At HaMaqom, we celebrate and lift up the diversity of our Jewish community and practice. Passover is the perfect time of year to showcase the ways different families celebrate this holiday of liberation and new beginnings. This event featured 6 different family seder traditions from HaMaqom and OneTable community members and staff. Get ready for Passover with us!
Video Recap
Thank you to all who hosted and attended. What a beautiful event!
Co-presented by HereFor (Powered by OneTable)
Meet The Hosts!
Ruben Shimonov
HereFor/OneTable Educator
Born in Uzbekistan, raised in Seattle, and currently based in New York City, Ruben Shimonov is an educator, community builder, and social entrepreneur with a passion for Jewish diversity. He previously served as Director of Community Engagement and Education at Queens College Hillel. Currently, Ruben is the Founding Executive Director of the Sephardic Mizrahi Q Network, an organization that is building a supportive and much-needed community for LGBTQ+ Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews. He also serves as Vice President of Education & Community Engagement on the young leadership board of the American Sephardi Federation (ASF), Director of Educational Experiences & Programming for the Muslim-Jewish Solidarity Committee, and Director of the Sephardi House Fellowship—a new yearlong learning and leadership development experience for college students.
Lisa Douglass Pearlmutter
HaMaqom Board President
Lisa Douglass Pearlmutter is the founder and president of Douglass Results. Lisa holds an MBA in Marketing and Strategic Planning from the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh and a BS in Communications and French from the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University.
Zebulon B. Hurst
HereFor/OneTable Educator
Zebulon (he/they), also known by his Hebrew name, zuriel biran, is a multi-disciplinary artist, writer, and emerging scholar. Hurst graduated cum laude from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a BA in French and Francophone Studies, and will graduate from Pacific School of Religion in May 2021. A Presidential Scholar, Hurst will receive his Masters of Theological Studies and a Certificate in Sexuality and Religion with concentrations in translation and embodiment, respectively. His work revolves around pleasure, pain, and language as a site (and sight) of failure. In addition to being a host through One Table since 2019, Hurst is also a Cultural Organizer with Linke Fligl (Yiddish for Left Wing), a queer, diasporist land project in upstate NY.
Rabbi Josh Buchin
HaMaqom Jewish Text Educator
Rabbi Joshua Buchin has worked in Jewish Education for over ten years in a variety of settings. Most recently, he was the Jewish Emergent Network Rabbinic Fellow at Romemu in New York. Previously he served as a spiritual counselor at Beit T’Shuvah, as the Rabbinic Intern at Congregation Netivot Shalom, in Berkeley, CA, worked at a Jewish residential treatment center in Los Angeles, and as a teacher in numerous supplementary, summer, and informal education settings. He is also the author of a children’s book, Tefilat HaDerech: The Traveler’s Prayer (EKS Publishing, 2012).
Dani Kohanzadeh
HereFor/OneTable Educator
Dani grew up surrounded by the warmth of a Persian Jewish community in Los Angeles. After studying Philosophy and Jewish Ethics at Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, she returned to LA to spend time with loved ones, work at Camp Ramah in California, stage at restaurants, and teach kids’ cooking classes. She founded OneTable’s LA hub in 2017 and has been the LA Field Manager and Local Partnerships Coordinator since. She loves her job, Pilates, eating good food with good friends, and spending cozy weekend mornings with her husband, and newly adopted puppy, Luca.
Marilyn Paul, Ph.D.
HaMaqom Jewish Spiritual Practices Educator
Marilyn Paul is an educator and facilitator of change. She has worked with a wide range of organizations including the Jewish Federation of North America, The New Israel Fund office in Jerusalem, and Gann Academy – The New Jewish High School in Waltham, MA. In addition, she led a multi-stakeholder public health leadership development project in the Gaza Strip sponsored by the IDF. She has a Ph.D. from Yale and has worked on change projects around the world. She is the author of the best-seller, It’s Hard to Make a Difference When You Can’t Find Your Keys (Penguin, 2004) and An Oasis in Time: How a Day of Rest Can Save Your Life (Rodale, 2017)