Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis

Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis is the 11thChief Rabbi of Great Britain since the office was introduced in 1704. He is the religious figurehead for Jewish communities right across the Commonwealth. He was installed on 1stSeptember 2013 in an historic ceremony attended by His Majesty King Charles III, then The Prince of Wales.

Born in South Africa, he previously served as Chief Rabbi of Ireland and the Marble Arch and Finchley Synagogues.

As Chief Rabbi, he is a primary representative of the Jewish community to government, other faiths and civil society as well as being responsible for oversight of crucial parts of the UK Jewish community’s religious infrastructure.

Chief Rabbi Mirvis is known as a principled leader who has broken new ground in the fields of interfaith and social responsibility, as well as tackling a number of particularly complex or controversial issues, including the welfare of LGBT+ students in Orthodox Jewish Schools and antisemitism in the British Labour Party.

Chief Rabbi Mirvis serves as Associate President of the Conference of European Rabbis, President of the London School of Jewish Studies and is a regular contributor to press and broadcast media.

He makes personal visits to communities across the UK and the Commonwealth a priority, to provide inspiration and Torah education. He has launched a number of innovative projects, such as his Centre for Community Excellence, the Ma’ayan female educators programme, the Ben Azzai social responsibility programme and ShabbatUK.

He received a knighthood last year from King Charles III in a ceremony at Windsor Castle.

Menachem Penner

Rabbi Menachem Penner is the Max and Marion Grill Dean of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University where he has the privilege to inspire and train the rabbis of tomorrow. In March, he will take his next step, assuming the role of Executive Vice President of the Rabbinical Counsil of America, the continent’s largest and most prestigious Rabbinic Fellowship. He will continue as a mentor and faculty member at RIETS with the title of Dean Emeritus.

Rabbi Penner served as the spiritual leader of the Young Israel of Holliswood in Queens for 20 years and continues to teach in communities worldwide, focusing on Tanach, Tefillah and Machshavah. He also speaks worldwide on critical family and community issues of our day. Rabbi Penner received his semikhah from RIETS and is proud to serve the institution from which he received his formative education.

Rabbi Penner lives in Cedarhurst, NY and is married to Adeena, the President of Kesher Families, a vital organization for families of individuals who identify as LGBTQ. He works closely with her as part of this special mission. Rabi and Mrs. Penner are proud parents and grandparents of children in the US and Israel.

Sarge

Comedian Sarge is an entertainer who has performed worldwide to adoring audiences. He delights audiences with humor that resonates with audiences of all ages. And he is much more than a comedian – – Sarge is a self-taught piano savant, an author and motivational speaker. His humor comes from a very personal place as his road to success was not a smooth one. He was born in Miami Beach, Florida during the Civil Rights Movement to a Jewish mother and black father, but given up for adoption soon after birth. Fortunately, he was quickly adopted by a couple who then raised him in Great Neck, Long Island. At the fresh age of seven, SARGE would entertain in between hands of his grandpa Herman’s card games by doing impressions and jokes on cue. It was also at this time that his grandfather took him to shows in the Catskill Mountains, which was the live entertainment capital of New York State.

After playing clubs and colleges all over America for three years, SARGE found himself opening for some of the biggest names in music – Natalie Cole, Aretha Franklin, Paul Anka, The Beach Boys, The Four Tops, Taylor Dayne, Donna Summer and Wayne Newton, just to name a few. These high profile gigs enabled SARGE’s act to evolve from a comedy appearance to an entertainment performance because he learned to weave his own musical talents into his shows. SARGE has worked on some of the biggest stages in show business. From Radio City Music Hall to Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game to entertaining our nation’s troops in Iraq, SARGE’s ability to improvise and tailor his show to specific audiences is uncanny. Sarge is a highly sought after motivational speaker and for the last 27 years has been working in treatment centers and recovery. In 2019, Sarge released his autobiography and motivational book, “Black Boychick,” which traces his hilarious, inspirational life of twists and turns, ups and downs which will leave you exhilarated and entertained.

This past summer SARGE was cast for a co-starring role in a major motion picture “The NARROWS” set in BROOKLYN which will be released SPRING 2024. Also look for SARGE’s triumphant appearance airing on the wildly popular “Comics Unleashed”. He is a proud father to his son and loving husband to his wife Anna and lives in Florida.

Naomi Nachman

Naomi who was born and raised in Sydney, Australia, moved to New York 32 years ago. In 2004 Naomi started to her own kosher personal chef business, The Aussie Gourmet, to cater weekly and Shabbat/Yom Tov meals for families and individuals within The Five Towns and neighboring communities.

Naomi as her own cooking show, Sunny Side Up, on the Kosher.com network and also hosts her own weekly show, “Table for Two with Naomi Nachman” on The Nachum Segal Network – in which discusses all food-related and travel topics.  In addition, Naomi writes a monthly column for the Mishpacha magazine covering food and travel called “Off the Eaten Track”.  She is also a contributing editor to The Jewish Home newspaper for the last 13 years.

In 2017, Naomi published her debut cookbook, Perfect For Pesach with Artscroll Publications; and in November, 2018 Naomi published her second cookbook, Perfect Flavors also with Artscroll Publications.

In 2018, Naomi was invited to attend the New Jewish Media summit where she met with President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu. She has also been a guest host on the QVC TV network and has made a variety of guest appearances on CBS TV in both NY and Washington, NBC Morning News, Fox 5 New York, and the Hallmark Channel and has been quoted by the Forbes Magazine, Wall Street Journal on Jewish food trends.

Naomi is often sought after to do cooking demonstrations, book signings and to produce Kosher Chopped-style cooking competitions across the world, where she shares her immense enthusiasm and passion for food.

When Naomi is not traveling she can be found with her husband and family in Long Island, New York.

Naomi’s motto in life is “see the world, one bite at a time”.

Bradley Schachter

For the past 25 years, Bradley Schachter has been one of the top event band leaders in America. He was raised as a child actor appearing in over 100 national commercials, voiceovers for Peanuts and Disney, TV and film. His big claim to fame was appearing in Halloween 3 as Little Buddy. On his way to the Broadway and SNL scene in 1991, Bradley went to Israel for the summer and stayed for almost 7 years. During that time, he earned his Rabbinical Ordination and began his career in live music. In 1999, he created Nefesh Music and has performed extensively throughout North America and Israel until 2020. Bradley was also part of the team that revived the Name That Tune brand while performing in the live show on the Las Vegas strip. Recently, Bradley retired from big band events and has just released a new series of cover lullaby albums and videos with his new brand available at Bradleysongs.com. Bradley is married to Leah and have four children and one really cute grandson.

Brian Zev Steinberg

Zev Steinberg is a passionate WSET-certified wine enthusiast whose mission is to foster community through the shared love of wine, and to educate on the expanding market of premium kosher wines in a way that is practical and accessible for wine drinkers of all levels and experiences.  He travels extensively to facilitate wine events and to link communities of kosher wine lovers across the United States, Israel and Europe.  With a philosophy that taste is personal and each person’s wine journey unique, Zev conducts private and corporate tastings to empower consumers with the knowledge to shop for wines best suited for their individual preferences. Zev provides cellar curation services for private clients and is launching a kosher French wine tour service in Bordeaux this Summer.   You can follow Zev’s Instagram account Sancerrely_yours – for wine recommendations and reviews.  We are excited to have Zev on our program as our sommelier and hosting wine tasting events throughout Pesach.

Sheina Yarmush

Sheina Yarmush, a Los Angeles based artist, has been providing paint parties for her community for almost a decade. She started as a caricature artist, 20 years ago in Brooklyn, and now has an Art studio in the Art district of Melrose, West Hollywood, CA . Her exquisite 3-dimensional art and Glow Art masterpieces were displayed twice at LA fashion week, including a Glow Jerusalem and a Glow Lubavitcher Rebbe. She proudly displays her Jewish identity and has gotten positive feedback for it.

In between leading paint parties, painting murals across the country and creating her own masterpieces, she is also an art teacher in three Jewish schools. When challenging one of her talented students to draw with simple crayons, Sheina took the challenge for herself and developed her own unique caricature style, drawing the faces from scribbles using crayons.

Sheina’s positive high energy uplifts everyone around her.