Naomi is the founder and one of the organisers of the She’ela festival. She spent five years in Mullumbimby where her three children grew up. Naomi and her young family attended many festivals that enriched their lives both personally and collectively as a family unit.
Naomi has been a Jewish Studies teacher for nearly three decades and is currently studying a Masters of Counselling at Monash University. She has also been the proud Bat Mitzvah teacher of Caulfield Hebrew Congregation for the past six years. She runs annual mother-daughter weekends with her own daughters as her co facilitators and more recently has been organising and facilitating women’s retreats, focusing on connection and empathy, qualities she believes are key to a happy life.
Susan Wise is a specialist periodontist, the immediate past-president of the Australian Dental Association Victorian Branch and on the Korean Adoption Family committee. Susan and her husband, Gary Levin are the parents of Benjamin through overseas adoption.
Sassi Liberman is a Year 10 student at Mount Scopus Memorial College. Sassi loves school life and enjoys reading and writing. This was a speech she delivered on the topic: Myths and Misunderstandings.
A food and wellness coach, food educator and cooking class facilitator, Susie’s passion lies in the beauty and intricacies of human relationships. Susie, a single mother of two young adults, grew up with the knowledge that she had been adopted through the Jewish welfare system but it was only in the last 10 years that she has discovered and been in contact with her birth family.
Lisa Stein is studying Music and Religion at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. Lisa holds a position on the Wesleyan Jewish Community Student Leadership Board; leads the Mazel Tones (Wesleyan’s Jewish a cappella group) and the Wesleyan Nigun Circle; sings in South Indian music and dance performances; and plays cello in various world, experimental, and classical music concerts.
Barbara Crane is an award-winning novelist, a journalist and instructor. Her current novel, When Water Was Everywhere, won the Beverly Hills Book Award in the Historical Fiction category. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Sun magazine, Open: Journal of Arts & Letters, and numerous other publications. She lives in the U.S. in Southern California and blogs from http://www.whenwaterwaseverywhere.com
Shira Sebban is a volunteer refugee advocate, writer and editor based in Sydney, Australia, who focuses on the challenges which life throws at us. A former journalist with the Australian Jewish News, she previously worked in publishing and taught French while undertaking post-graduate research at the University of Queensland. She also served for 14 years on the board of Emanuel School – a pluralist and egalitarian Jewish day school – including 3 terms as vice-president. Shira volunteers as a guide at the Sydney Jewish Musuem, combining lessons learned notably from the Holocaust with her passion for social justice. Her work has appeared in online and print publications including The Sydney Morning Herald, the Guardian, Biostories, Jewish Literary Journal, The Forward, Australian Jewish News, New Matilda, Eureka Street, Independent Australia, Jewish Writing Project, Alzheimer’s Reading Room and Online Opinion. You can read more at http://www.shirasebban.wordpress.com