I was born in New Jersey to an African-American mother and a Persian father. We were a working poor family and for us life was a constant struggle to make ends meet. I held on to my goals, getting into Princeton and through three law degrees. I know what it’s like to come from a hard life, but I also know what it’s like to make good on little more than faith and hard work.

I've previously taught as a high school English teacher, served as a K-8 school administrator and as a community college instructor. I enjoy giving back through education and I believe that it is the key to our advancement as a country, just as it has been key to my own personal upliftment. I formerly practiced law in Canada and more recently as an international environmental lawyer at a firm in Israel-Palestine.

In Youngstown, OH, I served as a member of the Youngstown Board of Education (2016-2020), fighting the predatory effort of the State of Ohio to take over our district and trap our children in a CEO-run corporate failure. I fought to ban fracking and successfully took on local and state governments in court to uphold the public's right to public records.

A convert to Judaism (first through a Reform and then an Orthodox process), I have brought my very liberal and open-minded approach to spiritual leadership to multiple communities as a rabbi since my ordination in 2012. I was previously the campus rabbi for the College of Wooster as well as a pulpit rabbi to a local congregation in Youngstown.

I now live in Los Angeles, California.