Our Scholars in Residence
Zvi Lapian is honoured to host esteemed scholars at our Yom Tov programs in Israel.
Here are some of our favorite scholars:
Rabbi Heshie Billet is Rabbi Emeritus of the Young Israel of Woodmere and he is a former member of the US President’s Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. He served as President of the Rabbinical Council of America. He was a leader of the battle against substance abuse and sexual abuse in the Orthodox Jewish community.
Rookie Billet made aliya in 2021 after she retired from a long career as a Jewish Educator, day school and high school principal and mentor, shul Rebbetzin, public speaker and yoetzet halacha in the US. In Israel she is happily busy learning, hiking, volunteering, exploring, writing and enjoying family and friends.
Rabbi Heshie and Rebetzen Rookie Billet were our Scholars in Residence at the Sukkot 2025 Program at the Neve Ilan Hotel.
Rabbi Ari Kahn is Director of the One Year Overseas Student Program at Bar-Ilan University, where he is a senior lecturer in Jewish Studies. He lives in Givat Ze’ev, where he serves as Rabbi of the Mishkan Etrog community. Rabbi Kahn received his rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University, where he studied with Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik and Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, and completed a BA in Psychology and an MS in Talmud. He has authored fourteen books on Jewish thought including the highly acclaimed Echoes of Eden series, and the best seller “The Crowns on the Letters”.
Rabbi Ari Kahn was the Scholar in Residence at the Pesach 2025 Program at the Neve Ilan Hotel.
Rabbi Itiel Oron is the Rabbi of Kehilat HaRamban in Katamon, Jerusalem. He is a senior faculty member at Midreshet Lindenbaum and teaches in various adult and post-high school learning programs. He is an alumnus of Yeshivat Har Etzion, where he studied for 10 years, receiving Semicha from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and studying Jewish Philosophy and Education at Herzog College in Gush Etzion. Rav Oron was previously the director of Jewish education at the International School for Holocaust Studies in Yad Vashem, Rosh Kollel of the Torah Mitzion Kollel of Greater Washington, and the Rosh Beit Midrash of SAR High School in New York. He is a member of the Tzohar rabbinical organization.
Rabbi Itiel Oron was our Scholar in Residence at the Pesach 2025 Program at the Hacienda Forest Hotel.
Rabbi Prof. Daniel Sinclair served as Rabbi of the Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation; Dean of Jews’ College, London; advisor to the UK Chief Rabbi on medical law and halakhah and to the Science and Technology Committee of the House of Commons in relation to human genetics, and on the Ethics Committee of the Royal College of Physicians. He is currently Senior Research Fellow at the Institute on Religion, Law and Lawyer’s Work at Fordham University Law School, New York and Visiting Professor of Law; Professor of Public Health Law at Tel-Aviv University School of Public Health, and Adjunct Professor of Law and Religion at the Sir Zelman Cowen Centre, Victoria University Law School, Melbourne. He is the Rabbi of the Eretz Hemdah Minyan in Jerusalem. His publications in the field of Jewish Law and Comparative Biomedical Law comprise over 60 articles and several books.
Rabbi Moshe Taragin has been a Ram at Yeshivat Har Etzion in Gush Etzion for the past 29 years. He has Smicha from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University, a BA in Computer Science from Yeshiva College, and an MA in English Literature from City University. Rabbi Taragin previously taught Talmud at Columbia University, lectured in Talmud and Bible at the IBC and JSS divisions of Yeshiva University, and served as Assistant Rabbi at the Fifth Avenue Synagogue. He currently teaches at the Stella K. Abraham Beit Midrash for Women at Migdal Oz in Gush Etzion. He is the author of an internet shiur entitled “Talmudic Methodology” with over 5,000 subscribers, a weekly columnist for the Jerusalem Post and for the OU Torah Tidbits magazine, and a weekly shiur on Pirkei Avot with over 1,400 subscribers. He has delivered hundreds of audio shiurim featured on the Yeshivat Har Etzion “Audio Beit Midrash” ( KMTT) as well as on YU Torah online. He has also authored a Yom Ha’atzmaut Machzor for the Koren Publishing House. Rabbi Taragin and wife Atara have 8 children and reside in Gush Etzion.
Esther Orenstein Lapian is a teacher educator in the field of Tanach studies. Her close, careful reading of Jewish texts combines P’shat, Midrash, and Rabbinic commentary with modern Israeli literature, art and film. Esther’s unique style, peppered with storytelling and humor, succeeds in empowering students with minimal background along with those more experienced in decoding Torah texts with skill and joy. Currently Esther teaches Tanach to life-long learners at the Shechter Institute for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, and at the newly minted Beit Hoffman Torah Learning Group. Esther made Aliyah with Zvi and their family from the United States in 1987.
Rabbi Shai Finkelstein was born in Israel, attended Yeshivat Shaalavim, served in the Artillery unit of the IDF and was ordained by the Cheif Rabbinate of Israel. From 2000-2016 he was the Rosh Kollel of Torah Mitzion and the Senior Rabbi of the Baron Hirsch Synagogue in Memphis TN, U.S.A. Rabbi Finkelstein has B.A in Talmud from Bar Illan University and also earned an MBA from the Fogelman School of Business and Economics at the University of Memphis. He is currently working on his thesis at the Bar Ilan University. While in Memphis, Rabbi Finkelstein lectured at the Bornblum School of Judaic Studies at the University of Memphis and Served as instructor for Florence Melton Adult Mini-School, a project of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem-Israel. He is currently the Rav of Kehilat Nitzanim in Baka, Jerusalem and lectures at Pardes, the OU Israel Center, Bet Avichai, etc. Rabbi Finkelstein is the Editor in Chief of the Koren Mikraot Hadorot project.