Rabbi Ilana G. Baden has been with the Isaac M. Wise Temple since 2002. Rabbi Baden grew up in suburban Chicago (Libertyville, IL), where her parents were involved in synagogue life and where she was an active member of her congregational youth group and a camper for many summers at the Reform movement's regional camp there, Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute. A 1994 graduate of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and in Near Eastern Studies-Modern Hebrew Language, and became an active member of Hillel, serving as its president in Ann Arbor. Rabbi Baden currently serves as the Secretary of the Board of Rabbis, and sits on the board of the Women’s Rabbinic Network as the HUC Cincinnati Campus Liaison. Rabbi Baden takes the greatest pleasure with her family. She is married to Jeffrey T. Baden and is the proud mother of two children.

Rabbi Sigma Faye Coran, Rockdale Temple has served as the senior rabbi of K. K.Bene Israel/ Rockdale Temple since 2004. She has previously served Temple Emanuel in Worcester, Massachusetts and the Jewish Community of Williams College. Rabbi Coran is a graduate of Tufts University and was ordained by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1993. Rabbi Coran is married to Rabbi Matthew Kraus and they have four children.

Rabbi Lewis H. Kamrass is the Senior Rabbi of Isaac M. Wise Temple. He is a Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude graduate of the University of Georgia in Sociology and Psychology, with a Master of Hebrew Letters and Rabbinic Ordination from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, as well as a D. D. degree (doctor of divinity, honoris causa). He has served for twenty-four years as Instructor in the Theology Department of Xavier University teaching undergraduates, and as adjunct faculty at Hebrew Union College teaching rabbinical students. And he has been a faculty member of Kulanu/Cincinnati Reform Jewish High School since its inception in 1983.

Rabbi Kamrass serves as a member of Board of Governors of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and as a member of Hebrew Union College’s President's Rabbinic Council and Rabbinic Board of Alumni Overseers. He has been active as well in the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the international association of Reform Rabbis, having served on its Board of Trustees and Executive Committee. He has served on the CCAR's Youth Committee, Nominating Committee and Patrilineal Descent Task Force. He was honored to be selected as one of a dozen rabbis to compose the "Statement of Principles" adopted in 1999 as the Reform rabbinate's platform of beliefs, and to have been selected for the Siddur Editorial Committee of the CCAR, charged with preparing the prayer book for the Reform Movement, published in 2007, the CCAR Machzor (High Holy Day Prayer Book) Editorial Team, and the CCAR Publication Committee.

Meredith Kahan is a second year rabbinic student at Hebrew Union College. She is a lifelong Cincinnatian, growing up at Rockdale Temple and Temple Sholom, and graduating from Sycamore High School and of course, the Cincinnati Reform Jewish High School! She is a recent graduate of THE Ohio State University with a degree in social work. Meredith served as the cantorial soloist for Temple Beth Shalom in Columbus during college. You may recognize her as "Meredith the Music Lady" from her days Wise Center Day Camp, or as the director of MeshugaNotes, the Jewish a capella group of Ohio State. She enjoys singing, playing guitar, reading, traveling (especially to Israel), scuba diving, and of course, all things Ohio State!

Rachel Kaplan is a second year rabbinical student at HUC-JIR. She graduated from Indiana University in the spring of 2008, with a Bachelor or Arts in Jewish Studies. Rachel grew up in the Chicago area, and was a camper, counselor, and unit head at Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute in Oconomowoc, WI. Rachel feels that the communities in which she was raised played a pivotal part in shaping who she is as an individual, and she is thrilled to call Cincinnati home for the next four years, to contribute to, and to learn from this community as well!

Rachel Kasten is a recent transplant to Cincinnati from Raleigh, NC and is in her second year as the Assistant Director of Education & Youth Programs at Wise Temple. She graduated NC State as university valedictorian with a BA in Sociology and earned a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Duke. She has a long history of involvement in the Jewish community, most recently as the Program Director at Beth Meyer in Raleigh and Head of Camp at the Raleigh-Cary JCC. During her “free time”, Rachel enjoys performing in community theater, watching football, and spending time with her husband, Marc, a second year rabbinical student at HUC.

Christopher E. Kraus, JD, MTS is Visiting Professor of Jewish Education at Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion. He is a certified secondary education teacher in behavioral sciences, and has managed teen leadership and health education programs in the Cincinnati area for 25 years with Cincinnati Children's Hospital, American Jewish Committee and Jewish Community Relations Council. He is on faculty at Wise Temple Religious School for 21 years where he has received the Cele Singer Award, and the national Grinspoon-Steinhardt Award for outstanding teaching in Jewish education. He is also an attorney in private practice.

Danny Meisterman has a degree in Social Studies Education from the Ohio Wesleyan University. He currently works at the JCC and actively works with teens on a regular basis through camp and BBYO. Danny's life interests include backpacking, music, movies and almost any outdoors activity. He is looking forward to teaching in this 2009-2010 school year.

M. Lori Reidel is past president of the CRJHS Board and a lifelong member of K. K. Bene Israel/Rockdale Temple. Lori defines yoga as loving niceness for your body, your self, and those with whom you come in contact. Her yoga practice includes being mindful of the body and breathing, the philosophy of body and mind control, the study of nonviolence and the spreading of goodness. Lori is married to the writer James Reidel. They have three sons ‚ two who are graduates of the CRJHS and one who is a current CRJHS student. She looks forward to sharing with those who wish to experience Jewish Yoga.