2018 he was chosen as one of Wine Enthusiasts 40 under 40.

January 26, 2022

Aliza Isaacs

Aliza Isaacs recently received her B.A. in Computer Science from Barnard College, after which she spent time learning in YU’s Graduate Program for Advanced Talmudic Studies. During her time at Barnard, Aliza was actively involved in Jewish communal life and served as the Yavneh president. She currently works as a software engineer at Google and enjoys learning and lecturing on Torah topics, both formally and informally. Originally from Lawrence, NY, Aliza now lives in Washington Heights and hopes to make aliyah in the coming summer.

February 10, 2022

Alyssa Schechter

Alyssa lives in Lawrence, NY with husband Josh and three children. Alyssa enjoys creating and organizing programs and activities for HAFTR High School students. She focuses on making sure every student is engaged and is having an enjoyable and valuable experience.  For the past 15+ years, Alyssa was a program director for day camps throughout the Jewish community. Most recently she was part of the programming team at Camp Lavi in Lakewood,PA. Besides her wealth of experience and love of working with children of all ages, Alyssa has a passion for teaching. She earned her Masters Degree in elementary education and special education and used that to passionately engage 1st year students in Haftr’s Early Childhood division for many years. She is excited to join Leisure Time Tours this Pesach and help bring smiles to everyone’s face!!

November 24, 2021