About

Dalit Kaplan is a co-founder of Oz. She is a student of Torah and holds Shiurim exploring Jewish sources from an earth-based, feminist, psychological and mythical perspective. In her other life, she is a former lawyer-turned storytelling trainer, an Impact Investor and aspiring writer. Originally from the village of Caulfield, she has lived in the US and Israel and now calls Melbourne, where she resides with her husband (and Beit-Midrash co-founder), two tyrannical children and zen-master cat, home.

Raphael Dascalu is a Melbourne-based researcher and translator. Born and raised in Sydney, he completed his MA at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, his PhD at the University of Chicago, and studied in a number of institutions of Jewish learning, including Yeshivat ha-Kibbutz ha-Dati (Ein Tzurim), the Pardes Institute, and the Shalom Hartman Institute. He is a Senior Research Fellow at Notre Dame University Australia, an Adjunct Research Associate at Monash University, and a student of the mysteries of the cosmos.

Allan Pincus is on the Board of Oz. Allan is a passionate and keen student of Torah and has been studying jewish texts, for nealy four decades. When not studying or attending lectures at the Beit, he can be found reading science fiction and graphic novels, snorkeling in Port Phillip bay or hiking the hills and mountains of Victoria. He also sometimes finds time to practice law as in-house corporate counsel. Originally from Johannesburg South Africa, he and his wife Marcia now calls Caulfield their home for the past 17 years. He is especially proud of, in the following order, a first grandson, his three boys, an extensive collection of Haggadot and his curated collection of toys and figurines.

Dan Fine is a management consultant, community leader, and lifelong student with over 15 years’ experience working alongside community organisations, not-for-profits, and government across Australia. His work focuses on supporting communities to design, lead, and sustain meaningful change, grounded in a human-centred and strengths-based approach. As Managing Director of Beit Midrash Oz, Dan is honoured to help grow a vibrant and inclusive space for Jewish learning. One that engages deeply with texts, ideas, and culture in an open, non-political, and non-denominational way. Dan is also the founder of The Croftglen Collective, a consultancy supporting organisations that serve communities, and fostering collaboration between independent practitioners. He serves as President of the Glen Eira Adult Learning Centre (GEALC) and is an active member and volunteer within the Jewish community. He lives in Melbourne with his wife, two daughters, and a very enthusiastic puppy.

Peninah Silverstein plays at the intersection of exploration, experience, and community, and is drawn to making Jewish texts feel not only studied but lived with—woven into everyday life in ways that are meaningful, human, and luminous. At Oz, she serves as Director of Programming and Community Engagement. Drawing on her background in Architecture, Peninah brings an awareness of how environments and modalities shape human experience and journeys. In this role, she helps shape space for thoughtful engagement with Jewish text and culture that is alive, accessible, and personal. Her independent creative project, Dance with the Divine, is where she creates immersive retreats, workshops, and events rooted in Jewish spirituality and creativity, blending ritual, art, and experience. Peninah has spent years learning at Jewish institutions around the world and is deeply excited to be bringing accessible, meaningful exploration of Jewish texts, ideas, and culture to Australia.

Ellyse spends her days as a children’s lawyer and her evenings learning and teaching Torah. Ellyse serves as a pastoral care guide at Shira, an inclusive Orthodox community. She is a qualified pre-marriage teacher and certified to appear as a lawyer in rabbinic courts. She received smicha (Orthodox rabbinic ordination) from Beit Midrash Har’El in Jerusalem in 2019.

Nathan Wolski is the Liberman Family Lecturer in Jewish Studies with the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation at Monash University, Australia. He is the author of A Journey into the Zohar: An Introduction to the Book of Radiance (SUNY, 2010), the translator of The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, Volume 10 (Stanford, 2016), and with Joel Hecker, The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, Volume 12 (Stanford, 2017), and more recently, Kabbalistic Yiddish: Aaron Zeitlin’s Mystical-Messianic Poetics (Cherub, 2020). As part of Di Farborgene Khalyastre – a little collective of artists, musos and him – he has produced three Yiddish albums and three illustrated Yiddish books. Often grumpy in shul, he believes that mystical poetry, Beethoven and trees are the only resistance.

Idan Dorshav Dershowitz joined the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation at Monash University in 2024. He was previously Director of the School of Jewish Theology and Chair of Hebrew Bible at the University of Potsdam. His research interests include the evolution of biblical religion and the methods of ancient biblical editors, as well as the development of AI tools to trace the origins of ancient texts. He is the author of The Dismembered Bible: Cutting and Pasting Scripture in Antiquity and The Valediction of Moses: A Proto-Biblical Book. He is currently working on a children’s book on the origins of the alphabet.

Dr Simon Holloway is Manager of Community and Corporate Programs at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum and a sessional lecturer at Melbourne University, where he teaches Early Rabbinic Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. In the evenings, Simon divides his time between the Talmud and the writings of JRR Tolkien, subjecting his children to both in roughly equal measure.