Rabbanit Chamutal Shoval joins the RKYHS Judaic Studies faculty from Neve Daniel, Israel. Shoval was the rosh beit midrash of The Women’s Beit Midrash of Efrat, and taught Gemara and Halacha at Ohr Torah Stone’s Midreshet Lindenbaum. She graduated from the Midreshet Lindenbaum’s Women’s Institute of Halachic Leadership and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Hebrew University. Her area of expertise is halachic writing and she was the first woman to independently author an article in the highly respected halachic journal, Techumin. She has also worked as a journalist responsible for Judaic content at Israel’s Channel 1.

Rabbanit Shoval’s educational philosophy is to reach out to every student and to make them love Torah as much as she does. She aims to make them understand the depth and the sensitivity of the Gemara, and the way in which it relates to our life today. Chamutal has five daughters, all of whom will attend JKHA/RKYHS this year.

Dr. Jay Smallwood is excited to join the faculty of the RKYHS science department. Dr Smallwood has worked in Jewish education since 2010. For the past eight years, he worked for the Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education (CIJE) as a STEM mentor, researcher and curriculum developer. He was the CIJE mentor at RKYHS starting in 2014, and from the beginning has been deeply impressed with the science and engineering program at RKYHS.

“Learning Science By Doing Science” is the motto at RKYHS, and this is exactly what Dr. Smallwood believes too. Without physically doing science and engineering, there can be no engagement; without engagement, no enthusiasm. Curiosity and exploration are the hooks on which to hang knowledge.

Born and raised in Amarillo, Texas, Dr. Smallwood received his Ph.D. from UCLA in physical chemistry, investigating how liquids alter the behavior of electrons.