2025 ARJE / ECE-RJ YOM Chadash

Jonathan Shmidt Chapman is an award-winning artist, writer, and Jewish educator. As the founder of The K’ilu Company, Jonathan reimagines Jewish youth and family engagement through theater and play. He leads programming and professional development in synagogues, day schools, and early childhood centers nationwide. His projects have reached thousands of families and classrooms. His new book Let There Be Play: Bringing the Bible to Life with Young Children was recently published by Behrman House. He is a curricular partner and consultant for ElevatEd, Jewish Grandparents Network, and Jewish United Fund Chicago. Jonathan is a recipient of The Covenant Foundation’s 2022 Pomegranate Prize for emerging Jewish educators and was named the Foundation’s inaugural Jewish Family Education Fellow in 2023. He is also a recipient of The Jewish Education Project’s Young Pioneers Award and the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America’s Medallion Award. Previously, Jonathan served as executive director of Theater for Young Audiences USA and as producer of family programming at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. His theatrical works for children and families have been presented at Lincoln Center, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and Seattle Children’s Theatre, and have been featured by NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, The New York Times, and American Theatre magazine. He lives in the Chicago area with his husband, Rabbi David Chapman, and their two children.

Mindy Gold is the founder and principal consultant of Gold Learning Solutions, where she facilitates inclusive and innovative design processes. Mindy applies research and expert instructional practices to support professional learning and organizational change for Jewish education programs. She is a Faculty Member of the Mandel Teacher Educator Institute (MTEI), an Instructor at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and a Coach for the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership. Her work and research interests focus on educational leadership, participatory action research methodologies, professional learning, and educational technology. Mindy is a doctoral candidate in Educational Leadership and Organizational Development at the University of Louisville. Based in Nashville, TN, Mindy enjoys the long garden growing season and music venues with her husband as well as being an honorary Hawkeye and Hurricane in support of her two sons’ collegiate journeys.

Lesley Litman Ed.D. is a faculty member of the HUC-JIR School of Education, Coordinator of Faculty Instructional Support at HUC-JIR and works on the new Virtual Pathway to the Rabbinate program at HUC-JIR. She consults to The iCenter in curriculum design and professional development in Israel education and is a faculty member of the Conflicts of Interest certificate program. Lesley has served in leadership positions in a wide variety of Jewish educational settings including founding director of HUC-JIR’s Executive MA program in Jewish Education, congregational education, day schools, youth movement and the URJ. She lived in Israel for ten years and was a founder of Kibbutz Yahel. Lesley holds an Ed.D. from JTS, an MA in Jewish Studies with a Hebrew concentration from Hebrew College and a BA in Economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She was a Mandel Jerusalem Fellow from 1994-96.