TORAH STUDIO TEAM
Liana Wertman
Founder & Executive Director
she/her/hers
Liana first fell in love with Torah at the Shabbat dinner table, hearing and discussing the stories with family.
Liana graduated with a BA in History from USC (2016) and has a Masters in Educational Leadership from Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute Of Religion (2022) . She spent the best fourteen summers of her life at Gindling Hilltop Camp (clap clap), from camper to counselor to CIT Director, was Youth Director at Temple Israel of Hollywood, and is a summer Beit Midrash Educator at Brandeis Collegiate Institute. She spent a year studying Torah and Talmud at The Pardes Institute, is a part of the Classic Talmud Program from Yashrut, and was an inaugural fellow of the SVARA Pedagogy Chaburah.
Currently, Liana runs The Torah Studio from her home in Los Angeles, where you can also find her making pottery, creating art with yarn, or getting ready for Shabbat.
Lexi Kohanski
Director of Online Learning
she/her/hers
As a descendant of the Lover and Pursuer of Peace, Aharon, and the line of priestly tenders of Temple, Lexi’s ancestral mission lies in sanctifying the offerings of all our hearts so that the Presence can dwell in this world. In her work as a queer, white Ashkenazi, trans female Jewish educator, Lexi focuses on empowering those of us who have not felt at home in Judaism to own our texts and traditional lifeways.
Lexi has studied Torah at the Conservative Yeshiva, Pardes, and Yeshivat Hadar, as well as at the Torah Studio. She has taught Talmud at Yeshiva Shel Maala, and her essay Be Whole: A Halakhic Approach to Gender and Transition has been published as part of SVARA’s Trans Halakha Project. She’s also the Director of Online Learning at the Torah Studio, which means she gets to bask in all your incredible Torah insights and questions as her job!
Find Lexi watching video game livestreams or on the bench between the flowers and the river.
OUR TEACHERS
Marketing Executive
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REBECCA CHESS
Rebecca Chess (they/them) is a proud Torah Studio educator who loves to match, whether that means a monochrome outfit or a cup of rich and deep coffee to match Torah study. They're also happen to be fourth year Rabbinical Student at HUC-JIR. When they aren’t making pasta for their friends you might catch them on a sunny afternoon eating sour gummy worms in a park.
REBECCA CHESS
Marketing Executive
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SOPHIA ZOHAR
Sophia Zohar (she/her), aka Maimonides Nutz, is a Jewish artist, writer, and Internet personality residing in the Bay Area. She is best known for her absurd Jewish memes and the refining the Jewish Goth Aesthetic with her artistic designs.
SOPHIA ZOHAR
Marketing Executive
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HANNAH BENDER
Hannah Bender (they/them) is a second year rabbinical student at HUC-JIR LA. They grew up in the suburbs of Chicago with their parents and little sib and have a BA in Religion from the University of Minnesota. In their extra time they love making fancy soups and collaging cards for their friends around the world.
HANNAH BENDER
Marketing Executive
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CHAVA SHAPIRO
Chava Shapiro (they/them) is a queer Jew dwelling on the lands of Tohono O’odham people. They are invigorated by the way that Talmud acts as a conduit of ancestral conversations that span space and time. They are a SVARA Kollel fellow and the founder of the Jewish Zine Archive, which serves as both an archival collection and digital Jewish cultural space.