We are happy to introduce the following new members of the Kehillah professional team for 2019-2020. These individuals bring a wealth of talent and experience to our community and look forward to working with your students. Please be sure to welcome them in person at the Back-to School Picnic.

Cody Bahir, Ph.D.: History
Cody Bahir joined Kehillah after finishing a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley. He has also taught in the rabbinic programs at American Jewish University and Hebrew Union College, Skyline College in San Bruno, and a number of Taiwanese vocational schools as well Fooyin University in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Cody’s research focuses on the intersection between modernity and religiosity within East Asian Buddhism and Hasidic Judaism. more here

Daniel Benjamin, Ph.D.: English and Jewish Studies Teacher
Daniel Benjamin received his BA in Philosophy from the University of Chicago, his MPhil in English from the University of Cambridge, and his Ph.D. in English and Critical Theory from the University of California, Berkeley. He also received an MA in Creative Writing from Berkeley. While at Berkeley, Dr. Benjamin designed and taught courses in composition, literature, and creative writing. more here

Matt Linden: History Teacher
Mr. Linden is so excited to be joining the Kehillah community for the 2019-2020 school year! After growing up in Massachusetts, he studied History and Linguistics at Cornell University, and he has a particular interest in the process of globalization in the 17th and 18th centuries, and the places and times where vastly different peoples encounter each other for the first time. After Cornell, Mr. Linden spent two years in the Progressive Education Lab, a fellowship designed to train teachers in progressive pedagogy and practice. more here

Kate Wolfden: Math Teacher
Kate Wolfden is a Bay Area native who started her teaching career at Gersten Jewish School in San Leandro. She studied biochemistry and molecular cell biology for her undergraduate degree at Mills College and holds a Masters of Education from Alder Graduate School. She has spent the last two years teaching math at KIPP Bay Area Schools, where she was a founding resident, a founding 7th-grade teacher, and the committee leader for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. more here

Maja Gildin Zuckerman, Ph.D.: Jewish Studies Teacher
Maja Gildin Zuckerman has been a student and an educator most of her adult life. She has studied anthropology and modern Jewish history at University of Copenhagen (BA), Jewish and Israeli literature in Haifa University (BA), and anthropology and sociology with a focus on refugee issues at Tel Aviv University (MA). She did her Ph.D. at University of Southern Denmark, where she wrote about the social and cultural emergence of early Zionism in Scandinavia and Western Europe. more here

Other significant classroom changes for this coming year:

Sandi MacQuinn is transitioning from her position in the Learning Center to teaching one section of A.P. English Literature. After nearly five decades of educational leadership and teaching in the Spokane, Washington Public Schools and in private education at Noble and Greenough School in Dedham, Massachusetts. Amongst Sandi’s many accolades throughout her career, she was awarded the “District 81 (Spokane) Distinguished Teacher Award”, EF Forum “American Classroom Teacher Award”, and Fulbright Hayes Scholar to Romania and Bulgaria 1996.

New Academic Deans for 2019-2020:

Ronit Balan – Dean of World Languages
Katherine Ratledge – Dean of History