Jewish-Christian Relations Conference

Jewish-Christian Relations Conference Speakers

Rabbi Peter W. Stein

 https://www.tbk.org/about-tbk/our-spiritual-leaders

Rabba Rori Picker Neiss

https://jewishpublicaffairs.org/team/rabba-rori-picker-nei

Rabbi Peter W. Stein, MA, DD, is the senior rabbi of Temple B'rith Kodesh in Rochester, NY.  He previously served pulpits in Cranston, RI and Pittsburgh, PA.

Rabbi Stein was ordained and earned an MA in Hebrew Literature at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, studying in Jerusalem and New York  City. In 2014, he received a Doctor of Divinity degree, honoris caura. Rabbi Stein's undergraduate studies were at Cornell University. He also completed the Jewish Leaders Program at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He completed fellowships at the National Jewish Center for Leadership and Learning (CLAL), at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, and with Pardes. Rabbi Stein is involved with the One America Movement, combating toxic polarization.

Rabbi Stein is an adjunct faculty member at the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School and a leader within the Central Conference of American Rabbis. He is committed to social justice work and interfaith endeavors. He is a past member of Planned Parenthood's National Clergy Advocacy Board, participated in Alabama and Georgia with the NAACP Journey for Justice in 2015, and is a founder and steering committee member of the Religious Action Center of New York. 

Rabbi Stein's interfaith work has included participation in a papal audience at the Vatican and nurturing relationships with the Catholic, Christian, and Muslim communities.   

Rabba Rori Picker Neiss serves as the Senior Vice President for Community Relations at the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA). Prior to that she was Executive Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis, an organization committed to a vibrant and secure Jewish community in a thriving and just St. Louis region, after previously serving as a member of the clergy team at Bais Abraham Congregation, a Modern Orthodox Jewish synagogue in University City, Missouri. Rori is one of the first graduates of Yeshivat Maharat, a pioneering institution training Orthodox Jewish women to be spiritual leaders and halakhic (Jewish legal) authorities. She is a David Hartman Center fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, a CLAL Rabbis Without Borders fellow, and co-editor of “InterActive Faith: The Essential Interreligious Community-Building Handbook”. She serves on the Board of Directors for HIAS and the Parliament of the World’s Religions and has spent many years collaborating with Greenville University’s Jewish Christian Studies Program in Greenville Illinois, introducing Christian students to Jewish culture and traditions. Rori is married to Russel Neiss, a software engineer for Sefaria, and they have three children.

Rabbi Scott Saffrin

Rabbi Scott Shafrin, ordained from the American Jewish University’s Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles in 2013, also holds a Master’s Degree in Education. As a dedicated community organizer, rabbi, and educator, Scott has worked tirelessly to connect people of all ages to the profound meanings within Jewish tradition. He engages with his community through dialogue, Jewish texts, spiritual worship, music, social justice, and leadership development.

Scott’s extensive experience includes social justice organizing in Boston, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. He has served as Rabbi in Residence at the Epstein School in Atlanta, GA, emphasizing the importance of building relationships and connecting individuals to one another, and previously served as the Associate Rabbi and Religious School Director at Kol Rinah, a Conservative congregation in Clayton, MO.

Rabbi Shafrin is deeply passionate about interfaith and intergroup partnerships. He represents the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) and the St. Louis Jewish community as a member of the Interfaith Partnership’s Clergy Cabinet. Recently, he was selected for the inaugural Interfaith Leadership Network by the Interfaith Alliance, a nationally recognized organization. He has been a CLAL Rabbis Without Borders Fellow (2017-18) and a JOIN for Justice Fellow (2005-06) and Clergy Fellow (2021-22). Prior to his current role as Executive Director, Scott was JCRC's Deputy Director and the Lee & Milford Bohm Director of Social Justice.

He is blessed to share his adventures with his wife Rabbi Jessica Shafrin, a hospital chaplain and a passionate teacher of Torah, and their two incredible children.

Rabbi Mark Greenspan

Rabbi Mark Greenspan is a graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary and Columbia University. He was ordained in 1980 and served Conservative synagogues in Parkchester, NY; Knoxville,TN; Harrisburg, PA and Oceanside, NY during his career.  Rabbi Greenspan retired as a pulpit rabbi in 2019 and remains active in religious life as a member of a congregation in Seattle Washington. Rabbi Greenspan is married to Marilyn Greenspan. They have three children and three grandchildren.

Rabbi Greenspan was active in community affairs throughout his career, serving on a variety of civic boards including Child and Family Service of Knoxville, Hospice of Central Pennsylvania and the Oceanside Interfaith Council. He is a past president of the Rabbinical Assembly of Nassau and Suffolk Counties and was a member of the Beit Din of the Rabbinical Assembly of Nassau, Suffolk, and Queens for many years. He served as chaplain of the Oceanside Fire Department and worked as an A-class structural firefighter for almost two decades. 

Known for his scholarly interest in the Haggadah, he has translated over twenty Hebrew commentaries on the Haggadah.  Many of these translations appear on the website, Sefaria.com. He is also the author of Sacred Adornments: Poetry on the Weekly Parashah.

Rabbi Andrew Pepperstone

Rabbi Pepperstone has served as the rabbi of Ahavath Achim Congregation in Wichita, Kansas, since 2020, where he and his wife, Cantor Pepperstone, form a co-clergy team.

Rabbi Pepperstone was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City in 2002, where he also studied Jewish Education. After his ordination, he held various rabbinic roles—including youth work, adult education, day school education, and a solo pulpit—in Louisville, KY; Cleveland, OH; and Syracuse, NY.

While in Syracuse, Rabbi Pepperstone was active in the interfaith community, focusing on dialogue, education, social action, and justice. In Wichita, he is a founding member and co-president of Justice Together, a multi-faith social justice ministry. He holds a BA in Linguistics with a Minor in Hebrew Language from the University of California, San Diego.

Rabbi Pepperstone is also an avid cook and bread baker. A board game enthusiast, he aspires to develop a series of role-playing games based on the Jewish lifecycle and festival calendar. He is a Hebrew grammar guru, stand-up comedy aficionado, Star Wars expert, pop culture trivia master, and co-creator of Sacred Realms, a podcast exploring the nexus of sci-fi, fantasy, and Judaism.

Rabbi and Cantor Pepperstone have three children: Hadar (24), Aviyah (20), and Matan (17). They were excited to arrive in Wichita in the summer of 2020 and are enjoying both the Jewish and greater communities of Wichita and Central Kansas.

Sharon Gourdji

Sharon is a member of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue in downtown Detroit.  She grew up in Midland, MI and after living for some time in California, New York, Maryland and Colombia in Latin America, she returned to Michigan and bought a house in Detroit in 2021.  She works as an environmental engineer, currently doing agricultural computer modeling to help insurance clients assess their risk.  On her Mom's side, Sharon's great-grandparents immigrated to the USA from Eastern Europe in the early 1900's , and her father was an immigrant to the USA from Iran.  She identifies as a secular, cultural Jew who likes to incorporate spirituality from various faiths into her life.