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ABOUT CTN

ALI BEGOUN
Ali is a certified life and marital coach and co-founder of the L’Chaim Center, a Jewish educational organization dedicated to providing adults with vibrant and meaningful Jewish education. Ali has extensive experience teaching Jewish women in all areas of personal growth: from emotional well being to positive parenting; from creating more intimacy and connection in marriage to deepening self awareness and communication skills.

RACHEL KARESH, LCSW
Rachel serves as Clinical Director for the girls division at Madraigos Midwest, a not for profit community organization that supports and enhances the emotional, social and spiritual health of adolescents, young adults and their families in the Chicago Jewish community. She has worked as the staff social worker at Camp Moshava Wild Rose for the past 6 years and was previously the school social worker for Hillel Torah North Suburban Day School. Rachel earned her Masters degree in Social Work at New York’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work.

MIRIAM KOSMAN
Miriam is a leading speaker, writer and scholar of male-female roles and relationships in traditional Judaism. She is the author of “Circle, Arrow, Spiral: Exploring Gender in Judaism”, a ground-breaking book that takes a deeper look at some of the most hotly debated topics of modern Jewish life including gender equality. Miriam is a Senior Lecturer for Israel’s ‘Nefesh Yehudi’, teaching Jewish thought and philosophy each week to hundreds of university students who study at Tel Aviv University, Haifa University, Ben Gurion University, the Technion and others. She is a doctoral candidate at Bar Ilan University; her dissertation topic touches on both Jewish philosophy and gender.

SUNNY LEVI
Sunny is a 6^th degree black belt Taekwondo Master with 30 years of training under her belt! She has won many awards including titles at the State, National & International level and now teaches Martial Arts classes to women and children of all ages. In addition to her dynamic and empowering classes, she is also a Certified Personal Fitness Trainer & Yoga Instructor for her self-started business, Sunny’s Martial Arts & Fitness – students love her!  She is passionate about healthy eating and natural living with a focus on building happy souls & strong bodies. Sunny is also a mother of 5 and writer for Chabad.org and Breslev.co.il

LAURA MARDER LCSW
Laura is Associate Director of Chicago YJP, CTN’s young professional division. Before joining CTN, Laura spent five years as the Women’s Coordinator for the Jewish Study Network in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she taught crowds of all backgrounds, provided one-on-one Torah mentoring, and created innovative and rich Jewish programming catered specifically for women. Laura completed her Masters in Clinical Social Work at Hunter College in NYC and did post-graduate training in Family Therapy.

RIVKA MALKA PERLMAN
Rivka Malka is a popular relationship and life coach in Baltimore, Maryland and a nationally renowned speaker and Jewish educator. She runs women’s retreats and authors a popular blog about “authentically celebrating the Divine with every life experience”. Self described as ‘a passionate, colorful, totally imperfect mother of 8’, students call her “an extraordinary teacher and an amazingly transformative mentor”, clients refer to her coaching sessions as “illuminating, uplifting and total game changers”.