Jewish History Department - Faculty List

Mrs. Dena Block (nee Katz) teaches Talmud, History, Jewish History, and serves as a ninth-grade Mehanekhet. She graduated from Ma'ayanot in 2004. She studied at Migdal Oz in Israel before attending Barnard College, from which she received a BA in History in 2009. She completed the Graduate Program in Advanced Talmudic Studies at Stern College while concurrently pursuing a Masters Degree in Medieval Jewish History at the Bernard Revel Graduate School at Yeshiva University. Last year, Mrs. Block was the Resident Scholar at Congregation BIAV in Kansas City, Kansas for one Shabbat each month, which involved teaching members of the community and learning with high school students.

Rabbi Uri Goldstein teaches Modern Jewish History. He is also a member of the History Department at the Frisch School, in Paramus, New Jersey. He is a graduate of Yeshiva University, and received semicha from Yeshiva’s REITS. He is the Rabbi of Congregation Ahavat Achim, in Fairlawn, New Jersey, where he lives with his wife, Julie Goldstein, a  Ma’ayanot faculty member, and their children.

Mrs. Julie Goldstein  is rejoining our faculty to teach ninth grade Jewish History. Mrs. Goldstein is a doctoral candidate in medieval Jewish history at NYU, working on a dissertation about the representation of children in medieval martyrdom narratives. Mrs. Goldstein, along with her husband Rabbi Uri Goldstein, founded an advanced Jewish learning program at UCLA Hillel. She received a BA in Jewish Studies from Stern College and an MA in Medieval Jewish Philosophy from Bernard Revel Graduate School of Yeshiva University. Her husband is the Rav of Ahavat Achim Synagogue in Fair Lawn.