Meet our Team
Trustees
Rabbi Miriam Berger - Acting Chair
Miriam’s 14 years in the rabbinate has seen her double the size of her community and make Finchley Reform a flagship synagogue of the Reform Movement. Her creativity and innovation has led to pioneering endeavours in education, services and pastoral work as well as hitting the headlines throughout the pandemic with novel ways of engaging her community whilst keeping them safe.
Joe Gamse
Joe is originally from North West London, has professional experience of strategic business planning and quantitative investing, and now works at an international climate non-profit active in both Israel and North America. He studied at Yeshivat Maale Gilboa and the Hadar Institute in Israel, and teaches at a local Bet Midrash in Tel Aviv.
Rebecca Verlander
Rebecca is a Senior Manager for Mental Health Clinical Programmes at NHS England, and has almost a decade's worth of experience in the field. Her background is in policy, oversight and service. She also founded and co-hosted the Mad Women Podcast.
Sue Pearlman
Sue is a consultant in charity governance. Until 2004 she was CEO of a group of Citizens Advice Bureaux. Until June 2020 she was Honorary Secretary on the board of Reform Judaism. She is an expert in charity governance, the work of trustees, and working with trustees and their staff.
Rabbi Rose Prevezer
Rose is Head of Community Programming at JW3. Before returning to the UK she spent a decade in Los Angeles where was the director of NuRoots for the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles.
Juliet Simmons
Juliet’s background is in event production, advertising and marketing. She has worked with blue-chip clients around the world. Juliet was the Creative Director at the JCC for London (now JW3) prior to founding Piece of Cake. She is a member of the Book Council for London’s Jewish Book Week and volunteers for Ministry of Stories and at a monthly drop in centre for refugees and asylum seekers.
Cheryl Brodie
Cheryl is an independent consultant working in learning, development and business improvement. Her career has been in the public and private sector in diverse organisations including advertising, banks, education and NHS. In 2012 Cheryl founded the Alyth refugee charity providing drop in, outings and a choir which she still enjoys leading. More recently, Cheryl has worked for the Jewish Leadership Council and other charities.
Experts & Advisors
Jonathan Joseph
Jonathan Joseph has spent in excess of 30 years working with various Jewish Community causes, both in Europe and in the United Kingdom. During that time he has been particularly interested in the effects of change on individuals and what can be done to recontextualise their lives within the environment they live in. Jonathan has combined these interests with a career in urban regeneration -and has developed a number of skills that he can contribute to getting the underlying concepts established.
Stuart Linke
Dr Stuart Linke is a consultant clinical psychologist with over forty years’ experience in the NHS as a therapist, supervisor, trainer, clinical lead and senior manager. He has wide interests and his book Psychological Perspectives on Traditional Jewish Practices (Jason Aronson) is particularly relevant to Wellspring. Stuart is also an associate research fellow in eHealth at University College London.
Helen Bowers
Helen Bowers is an architect with many years of experience in community projects. She delivers people centred spaces on time and on budget. Her practice is collaborative and founded in the principles of sustainability, modesty, and elegance. She believes that architecturally enriched environments contribute to good health and wellbeing.
Quotes of Support
Members of the wider Jewish community who support our vision
Rabbi Rebecca Birk (Finchley Progressive Synagogue)
"I would love to be able to use Wellspring as a resource for the pastoral work in my rabbinate and look forward to a more creative and special place to mark moments with my congregants... I am waiting enthusiastically for the project to succeed, be built and be used."
Carrie Bornstein (CEO, Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh and Education Center
“Watching Wellspring’s leadership move from vision towards reality has been inspiring, and it’s been a real joy to partner with them. The London Jewish community deserves an open, accessible, welcoming mikveh just as much as any other community, and we are honoured to be part of its creation.”
Dina Brawer (Founder, JOFA UK)
"A mikveh which is fully halachic at the same time as being fully open and inclusive is inspiring and exciting. Many of our stakeholders use the mikveh regularly and would love such a place to exist - free from judgement, expectation or the discomfort of being watched or questioned by an attendant. Others do not use the mikveh but would if Wellspring existed. We look forward to the centre opening."
Daniel Carmel Brown (Chief Executive of Jewish Care)
“We recognise what a significant support Wellspring will be for Jewish Care clients, their families and staff. Whether it is marking the different moments of loss that come with loving someone with dementia or supporting staff through the inevitable yet distressing deaths that are part of working in social care, Wellspring will provide the space and support to manage these moments.”
Michelle Janes (Co-Chief Executive Officer, JLC)
“British Jewry care for our elderly, our children with special needs, our adults with learning difficulties, we support the dying and those living with mental illness and provide the very best education from babies through to our old age. Now it is time to focus on our well-being. When the Jewish community pulls together to find answers in the face of adversity we do so in the most extraordinary of ways. I have no doubt that Wellspring will be another jewel in the crown of Anglo-Jewry and that we will see in this initiative the difference it makes when special provision is made to support people through all of the inevitable transitions and challenges of life.”
Lucy Marshall (Director of the Rising Tide Open Waters Mikveh Network)
“The Wellspring Project is not only contributing to the global open mikveh movement, it’s expanding the movement in deep, transformative ways. The Wellspring Project’s vision is inspiring, innovative, and possible. Communities around the world who know the value of inclusive, renewed ritual immersion are thrilled to support this project.”
Miriam Lorie (Semicha student at Yeshivat Mahara, Borehamwood Partnership Minyan)
"Mikveh is Judaism's answer to finding spiritual renewal in an embodied practice. Wellspring is needed to open the gates - the floodgates - of mikveh to all who want to embrace this beautiful mitzvah. It will provide a welcoming, inclusive face to mikveh and options for how to personalise it, whether for keeping niddah or marking a significant moment. It will be a fully kosher mikveh, just not as you've seen mikveh before. It will support mental health in our community, serving as a meeting place, healing place and hub. Our community needs Wellspring and can't wait for its doors to open."
Rabba Dr. Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz
"Mikva is Judaism's answer to finding spiritual renewal in an embodied practice. Wellspring is needed to open the gates - the floodgates - of mikva to all who want to embrace this beautiful mitzvah. It will provide a welcoming, inclusive face to mikva and options for how to personalise it, whether for keeping niddah or marking a significant moment. It will be a fully kosher mikva, just not as you've seen mikva before. It will support mental health in our community, serving as a meeting place, healing place and hub. Our community needs Wellspring and can't wait for its doors to open."
Rabbi Chaim Weiner (Av of Masorti Judaism Beit Din)
“The ritual of mikveh is such an important moment for those who have taken the long journey to convert to Judaism. We currently do not have premises which elevate this beautiful mitzvah and do our gerim a great disservice. I look forward to a time when our gerim, kallot and all those who wish to immerse can do so in an appropriate and halachik way.”
