Festival Speakers

Keynote Speakers

Mark Oppenheimer

Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood

Mark wrote the “Beliefs” column for The New York Times from 2010 to 2016. He now hosts a weekly podcast, Unorthodox, produced by Tablet magazine, on which he delivers the News of the Jews to the world, and interviews guests (Jewish and non-Jewish) from Roxane Gay to Simon Doonan, from Transparent’s Kathryn Hahn to Dan Savage. He is most proud to be one of the only writers ever to contribute to both The Christian Century magazine and Playboy. Or maybe of my very brief improv-comedy stint with the legendary Upright Citizens Brigade. His magazine journalism and reviews appear in The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Believer, and elsewhere. Mark holds a Ph.D. in religion from Yale and have taught at Yale, Stanford, Wesleyan, Boston College, and NYU and has written two studies of religion and popular culture.

Phil Koek

The Story of My Family's Holocaust Survival

Phil shares the story of his father, Joe, and his aunts, Eva and Henny. Joe Koek was born in 1930 in The Hauge, Holland. The Nazis invaded and began to occupy Holland in May 1940. In 1943, Joe’s parents went to the underground and asked the underground to hide Joe and his two sisters. They lived in hiding on the third floor of an apartment/school building for 3-4 months. Joe’s parents went into hiding as well but were discovered, arrested, and then deported to Auschwitz. In fear that his parents might give up their location under interrogation, the underground moved the children to a temporary hiding location in Haarlem, Holland. Joe and his sisters were separated, and Joe was brought to a farm in Zvenhuizen, Holland, to live/hide with a couple as their “distant cousin visiting from Amsterdam.” While hiding on the farm, Joe changed his name and lived under a false identity as a Protestant. In the fall of 1944, Joe broke his leg on the farm and spent 8 weeks in the hospital. While Joe was in the hospital, the Nazis came to Zvenhuizen and liquidated the town. The underground moved Joe to a temporary hiding place and finally to a home in Oosterzee, where he stayed until liberation. Joe reunited with his sisters at a Jewish orphanage, where he spent 6 years. His mother and father perished in Auschwitz.

Speakers

Adam benShea
Antisemitism and Conspiracy Theories

benShea is a lecturer in the Religious Studies program at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. He graduated magna cum laude from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in Religious Studies, received his MA in Near Eastern Languages & Cultures from Indiana University, and his PhD in Religion from Emory University. Dr. benShea also studied at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco and in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Liora Berkstein
Combating Antisemitism on Social Media

Berkstein was born and raised in San Diego, California and participated in youth groups throughout high school, including USY, the Ken Jewish Community, and Jewish Family Services Girls Give Back program. Before attending San Diego State University, Liora attended Nativ College Leadership Program in Israel and studied at Hebrew University of Jerusalem as an international student.

Kate Chavez
Combating Antisemitism on Social Media

Chavez is passionate about public service, international relations, and fighting antisemitism. Now, Kate works diligently to support the StandWithUs High School team across North America as they educate teens about Israel and fighting antisemitism. She also focuses on increasing comprehensive and quality education about the Jewish community in schools across the United States.

Deb Donig
Likes and Dislikes: Holocaust Analogies in the Age of Social Media

Donig is an Assistant Professor of English Literature at Cal Poly. She is the co-founder of the Cal Poly Ethical Technology Initiative and the host of “Technically Human" a top 15 ethics and technology podcast. Her first book project, ”Global Forms of Atrocity,” traces the evolution of a human rights discourse established in the wake of the Holocaust through to the evolution of the Holocaust as a global metaphor for suffering.

Hayden Flechner
Jewish Student Panel: Antisemitism on Campus

Flechner is a civil engineering student at Cal Poly. Being a former president of Alpha Epsilon Pi, he now serves as the Chief of Staff of Cal Poly's Interfraternity Council. Hayden completed a civil engineering intern position with Wilson Mikami Corporation this past Summer and intends on pursuing a Master's Degree in a facet of civil engineering.

Rabbi Dov Gottesfeld
How The Misinterpretation Of The Bible Laid The Foundation For Antisemitism

Rabbi Gottesfeld is currently serving as the Jewish Chaplain at the California Men’s Colony, and is the Rabbi of Temple Beth El in Santa Maria. Rabbi Gottesfeld has been an educator teaching Hebrew, Bar Mitzvah studies, and Bible in Jewish and Christian establishments. Rabbi Gottesfeld has a Master’s Degree in Jewish Studies from the Academy of Jewish Religion, and a Master’s Degree in Theatre Arts from Brandeis University.

Rabbi Chaim Hilel
The Kabbala of Shabbat

Rabbi Hilel, is the Co Director of Chabad of SLO & Cal Poly, He has been studying and teaching classes on the Central Coast since 2009. Hundreds of students have taken courses given at Chabad, and have enjoyed tremendously. Chaim has a special passion for teaching the mystical and Chassidic teachings of the Torah.

Vlad Khaykin
Contemporary Antisemitism with a Focus on College Campuses

Khaykin serves as the National Director of Programs on Antisemitism at the Anti-Defamation League. Vlad joined ADL in 2014 as the Associate Director for the Central Pacific Region, leading the office’s international affairs work, representing ADL to leading social media and internet technology companies in Silicon Valley, and delivering all programs related to antisemitism and white nationalism.

Stephen Lloyd-Moffett
Creating Effective Dialogues about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Dr Stephen Lloyd-Moffett is a professor of Religious Studies at Cal Poly. He developed and co-taught the "Religion and Politics in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict" at Cal Poly since 2007.

Tina Malka
Contemporary Antisemitism with a Focus on College Campuses

Malka is the Associate Director of the Israel Action Program at Hillel International. She works on 45 Hillels regionally to support their education programs on Israel, respond the anti-Israel activity and antisemtism. Malka worked for 15 years at the Anti-Defamation League running Jewish student leadership programs for High School students and teaching about hate Crimes at the San Diego Police Academy. Most proud of being the Ima to her adult children Matan and Maya.

Noah Matlof
Jewish Student Panel: Antisemitism on Campus

Matlof, former President of Alpha Epsilon Pi. 4th year ITP student at Cal Poly, from Palo Alto, CA. Professional interests in Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain & Sustainable Technology. Currently working at Tesla in a Global Supply Management Co-Op.

Shannon McGowan
Understanding and disrupting the impacts of bias

As the Education Director for the Santa Barbara/Tri-Counties region of ADL, McGowan oversees all training programs, including anti-bias and bullying prevention, as well as the No Place for Hate® K-12 initiative. McGowan joined the ADL in 2019 after a diverse career in education. She taught a variety of disciplines at the secondary level in Austin, Texas for six years before moving to the Inland Northwest.

Dr. Cornel Morton
Understanding and Responding to Microaggressions

Morton, Ph.D. is Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo Vice President for Student Affairs, Emeritus. He has served as a consultant, facilitator and trainer for public and private organizations in areas including diversity awareness, student success, strategic planning, leadership development, team building and conflict mediation.

Gordon Mullin
What's My Line - Jewish edition

Gordon Mullin is a supporter of StandWithUs and a member of the Board of Congregation Beth David.

Ellen November
"Stitching Judaica" - Exploring Fiber Art

Drawing on the graphic nature of maps, November's fiber art is cartographic in nature. Art quilts allow her to combine her skills in illustration, photography, graphic design, and quilting. Her latest series represents the many jewish holidays. She recently published her first book: "Stiching Judaica - A Celebration of the jewish Holidays", which is written for young children.

Danya Conn Nunley
Understanding and Responding to Microaggressions

While Nunley attended VA Tech she joined the board of Hillel to coordinate speakers, exhibits, and other programming in order to raise awareness of prejudice of all forms on campus and the surrounding community. She has continued to raise awareness for diversity and to fight prejudice in this community as an occasional guest speaker in public school classrooms as well as spending a year on the 5 Cities Diversity Coalition board.

Eliana Nunley
Jewish Student Panel: Antisemitism on Campus

Nunley is in her first year at Cuesta College. She is a leukemia survivor who started a district-wide childhood cancer awareness day within LMUSD, benefitting the Sam Jeffers Foundation. She is a voice coach and teaches dance at SLO Movement Arts Center and Flex. She hopes that the Jewish Festival of Learning will help bring people together to fight against all kinds of prejudice and hate.

Amit Sharir
Jewish Student Panel: Antisemitism on Campus

Sharir is a Senior Biomedical Engineering Pre-Med student at Cal Poly and an IAC Mishelanu Fellow .

Eli Zada
Combating Antisemitism on Social Media

Zada graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he wrote his thesis on Radical Jewish Movements in Iraq and Israel. Zada has always had a passion for Jewish history but knew he wanted to get involved in Israel advocacy work upon his return from Masa Israel Teaching Fellows, where he spent a year teaching English to elementary school students in Haifa. Zada has staffed multiple Birthright trips and is passionate about experiential Jewish education as a way for people to connect with and continue to advocate for Israel.

Fil Yeskel
What's My Line - Jewish edition

Yeskel is a proud graduate of the Florence Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning, a retired 20+ year IBM Software Architect, and the father of five -- all of whom are better people than he is. He’s also a huge fan of the books and thought of David Deutsch, who he considers the Aristotle of our age.