The president of Hebrew College in Massachusetts since 2018, Rabbi Cohen previously served for 11 years as dean of the Rabbinical School. A 1990 graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, she spent 15 years working in pluralistic settings as a Hillel rabbi at Tufts, Yale, and Harvard universities.

Named to Newsweek's list of the Top 50 Influential Rabbis in America, she writes and teaches widely, weaving together Torah, rabbinic commentary, contemporary poetry, and literature in a compassionate approach to the complexities of our human experience and our search for hope and healing in a beautiful but fractured world. Since 1993, Rabbi Anisfeld has been a regular summer faculty member for the Bronfman Youth Fellowships in Israel and is co-editor of two volumes of women's writings on Passover: The Women's Seder Sourcebook: Rituals & Readings for Use at the Passover Seder and The Women's Passover Companion: Women's Reflections on the Festival of Freedom.

Title: With Strong Hands and Outstretched Arms: Extending our Circle of Compassion and Care

Date: Sunday, April 6, 2025

Raised on a duck farm on Long Island, New York, Sister Jean sought the larger world. With a double major in Biology and Education and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Duke University, Sister Jean taught in high schools, served in campus ministry at Ithaca College, and in 1976 volunteered for the SSJ mission in Brazil. Living and ministering in southwest Goiás for 6 years, Sister Jean moved to the Prelacy of São Félix do Araguaia, where, for the next 22 years, she lived with the sisters, priests, and lay pastoral agents in 6 different locations while serving the rural communities as a pastoral agent of the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT).

She has been a leader in the National Secretariat of the CPT, elected member of the National Coordination of the CPT, and is presently an elected member of their Board of Directors. During this time she coordinated the team that digitalized the documentation of land and labor conflicts in the state of Goiás, making more than 400,000 images accessible on the internet—the largest collection of land conflicts available anywhere in Brazil.

Jean Bellini & Patricia Schoelles

• Video recording: My Journey, From Foundations to Future, and Legacy Pinning Ceremony

An accomplished artist in multiple media and a Fulbright scholar in Florence, Italy, Alan Pascuzzi obtained his Ph.D. from Washington University, St. Louis, specializing in Greek/Roman sculpture and Renaissance art. He has been teaching Renaissance art, drawing, painting, and sculpting for more than 25 years. He currently teaches at Florida State University in Florence and is a frequent lecturer at the British Institute in Florence and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Visitors can enjoy his permanent frescos, paintings, and sculptures in the center of Florence, as well as in cities around the world.

In 2018, Alan had a one-person exhibit at the Vatican of 10 life-size sculptures of the Madonna and Child based on the medieval hymn Tota Pulcra es Maria. An expert in traditional Renaissance painting, drawing, and sculpting techniques, Alan has appeared in BBC documentaries on Renaissance art, CBS 60 Minutes, and has just published a book on the early drawings of Michelangelo. Though a permanent resident of Florence for many years, Alan continues his connection with his alma mater lecturing in summer programs of Naz students studying in Florence, semester abroad students studying at the Palazzo Rucellai, and more recently, Nazareth’s summer program in Italy. 

Video recording: A Branch that will Bear Fruit: The Cultivation of the Individual, the Beauty, and the Significance of the Nazareth Experience