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Our Team


Rabbi Danny Newman

Danny is the Founder and former CEO of HaMakom. He is currently the Rabbi of two Progressive Jewish communities in London and also works as a Life Coach and Facilitator of Men’s Groups and Men’s Retreats. Previously he read Jewish Studies at Oxford University, studied at several Yeshivot in Israel, trained in psychotherapy and worked for many years in Corporate Law, Finance and Private Equity in the City of London.

Zac Newman

Zac Newman is HaMakom’s Community Director. He leads our organisation operationally. Zac also teaches Jewish meditation widely, including for Or HaLev and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. Zac is a long-time teacher of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction programme. He trained to teach mindfulness through the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice at Bangor University. Prior to this he studied Theology at the University of Cambridge, and then spent a fellowship in the graduate school at Yale University. Zac is continually interested in how we can wake up to the wisdom of our tradition and the goodness of our lives.

Marc Frank

Marc Frank is HaMakom’s Community Manager. He supports Zac with all of HaMakom’s operations, and is directly involved in the organisation’s outreach and development projects. Marc is an experienced meditator of over 25 years and is currently in training to become a certified Jewish Meditation Teacher through the Tiferet program. He has also served as Retreat Manager for HaMakom and Or HaLev on a number of occasions. Marc lives in Totnes, Devon, where he volunteers as Community Facilitator for the local Jewish Community, works as a Mental Health Support Worker, and is in private practice as an Integrative Gestalt Therapist. He currently sits as Chair of the Devon Faith and Belief Forum and is passionate about bridge-building through mindful interfaith relations and conscious community connection.

Rabbi James Jacobson Maisels

James directs the vision of Or HaLev & is a devotee of mindfulness practice. Ordained by Rav Daniel Landes, with a doctorate in Jewish Studies from the University of Chicago, Rav James lectures internationally on Jewish Spiritual practices. He also teaches at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, Haifa University & Yeshivat Hadar. He strives to integrate his study with his practice, & to help teach & live Judaism as a spiritual discipline.

Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg

Sheila served as a congregational rabbi for seventeen years and has published widely on such topics as feminism, spiritual direction, parenting, social justice and mindfulness from a Jewish perspective. Rabbi Weinberg has taught mindfulness meditation and yoga to rabbis, Jewish professionals and lay people in the context of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. She serves as a spiritual director to a variety of Jewish clergy including students and faculty at HUC-JIR in New York. She is creator and co-leader of the Jewish Mindfulness Teacher Training Program.

Bev Cohen

Bev has been practising meditation for over 25 years, mainly in the Insight tradition. She is an NHS-trained Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy/Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction teacher and a graduate of Yesod, the Jewish meditation programme from Or HaLev and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. Bev facilitates meditation groups in person and online for HaMakom and secular organisations and gives one to one sessions. She is a member of the Community Dharma Leader system at Gaia House, Devon, UK. Bev is a student of the late Rob Burbea and his teaching influences her approach. Bev is also a long-term practitioner of interfaith dialogue.

Gidon Fineman

Gidon trained in Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) at Oxford University’s Mindfulness Centre (OMC). He has taught MBCT courses in North London as well as teaching mindfulness courses for Oxford University students, workplace groups, secondary school teachers, and at the OMC for the general public. Alongside working with MBCT, Gidon teaches mindfulness meditation retreats HaMakom. He also works within NHS adult mental health services. Gidon is a registered teacher with the British Association of Mindfulness-Based Approaches (BAMBA), and follows the OMC’s Guiding Ethical Principles.

Mika Hadar

Mika comes from a long line of Hasidic healers. Being trained in a variety of mind-body systems including the Alexander Technique, Hatha Yoga and Cranio-Sacral Therapy, Mika has developed the unique practice of Subtle Yoga. Her work explores the subconscious self-alignment and self-healing capacity of the body alongside re-education. At the heart of her work is an emphasis on psycho-physical integration. Mika is based in London and teaches internationally.

Rabbi Daniel Silverstein

Daniel received his ordination from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School in New York, and is past Director of Jewish Life & Learning for Hillel at Stanford University. He is an accredited meditation teacher, and teaches at Pardes, Romemu Yeshiva, and the OU and is the founder of Applied Jewish Spirituality.org, a platform for online exploration of Jewish spirituality. He read Social & Political Science at Cambridge University.

Roland Brandman

Roland is the Chairman of HaMakom. He speaks and writes about the traditional sources for Jewish contemplative thought and practice. His new book on the subject, Sapphire Mind, is recently published. Roland is also a property lawyer, a synagogue chazan (“the English Cantor”), a past exhibitioner of Oxford University (reading Classics), and a member of the Athenaeum Club.

Rabba Dr Mira Neshama Weil

Mira is a Paris-born scholar and teacher of Jewish spirituality and meditation. She earned a Ph.D. in Sociology of Religion at Ecole de Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris (EHESS) and is a Post-Doctoral Golda Meir Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as well as at the Oxford Center for Judaism and Hebrew Studies, researching the phenomenon of Judaism and Buddhism as well as Jewish Meditation. A certified Jewish Mindfulness Teacher with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS), Mira has received Orthodox Smicha from the Yeshiva Har’El in Jerusalem.

Rabbi Lisa Barrett

Lisa has been practicing meditation for over 30 years. She served as a congregational rabbi for 10 years, leading Contemplative services in her communities and at HaMakom retreats. Lisa taught Jewish studies at JCoSS and at North Cheshire Jewish Primary School, and also trained in Spiritual Direction with Elat Chayyim Centre for Jewish Spirituality in the US. Lisa is currently working as a Chaplain at The Christie cancer hospital in Manchester.

Our trustees

HaMakom thanks our board of trustees who give their time and professional skills to support HaMakom, and grow the awareness and practice of Jewish mindfulness meditation in the UK.

Roland Brandman

Roland is the Chairman of HaMakom. He speaks and writes about the traditional sources for Jewish contemplative thought and practice. His new book on the subject, Sapphire Mind, is recently published. Roland is also a property lawyer, a synagogue chazan (“the English Cantor”), a past exhibitioner of Oxford University (reading Classics), and a member of the Athenaeum Club.

Sara Bensusan

In 2014 I was blessed to attend one of the very first HaMakom retreats at Skeet House. The fact that the retreat was in silence was something of a surprise to me, I never thought I would spend a weekend in relative silence. But I was hooked, the meditation, the spiritual teaching, the community, and yes even the silence were and continue to be inspiring. Since then it has been my pleasure and honour and a joyful part of my life to be part of the HaMakom ‘team’ working with Rabbi Danny and the other trustees and now Zac to establish HaMakom as a charity and to help to grow the organisation. My work with HaMakom is all part of my ‘practice’. In other parts of my life I have a son and daughter, now ‘all grown up’ and both living in Brighton. I live with my husband and our cat Opal in North London and in my spare time, I work as a consultant property solicitor.

Suzanne Freed

HaMakom is the Jewish community I feel most comfortable with, and I really enjoy helping make it happen. My meditation practice is still patchy – but I’m working on it. I live in London with my husband Velo and our very affectionate dog with no boundaries. I work as a personal tax assistant and offer particular support to HaMakom in all things financial.

Edward Gold

When I was 18, Rabbi Lionel Blue z’’l told me I should go to a monastery for two weeks and meditate! Although in later years I went and enjoyed midweek meditations at Alyth started by Rabbi Danny Newman, it was only some 60 years later that I went to my first HaMakom retreat and realised how good Lionel’s advice had been. The opportunity to just stop and listen to the constant companion of the breath in the company of others in a Jewish context is now a regular feature helping me navigate life’s journey. Accordingly, I was delighted to help form the HaMakom charity and put it on a permanent footing. After working in financial services for 54 years – as Pension Consultant for the last 20 years – I finally retired. Apart from supporting HaMakom, I work with Jewish Interactive, a charity that creates digital games teaching Primary age children Hebrew and Jewish Studies. In my spare time I teach Biblical Hebrew.


Rabbi Danny Newman

Danny is the Founder and former CEO of HaMakom. He is currently the Rabbi of two Progressive Jewish communities in London and also works as a Life Coach and Facilitator of Men’s Groups and Men’s Retreats. Previously he read Jewish Studies at Oxford University, studied at several Yeshivot in Israel, trained in psychotherapy and worked for many years in Corporate Law, Finance and Private Equity in the City of London.

Our volunteers

HaMakom thanks our many volunteers who give their time and professional skills to support HaMakom, and grow the awareness and practice of Jewish mindfulness meditation in the UK.

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Email: marc@hamakom.community