Our Instructors

Our staff of master instructors are affiliated with the multi-talented Chabad/Lubavitch community.

Tamar Adelstein

Chairwoman for both Ikar At the Alcove and The Juneberry Tree Art Gallery.

In 1993 Tamar founded Crown Heights Women for the Safety and Integrity of Israel, an organization promulgating the Lubavitcher Rebbe's approach for bringing true peace to the Land of Israel. Tamar is also a certified Flower Essence Practitioner with a practice in Crown Heights. She is the mother of seven daughters and two sons and enjoys spending time gardening and making arts and crafts with her grandchildren.

Sara Tova Best

Sara Tova Best teaches Torah and Chassidus. She is a certified E.F.T (Emotional Freedom Technique) practitioner blending spiritually based mind-body healing to help people move out of their stress zone and into a more joyful outlook on life.

Sema Cohen

Sema has long been staging interactive theatre events with children in the Jewish community and pop-up theatre in Yerushalayim. Sit back and enjoy a Baal Shem Tov maaseh with Sema!

Miriam Cohn

Miriam's classes are not your typical dance class. Her intricate style and attention to detail makes all of her choreography extremely unique. Her ability to teach musicality, explain transitions and the feeling of the movement is remarkable!

Miriam always makes time to talk with her students, addressing their concerns and giving constructive critiques. Many students have commented that Miriam's classes have not only improved their skills in dance and ability to hear music but have helped them build confidence and self-esteem in other aspects of their life. The feeling of intimidation is never present and the room is always filled with a contagious, positive energy.

Solange Defrancesco

A lover of good food and entertaining at home, Solange is a NYC prop fashion and food stylist with a clientele ranging from Chanel, Martha Stewart, Mercedes Benz and Bergdorf Goodman.

Tzivia Emmer

Tzivia is a writer/editor living in Crown Heights and is certified as an instructor by the Birren Institute for Autobiographical Studies. She sees herself as a kind of memoir midwife helping to birth the many life stories waiting to be born.  Tzivia is a member of the  Association of Personal Historians.

Rikki Forer 

Rikki is a private chef currently living and working in New York. She trained at the Kosher Culinary Center and has been working in restaurants for about 5 years and more recently has focused more on private clients. Cooking and baking is a huge passion for Rikki and she’s excited to share her talent with others through her cooking classes, sharing her recipes, and of course tasting her delicious food!

Leta Lenik

An award-winning choreographer before becoming frum in 1985, Leta has continued working in theater as a choreographer, a director and in the field of video production as a producer, director and editor.

Her documentary, Women Unchained, was narrated by Mayim Bialik and opened the Women in Religion Film Festival in Jerusalem in 2011.

Rabbi Mendy Mirocznik

Rabbi M is the Executive Vice President of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, President of COJO of Staten Island and a frequent speaker at Crown Heights Women for the Safety and Integrity of Israel events. An engaging, knowledgeable speaker, Rabbi Mirocznik is involved in many community projects throughout the Jewish world.

Frida Schapiro

Homemaker, mother and grandmother, Frida has lived in Crown Heights for over five decades. She has taught in our local schools and has also served as head of the Neshei Chabad Chinuch Committee.

Presently, Frida serves as Editor of Nissan Mindel Publications (NMP) which is dedicated to publishing and disseminating the works of her illustrious father, Rabbi Nissan Mindel.

Arianna Sharfman

Arianna is a professional fashion photographer/stylist with her work seen in Vanity Fair, Tiffany & Co, and Women's Wear Daily, etc. She has also followed her passion and started her career as an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach where she helps show people how to make healthier lifestyle choices so they can feel their best and live their most vibrant and joyful life.  

Chana Sharfstein

Chana is an educator, docent, and pioneer in the field of kosher tours to Scandinavia for twenty-five years, Chana is the author of It Was Evening, It Was Morning: Scandinavia in the Aftermath of World War II, a collection of personal accounts from survivors who settled in Sweden after the war. 

Sara Chana Silverstein

Sara Chana Silverstein is the first and only Torah observant woman in the US to attain the rank of Master Herbalist. She is also a well-known homeopath and internationally board-certified lactation consultant who has been serving the Crown Heights community and beyond for decades.

A popular keynote speaker at various wellness conferences, Sara Chana has been a guest lecturer in medical schools speaking to doctors about incorporating alternative medicine in their practices and has also appeared on television and in podcasts.

Gitty Stolik

Humorously dubbed the Lemonade Therapist for her special dose of perspective flip-overs, popular inspirational writer about joy, Gitty finds it most intriguing that science supports positive thinking as a means for changing reality, a concept in sync with traditional Kabbalistic teaching.

Susan Sutton

Susan is a master embroiderer with a passion for teaching  needlework's intricate and varied techniques.  Susan sees needlework as a marvelous way to bring women together  from across the Jewish community. 

Miryam Swerdlov

Miryam is a popular, highly sought-after public speaker giving talks all over the world, BH. Myriam runs an incredible summer program for girls and women in Israel and the Ukraine, but, more than anything else, she is a very proud Mother, grandmother, and great grandmother.

Sarede Rachel Switzer

Sarede is the founder of Bring the Gym to Me is a fitness concierge service that matches up clients with the right fitness instructor(s).