Jewish Learning

Rabbi Peretz Shapiro is a Chabad Rabbi and spiritual leader of The Jewish Life Network, a Chabad-Lubavitch organization committed to enhancing the spiritual lives of Jewish senior citizens by creating meaningful, educational, spiritual, and cultural programming. He is also a chaplain at Vitas Healthcare Hospice and has been an instructor in the Melton and Gesher Adult Educational Programs at the J since 2005. Rabbi Shapiro lives in Dallas with his wife Michal, Judaics teacher at Yavneh, and 4 daughters and 1 son.

Ben Crane is new to Melton but not to Dallas: a proud product of Levine Academy and J camps. At present, Ben is wrapping up his MA in religion from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and is looking ahead to continuing his graduate work at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio come Fall 2021. Ben earned his Bachelor’s at Rhodes College where he double majored in Philosophy and International Studies and minored in Religious Studies. His research interests include ethically oriented biblical interpretation, Jewish liturgy, and comparative theology. Central to the Melton courses Ben will be teaching this summer is the important notion of memory; the distinct, but complementary work done on the subject by Hannah Arendt z”l and Marjorie Hass.

A native Las Vegan who didn’t have the aspirations to be a showgirl, Beri Kaplan Schwitzer put her time, energy, and enthusiasm into education. Upon graduating from the University of Nevada, Reno with a degree in Journalism, she began a career that has provided her with extensive experience in Jewish education, non-profit management, and corporate human resources/training. Her true passion remains in Jewish education where she has served in a variety of capacities over the last twenty years. Beri is a nationally recognized Jewish educator honored by Jewish Education Service of North America (JESNA) and by the National Association of Temple Educators (NATE) for her work in creating a special needs learning lab and curriculum in supplementary Jewish education. She believes in creating a welcoming environment where students can grow in a Jewish playground allowing learners of all ages to romp and wrestle with their spirituality, history, and rich heritage. Beri and husband Joel are proud parents to twins, Miriam and Hannah. She is a marathoner, an amateur genealogist, and veracious reader of Jewish fiction.

David Patterson holds the Hillel A. Feinberg Distinguished Chair in Holocaust Studies at the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies, University of Texas at Dallas and is a Senior Research Fellow for the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitsm and Policy (ISGAP).  He is a commissioner on the Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission and a member of the Executive Board of the Annual Scholars’ Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches.  He has lectured at universities on six continents and throughout the United States.  A winner of the National Jewish Book Award, the Koret Jewish Book Award, and the Holocaust Scholars’ Conference Eternal Flame Award, he has published more than 35 books and more than 240 articles, essays, and book chapters on topics in literature, philosophy, the Holocaust, and Jewish studies.  His most recent books are Portraits: Elie Wiesel’s Hasidic Legacy (SUNY, 2021), The Holocaust and the Non-Representable (SUNY, 2018), Anti-Semitism and Its Metaphysical Origins (Cambridge, 2015), and Genocide in Jewish Thought (Cambridge, 2012).