Roberta Rosenthal Kwall is the Raymond P. Niro Professor at DePaul University College of Law. She earned her undergraduate degree in Religious Studies and American Civilization from Brown University and received her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was on the Editorial Board of the Law Review and sang with the school’s light opera company. She also has a master’s degree in Jewish Studies. Roberta is a prolific writer and lecturer whose work focuses on a wide array of topics including Jewish tradition and American Judaism, author’s rights, creativity theory, and cultural analysis. In 2006, she was designated as one of the Ten Best Law Professors in Illinois by Chicago Lawyer Magazine. Roberta has written three important books: “Remix Judaism: Preserving Tradition in a Diverse World,” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020); “The Myth of the Cultural Jew: Culture and Law in Jewish Tradition” (Oxford UP, 2015) and “The Soul of Creativity” (Stanford UP, 2010). Currently she is co-editing The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Law as well as writing an essay for this volume about lawmaking in the Conservative Movement.

Benjamin Resnick is currently the Rav Beit HaSefer at Solomon Schechter Day School of Metropolitan Chicago. Before that he served as rabbi and education director at Congregation Ahavas Achim in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Benjamin was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2014 and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah), also at JTS. He earned his undergraduate degree in Religious Studies and Creative Writing from Brown University. He has served and taught in multiple communities across the Northeast and has written about Judaism for multiple publications, including the Forward, Tablet, Modern Judaism, My Jewish Learning, and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Benjamin lives in Evanston with this wife, Philissa Cramer, and their sons Jonah and Gabriel.

Rachel Weiss has served as rabbi of the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, IL since 2016. A JRC and Evanston native, she is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where she was the recipient of the Berger Prize in Practical Rabbinics. Rachel is a member of the Clergy Leadership Incubator cohort 4, and an author in Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations. She previously served Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, New York City’s LGBTQS synagogue, as their associate rabbi, and is a proud member of CBST’s Cooperberg-Rittmaster Rabbinical Intern Alumni association. In 2014, she was named one of the New York Pride Guide’s “45 Under 45” for her leadership. A fluent Spanish speaker, she is a graduate of Grinnell College in Iowa where she earned a B.A. in Spanish and Gender and Women’s Studies. Rachel is married to Julia Tauber, and they are the parents to Hannah and Norah.