Our Board

Angel Alvarez-Mapp is the Chief Operating Officer of Repair the World. Prior to joining Repair the World, Angel was the Senior Director of Operations for the Jews of Color Initiative, whose mission is to advance racial equity in the US Jewish community.…

Dr. Bianca González-Lesser (they/them) has spent the last decade of their life focusing on equity, diversity, and anti-racism. They received their PhD in Sociology at the University of Connecticut and served as Assistant Professor of Sociology. Bianca has also worked in the…

Dan Libenson is the founder and president of Judaism Unbound, where he co-hosts the Judaism Unbound Podcast and directs The UnYeshiva, a digitally-driven center for Jewish learning and unlearning. Along with Benay Lappe, Dan also co-hosts The Oral Talmud, a weekly video…

Joanna (Jo) Ware is an organizer, facilitator, and educator. As the Founding Executive Director of the Jewish Liberation Fund, she organizes money and donors to build power and mobilize resources to sustain and grow a progressive Jewish movement for justice and liberation.…

Leykn Schmatz was fortunate to enter Judaism through the queer door, thanks to Svara. They grew up in rural Wisconsin and made their way through Lansing, Berkeley, and Minneapolis before landing in Squirrel Hill/Pittsburgh. Along the way they’ve had multiple comings-out, including…

Sam is a latchkey Yid from Chicago currently living as a troublemacher femme in St Paul, MN with her partner and two kids.  Her late capitalism project is computer geek.

Sandy Sussman, contrary to Benay’s often-quoted statement, first came to Svara in 2017 “primarily to learn Talmud.” Recently retired and having studied Talmud in translation for more than 20 years, she literally was “sitting at home, wishing [she] could learn Talmud” in…