Youth Arts Beit Midrash

Wendy Blevins (theater)

Wendy and her family are longtime members of the KHN community, since relocating to New Hope from Maryland in 1997. She has degrees from Montgomery Community College and the University of Maryland in Theater and Radio, Television, and Film Production. She was CSPAN’s first intern and was a Writer for NUSTraining Corp., creating video tape scripts and text books for training power plant operators, maintenance and electronic technicians. She administered a Title One Cultural Arts Program as PTA Vice President at her children’s elementary school in Maryland. She was a director of the Center Stage Theater Club at New Hope Solebury Middle School for 8 years and has directed several community theater productions. Currently she concentrates on her Kiln Formed Art Glass practice and her two grandsons. Wendy is very excited and honored to be part of the Youth Arts Beit Midrash.

Steph Breitsman (visual arts)

Steph is a Jew-by-choice, a spiritual seeker, an artist, and a casual gamer. Raised in a secular family of Christian origins, she unexpectedly found her home in the American Jewish community when she befriended her college's Hillel president in the campus garden. Steph is currently a rabbinical student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. She is passionate about Torah, ritual, and prayer and experimenting with ways to make them meaningful in our daily lives. She is currently exploring the intersection of creative practice, spirituality, and Judaism through her printmaking. She firmly believes that there is no one-size-fits-all way to be Jewish, and in her rabbinate she hopes to help people find their own personal ways to relate to Jewish texts, traditions, and practices. Prior to starting at RRC, Steph worked for three years with Americans for Peace Now, an American, Jewish nonprofit advocating for the end of the Israeli occupation and for a two-state solution. She also received her Master's degree in Middle East Studies from the George Washington University. She lives in West Philly with her partner, Jeff, and their angelic, mischievous, and scruffy dog, Gus.

Rabbi Jonah Rank (music)
The Director of the KHN Shul School, Rabbi Jonah is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and award-winning songwriter whose music was recognized by The Forward's "Soundtrack of Our Spirit" in 2015. Before being ordained in 2015 as a rabbi, not-yet-Rabbi Jonah served in each summer between and during 2010 and 2013 in the Arts Beit Midrash programming at BIMA at Brandeis University, a pluralistic Jewish program for high school students focusing on music and the arts. Many of Rabbi Jonah's Jewish music recordings can be heard on Bandcamp.