Educational Leadership & Staff  

Kehilla's approach to Jewish education focuses on developing a positive Jewish identity, as exemplified by our educational program Directors. 

Elizheva Hurvich, School Rosh

Elizheva Hurvich loves Jewish life! She comes to Kehilla with a rich and ecclectic background.  A Bay Area native, she grew up at Congregation Kol Shofar, supplemented by her family's "hippie Shabbat" experiences on rugs of Joseph and Nathan Segal's Community services.  Her Jewish background includes summers with her Zionist grandparents and relatives in Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida.  (Yes, there are Jews in them thar hills!)

Elizheva has been blessed to travel much (including living with her family in a camper that travelled around the United States) and to live for extended periods on the East Coast, in France, and in Israel.  Having studied with Reconstructionists, Renewalists, Conservatives, Orthodox, she earned a master's degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary and Columbia University in Jewish Art and Material Culture.  When asked to name her affiliation, she claims to be a post-trans-reconformodox-Stam-Jew. 

Elizheva is also an artist who has worked in many media.  She has created dozens of Huppot and tallitot, quilts, dolls, and several artbooks.  In addition to being the director of Kehilla School, Elizheva is a teacher and a ritual leader.  With a spirituality that has Jewish roots and is linked to nature, Elizheva hopes to continue Renewing her life practice for many years to come.
 
 

Sandra Razieli, Bar/Bat Mitzvah Program Director

Sandra Razieli is the Bar/Bat Mitzvah Program Director and has been teaching at Kehilla since 2000.  She is also a service leader and enjoys participating in the community as a congregant. 

Sandra has studied and lived extensively in Minnesota, Israel, and California, and has degrees from the University of Minnesota and Stanford University.  As an anthropologist with a focus on the modern Middle East, her academic interests overlap nicely with her work at Kehilla.  She created the 6th grade curriculum at Kehilla and is the author, along with Alaiya Aguilar, of Tree of Life: Torah for Bar/Bat Mitzvah Students.

Sandra also teaches yoga with a specific interest in yoga for scoliosis.  She holds a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT500) designation from Yoga Alliance and a teaching certification from the Institute of Yoga and Jewish Spirituality.  She is also an avid soccer player. 

Talia Cooper, School Assistant

Talia Cooper is Kehilla's School Assistant. She spends her time working alongside Elizheva, the amazing TAs and teachers, and learning from the students. She also works part-time as a facilitator for Jewish Youth for Community Action, a youth empowerment program she recommends for all high school aged teens.

Talia is blessed to have two fabulous jobs to which she is so personally connected; she grew up alongside Kehilla and the Hebrew School, and she was a participant of JYCA when she was in high school. Talia is thrilled to be back in the Bay after spending four years studying Creative Writing, American Studies, and Dance at Oberlin College.