Since 2007, Stephen Hazan Arnoff has been Executive Director of the 14th Street Y and Founding Director of LABA: The National Laboratory for New Jewish Culture. He is married to writer and theater director Basmat Hazan, also a founding member of the LABA team, and they have three children. Stephen has worked at the nexus of art, study, and Jewish community for the past decade, including roles at the Makor/Steinhardt Center of the 92nd Street Y and Zeek. Before that, he was very happy playing in rock bands. He has been honored to be a Wexner Graduate Fellow at Jewish Theological Seminary, where he is completing a doctorate in Midrash. Prior to coming to the Y, he was a Mandel Fellow in Jerusalem. Stephen teaches, lectures, and writes on Jewish life, education, religion, and the arts. 
http://talkinhavanagilahblues.blogspot.com/

Jake Goodman is a community organizer, educator, storyteller, performer, as well as Storahtelling's Associate Director. He holds an MA in Informal Jewish Education from the Davidson School at JTS and a BFA in Acting from Emerson College. Jake has worked increasingly to advocate toward full equality for LGBT people in everyday and ritual life-Jewish and otherwise. He has worked with Empire State Pride Agenda, Marriage Equality New York and Keshet-Boston. He has designed and facilitated educational trainings at JTS, Camp Ramah, the JCC of Manhattan, and has facilitated national training programs for Keshet and Nehirim. In the theater world, Jake has performed across the country and internationally, including venues at The Berkshire Theater Festival, Actors Theater of Louisville and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. 
 www.storahtelling.org

Co-founded LAByrinth Theater Company. PLAYWRIGHT: SOLO shows at LAByrinth:“Nobody’s Home,” “Shmoo.” “Shelter”@ FORDHAM, TWO PERSON shows: “I Ain’t Talking Alone,” “Cockamamie Soup,” “Cherry Pop.” 
PLAYS: Stopless, Neurotica, You and Yours, Simple Simon. TEN MINUTE PLAYS, “The Call Back,” adapted into an award winning short film with Sam Rockwell. “Privacy” at LAByrinth’s Short Play festival at the Public Theater. 
“I Want You,” at The Ensemble Studio Theater. “Myself and Me” reading at The Public Theater. ACTOR THEATER: The Public, Manhattan Theater Club, Theater For a New Audience, The Vineyard, The New Group, Originated roles in Where’s My Money and Dirty Story, written and directed by John Patrick Shanley and Our Lady of 121st Street by Stephen Adly Guirgis, Williamstown Theater Festival, Old Globe, Capital Rep, Berkshire Theater Festival. FILM: Kiss Me Guido, Kicked in the Head, A Price Above Rubies, Ten Benny, Frogs For Snakes, Jungle Juice, Very Mean Men TV: Damages, Law and Order, SVU, Sex and the City, Sopranos, Walker Texas Ranger, Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Clubland. TEACHING ARTIST. Helped design and teach for LAByrinth’s Master Class workshop series(2003-present). Facilitated educational and empowerment workshops for various groups in Shelters, Detention Facilities, Mental Health, Public Schools and Acting Schools.

Anat Litwin, Senior LABA artist and Art editor of LABAlights, is an 
Israeli American Artist and Curator based in Brooklyn, working in the medium of
Paper Cut-Out's, Drawings, Public Art and Installation. Litwin received
her BFA from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem, Israel,
in 2001, and her MFA in 2005 from Hunter College in NY, Department of
Combined Media. She received the Keren Sharet award for outstanding
artists in 2001, and has exhibited her work in Europe, Israel and New
York. She is the founder and Artistic Director of the HomeBase Project
www.homebaseproject.com a community based public art project founded in
2006 which recenty was reviewed in the New York Times. Anat is
currently working on her first book of paper cut out's titled
"ANATOMY". More about her work can be found on her site:
www.anatlitwin.com 

Reuven Namdar (1964) was born and raised in Jerusalem. He completed his BA (Sociology, Philosophy and Iranian Studies) and his Master’s degree (Anthropology) at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. His first book, Haviv, (a collection of short stories) was published in 2000 and won The Ministry of Culture's award for the best first publication of the year. The manuscript also won The Jerusalem Fiction award for 1998. Reuven also published short stories, book reviews and translations of medieval Persian poetry in different literary periodicals in Israel. He is currently living in New York, is working on a new novel and teaches Jewish and Israeli literature in various Jewish learning centers around the city.

Elissa Strauss is a writer who lives in Brooklyn. She has written for a variety of publications including the Village Voice, The American Prospect, the New York Daily News, Tablet, and the Forward, where she is also a regular contributor to the Sisterhood blog.. She holds a BA in creative writing and an MA in Latin American literature, for which she focused on diaspora writers in the region.  She is currently working on a book about modern marriage.

Becky Deitsch Skoff is the Manager of LABA, The National Laboratory for New Jewish Culture at the 14th Street Y. She is a graduate of the Master's program in Arts Administration at Boston University, and has worked for numerous non-profit performing arts organizations throughout the United States, including the Roundabout Theatre Company, the Citi Performing Arts Center in Boston, the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Gainesville, FL, the New Harmony Theatre, and the Lincoln Amphitheatre. She has also coordinated national educational tours with Chamber Theatre Productions. Becky is an alumni of the University of Florida, where she received her undergraduate degree in Public Relations and Theatre. She is an active member of the United Synagogue of Hoboken and is the founder and coordinator of a Torah study program for people in their 20's and 30's. She is an advocate, volunteer, and 60-mile walker for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day. Becky lives in Hoboken with her husband, playwright and attorney Judah Skoff. 

Manju Shandler is visual storyteller. Using mediums in fine art and theatrical design she engages the viewer by creating a visual experience in theatrical and gallery contexts. Shandler’s work for the stage incorporates costume, puppet, and mask design that transform the human body, creating larger than life characters and a visual spectacle. Her stories embrace the stage and the audience, hoping to communicate with people of all ages the unique opportunities created by live performance. Shandler’s paintings reflect her background in narrative story telling. Her most recent work takes iconic characters from biblical texts, fairy tales and fables intertwining their plotlines to create multi paneled narratives.Manju Shandler lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. 
www.ManjuShandler.com

Basmat Hazan Arnoff is a writer, theater director and a teacher of Jewish texts, and facilitates the text study of LABA artists. She taught in institutions including Skirball, the Brandeis Collegiate Institute, Emuna College, Sihara, Kolot, and Elul. She is the author of Mayyim Hafoochim, a novel published by HaKibbutz HaMeuchad. Her play LeShem Yichud won the award for best ensemble at the Akko Theater Festival. She adapted David Grossman's See: Under Love for the stage in Tel Aviv and New York, and her most recent work - a dance theater in collaboration with Jesse Zaritt entitled MORIAH / עולה - was performed as part the LABA festival in New York. Basmat lives in Manhattan with Stephen and their three children – Elai, Dar and Eira Boaz.

David Tirosh is a multi-media artist, performer and artistic coordinator. David is the Co-Founder of WAX, a supportive environment that inspires discourse among artists in all media and encourages the creation of new work through presentation, networking, audience building, artist's assistance and public dialogue. After the highly publicized closing of the WAX facility in November 2004, David continued working as Company Manager of 3-Legged Dog and freelance designer, performer, artistic advisor and media support in renowned venues such as Galapagos, Joyce Theater, the Kitchen, Norwood and others. He is currently the Technical Director of Galapagos Art Space in Dumbo. David's work unfolds in various layers of the production process, from concept, to technological implications, to performance and full coordination and realizations of art projects in private and public venues.

Jesse Zaritt is currently an artist in residence at the 14th Street Y in Manhattan, and was commissioned to create an evening length solo for the LABA Festival of the 14th Street Y in May 2009. He has presented his own solo work in Israel, Mexico, Vienna, and New York City. Jesse received an MFA in Dance from the Hollins University/ American Dance Festival in August 2008. Jesse has recently taught at the University of the Americas Puebla (Mexico, Fall 2009), the American Dance Festival (NC, Summer 2008, 2009), Hollins University (VA, Spring 2009), and choreographed for the Seminar HaKibbutzim College Theater Department and the Acco Theater Festival (Israel, 2006-2007). Jesse was the recipient of a 2006-2007 Dorot Fellowship in Israel, which enabled him to conduct research on the relationship between political conflict and choreography. He spent the academic year of 2000-2001 as a member of the Hollins Dance Project (Roanoke, VA) followed by five years as a dancer with the Shen Wei Dance Arts Company (NYC 2001-2006), and a season dancing with the Inbal Pinto Dance Company (Tel Aviv 2008). Jesse graduated Cum Laude in 2000 from Pomona College (CA).

My themes are women’s issues, the earth, the idea of ancient figures and ritual connections, Jewish motifs, and also loneliness and isolation and things that are disappearing or are now gone, and the humanity of it all. My work was featured on the cover for Mayim Hafuchin (Water Inside Out) a book by Basmat Hazan Arnoff, -published in Israel, and represented in numerous publications such as Poetica magazine, Inquiring Mind, a Buddhist magazine, Abnormal Pschology, and the Menninger Perspective. The art is in the collection of the Zimmerli art Museum, Rutgers University, NJ, Hartwick College and has been exhibited at the State Museum, Albany, NY, NYU Graduate Center, NYC, Center for Contemporary art, Seattle, WA, and many galleries and museums throughout the US., I have won numerous awards, grants and art residencys and taught art at Hartwick College and the Maryland Institute College of Art. I love playing Shakuhachi( Japanese flute) and I practice much Buddhist meditation.
www.Bettealexander.com

Katie Down is a sound artist, composer, performer and sound designer for theatre, film, and dance. She performs regularly with several ensembles including the infamous ukulele group The Ukuladies, the a cappella group, Lila, and with the NewBorn Trio in which she plays glass instruments. As a theatre artist, she has traveled extensively throughout Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and South Africa with different companies as a performer, sound designer, and teacher in voice, improvisation, and clown. 

Katie plays several instruments including various ethnic and silver flutes, ukulele, guitar, didjeridu, as well as a host of homemade percussion instruments including steel cello and glass harmonica. Katie works regularly as a sound designer and composer both in New York and regionally and has created numerous sound scores and original music for Off- Broadway and regional theatrical productions including: Mahida’s Extra Key to Heaven (Epic Theatre); Creature (New Georges/P73); Palace of the End (Epic Theatre); Blue Before Morning (Terra Nova); Cecilia’s Last Tea Party (Passage Theatre); The Rivals (Hudson Valley Shakespeare); Faust (Target Margin); Trouble in Paradise (The Hourglass Group); Innocents (Ripetime); Serendib (Ensemble Studio Theatre), and many others. 

Internationally, Katie has performed at both music and theatre festivals including the Fryma e Re Festival in Kosovo, Zomerfietztour in Holland, The Ohrid Summer Festival in Macedonia, Trn Festival in Slovenia, and the Malta Festival in Poland. She often travels throughout the Balkans and Eastern Europe conducting voice, music and movement, and clowning workshops. 

Katie is happy to be an artist in residence at The 14th Street Y LABA Arts Residency adding to her roster of residencies including The Watermill Arts Center, Music/Omi, Makor Artist Network, Chashama AREA Space Grant, and The Composer Librettist Studio at New Dramatists. She is a recipient of Meet the Composer commission program grants as well as travel grants through the U.S. Embassy in Kosovo, The Trust for Mutual Understanding, and the Mid Atlantic Foundation.

Shai Zurim was born in Israel, and earned his BFA from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem (1999), and his MFA from the School of Visual Arts MFA Studies in Fine Arts, New York, USA (2009). Zurim’s work encompasses myriad forms and is drawn from both his intellectual pursuits and spontaneous reactions to the nuances of everyday life. His work was recently the subject of a solo show at the Rosenfeld Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Israel 2009, and a solo show at the Tel-Aviv Museum, Tel-Aviv, Israel, 2008. Zurim has won several prizes and awards, including Eugen Kolb Prize for Israeli Graphic Art 2009, International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award (2008), and Isracard and Tel-Aviv Museum of Art Prize for an Israeli Artist (2008). He was a finalist for the prestigious Gotesdiner Prize (2008), and has been in numerous group shows, including at the Vivian Horan Fine Art Gallery, New York, NY (2006), and at the Martin-Gropius-Bau Museum of Art, Berlin, Germany (2005). Zurim published a book of drawings, entitled Real Flowers, Real Gifts, to accompany his 2005 solo show at Sommer Contemporary Art Gallery in Tel-Aviv. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
www.shaizurim.com

Julie, who earned her B.A, Rutgers College, has an eclectic background in dance. She pursued intensive study in modern dance and choreography with Karen Steele (Lar Lubovitch), KT Niehoff, the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, and Tere O’Connor. She toured the Hawaiian Islands for "Dance Quake", a Hawaii State Dance Festival, and performed with Na Lei Kaumaka O Uka, a Hula dance troupe. Julie built a partnership with Kaunoa Senior Center and Seabury Preparatory School choreographing an intergenerational dance piece. Since 2004, Julie has been the Artistic Director of Avodah Dance Ensemble, leading dance residencies at women’s correctional facilities. Julie’s work has been presented at Mulberry Street Theater, WAXworks, Central Synagogue, Trinity College, Charter Oak Cultural Center, Hevreh of Southern Berkshire, and the 14th Street Y.

Eran Dinur is a musician and visual effects artist. Eran composed and arranged music for over 50 plays in all of Israel's major repertory theaters. He has collaborated with many of Israel’s leading playwrights and directors, including Ilan Ronen (Artistic Director, Habima National Theater) Michael Gurevitch (artistic Director, The Han Theater), Omri Nizan (Artistic Director, The Kameri Theater), and Hanoch Levin, Israel’s premier playwright. 
Eran is two times winner of The Israel Theater Prize for best composer (1997, 1999). He was also awarded the Margalit Prize for his work as the musical director of the National Theater’s Young Actors Group. 
In addition to theater, Eran composed and arranged music for The Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, the Efroni choir, The New Israeli Vocal Ensemble, The Vocale octet, the Tivon Choir, and for two documentary movies by notable Israeli director Ram Loevy.
His vocal piece Como Una Sombra de Oro was performed in the U.S. And Europe. His piece Piyutim, based on traditional Jewish liturgy was recently premiered by the ACJC Choir at Singapore’s Esplanade Hall. 
In the last few years Eran worked as a digital artist at Industrial Light and Magic Singapore, where he created visual effects for feature films such as Iron Man, Star Trek, Terminator Salvation, Transformers 2 and the latest Indiana Jones.

Tzili Charney was born and raised in Tel-aviv, Israel. After her army 
service she graduated from the Midrasha Art School. Thereafter she 
commenced her career in theater, ultimately becoming a costume 
designer. She worked on numerous plays for Israel's major theaters (the 
National Theater - Habima, Tel-aviv Theater- the Cameri and others). 
Her marriage with Leon Charney,a New York lawyer and T.V. personality, 
brought her to New York where she continued to work as a costume 
designer. Over the last few years, Tzili has worked as an independent 
art curator and as an artistic advisor. A few of her shows took place in 
Miami in conjunction with Art Basel at DOT 51 space.

Tzili is an avid collector and supporter of Israeli art and culture. Tzili is the Curator for LABA, The National 
Laboratory for New Jewish Culture, at the 14th Street Y in New York, an active adviser for "omanoot"- israelthroughart. She is on the board of the"parents circle-families forum," bereaved families supporting peace, reconciliation and tolerance. Tzili is also on the board of the MAD - Museum of Arts and Design in Columbus circle, New York. Tzili and Leon are 
parents to Mickey and Nati, twins, 10 years old.

Born in Germany, raised in Israel. Member of posttheater ny/berlin and a founding member of woken¹glacier theater company. Recent Credits include: I had a little voice (LABA 09) and Cantaloupe by Gina Bonati (Boston), ART by Yasmina Reza (Rohkunst Bau, Berlin), It is said the men are over in the steel tower by Hideo Tsuchida, adapted by Eriko Ogawa and Matthew Paul Olmos (TBG Theater, NYC), Struwwelmensch (Rohkunst Bau Festival, Berlin), Cop Out/Talking Dog by John Guare (Gene Frankel Theater, NYC), Matchmaker Matchmaker (Stadts Bank Berlin), Quartet  by Heiner Müller (Westbeth Theater, NYC) The Child Dreams by Hanoch Levin (59E59, NYC), La Mama Umbria (Italy). Ronit is a MFA graduate of the Actors Studio Drama School in directing.
www.wokenglacler.org
www.posttheater.com