Join our Federation, the Simms/Mann Institute, Builders of Jewish Education, and the Board of Rabbis on Wednesday, May 15th, for Early Matters: Neuroscience and Jewish Wisdom as a Guide to Raising Healthy, Resilient Children. As part of The First 36 Project,* this lunch and panel discussion will focus on how both the world of early neuroscience and Jewish tradition help families grow, lead lives of meaning and purpose, and develop children into strong adults.

Panelists include:

• Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman, President of the Shalom Hartman Institute and internationally recognized expert on Jewish thought and practice
• Dr. Alicia Lieberman, Director of the Child Trauma Research Program at San Francisco General Hospital and world-renowned specialist in the area of early brain development

Moderated by Rabbi Nicole Guzik, Sinai Temple

*The First 36 Project is a groundbreaking pilot program developed by the Simms/Mann Institute in partnership with Builders of Jewish Education (BJE) and The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. The First 36 Project was created to provide a select group of parent-and-me instructors with an exclusive professional development experience designed to amplify their ability to support parents as they build strong, meaningful bonds with their children.

Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman

Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman is President of the Shalom Hartman Institute and holds the Richard and Sylvia Kaufman Family David Hartman Chair. He is author of the highly regarded 2016 book Putting God Second: How to Save Religion from Itself. Donniel is the founder of some of the most extensive education, training and enrichment programs for scholars, educators, rabbis, and religious and lay leaders in Israel and North America. He is a prominent essayist, blogger, and lecturer on issues of Israeli politics, policy, Judaism, and the Jewish community. He has a Ph.D. in Jewish philosophy from Hebrew University, an M.A in political philosophy from New York University, an M.A. in religion from Temple University, and Rabbinic ordination from the Shalom Hartman Institute. He is the author of The Boundaries of Judaism, co-author of Spheres of Jewish Identity, and co-editor of Judaism and the Challenges of Modern Life. He is working on his next book, which is entitled, Who Are The Jews?

He is married to Adina and is the father of three children and three grandchildren.

Alicia F. Lieberman, Ph.D.

Dr. Alicia Lieberman is Irving B. Harris Endowed Chair of Infant Mental Health, Professor and Vice Chair for Academic Affairs at the UCSF Department of Psychiatry, and Director of the Child Trauma Research Project, San Francisco General Hospital. She directs the Early Trauma Treatment Network, a center of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. She is currently President of the board of Zero to Three: The National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families, and the author or senior author of several books for parents and clinicians, including The Emotional Life of the Toddler; Losing a Parent to Death in the Early Years: Treating Traumatic Bereavement in Infancy and Early Childhood; Don’t Hit My Mommy: A Manual for Child-Parent Psychotherapy with Young Witnesses of Domestic Violence; and Psychotherapy with Infants and Young Children: Repairing the Effect of Stress and Trauma on Early Attachment, as well as numerous articles and chapters. She is senior editor of DC: 0-3 Casebook: A Guide to the Use of Zero to Three’s Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood. She served on the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine Committee on Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development, whose work resulted in the publication of the influential From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood, and has been a member of NIMH grant review committees. She is the author of over 50 articles and chapters about infancy and therapeutic interventions in the early years. She lectures extensively in four continents and is a consultant to government agencies and private foundations nationally and abroad.

Rabbi Nicole Guzik

Rabbi Nicole Guzik works with the Torah in the Round and Dor Chadash communities of Sinai Temple and supervises its Caring Community and Beit Bracha — families with children with special needs. She is proud to work with the Sinai Temple Sisterhood and most recently, guided Sinai Temple Sisterhood’s inaugural trip to Poland with March of the Living. Rabbi Guzik also serves as the Director of the Sinai Temple Israel Center. The Israel Center is a programmatic base that engages the Sinai Temple and Los Angeles community in pro-Israel education and awareness through speakers, classes, trips, and programs. Rabbi Guzik is proud to lead the David and Angella Nazarian Youth Leadership Program, a fellowship that engages the Temple’s teen community in Israel advocacy and leadership training. In the greater Los Angeles Jewish community, Rabbi Guzik sits on the Executive Committee of the Pacific Southwest Region of the Rabbinical Assembly and Executive Committee of the Board of Rabbis. She is married to Rabbi Erez Sherman. Together they are the proud parents of daughter Annie and sons Zachary and Henry.

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