Team Mishkan

Meet our well-oiled machine (running on coffee and love).

From our home-grown, local Rabbi and founder, to our super-human staff of professionals and clergy, Mishkan’s team has (collective) decades of experience envisioning, creating, growing, sustaining and organizing community.

Meet our Mensch Academy Team

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann

Lizzi Heydemann catalyzed the founding of Mishkan Chicago in September of 2011. She graduated with Honors from Stanford University, and was ordained by the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles in 2010. Her first job out of school was as the first Revson Rabbinic Fellow at IKAR in Los Angeles. 

Meet our Rabbi & Founder

Full-Time Team

Rhonda Abrams

Rhonda Abrams

Director of Development

Rachel Cort

Rachel Cort

Executive Director

Ashley Donohue

Ashley Donohue

Director of Communications and Marketing

Ilana Gleicher-Bloom

Ilana Gleicher-Bloom

Vision Director of The Mensch Academy

Rabbi Lauren Henderson

Rabbi Lauren Henderson

Rabbi + Director of Family Learning and Spirituality

Hannah Schaeffer

Hannah Schaeffer

Program and Engagement Associate

Ellie Spitz

Ellie Spitz

Director of Programs

Aviva Stein

Aviva Stein

Family Program Coordinator

Rebecca Stevens

Rebecca Stevens

Director of Experience Design

Rabbi Jeff Stombaugh

Rabbi Jeff Stombaugh

Jewish Emergent Network Rabbinic Fellow

Zach Weinberg

Zach Weinberg

Rabbinic, Executive, and Administrative Assistant

Anna Wolfe

Anna Wolfe

Family Program Coordinator

Part-Time Team

Steven Chaitman

Steven Chaitman

Music Fellow

Rabbi Allison Tick Brill

Rabbi Allison Tick Brill

Conversion Cohort Facilitator

Essie Shachar-Hill

Essie Shachar-Hill

Maggie's Place Specialist

Arielle Dubow

Arielle Dubow

Shabbat Coordinator

Jordan Golding

Jordan Golding

Shabbat Coordinator

Katy Ibur

Katy Ibur

Shabbat Coordinator