Shabbat Voices: Rachel Gildiner
2026-04-18 11:15 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | Adat Shalom, 7727 Persimmon Tree Lane, Bethesda, MD, 20817, United States
Women in Leadership: Victories and Ongoing Challenges

Rachel Gildiner, Executive Director of the Safety, Respect and Equity Network, joins us this April for Shabbat Voices.
Rachel Gildiner (she/her) is the Executive Director of the SRE Network (Safety, Respect and Equity), an organization committed to advancing gender equity and inclusive workplaces in the Jewish community. A leading expert in the field of relational engagement, Rachel previously served as Chief Engagement Officer at Hillel International, Executive Director of GatherDC (the premier relational platform for Jewish 20s & 30s in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area), and CEO of Gather, Inc. Prior to joining SRE, Rachel applied her relational approach to advance women’s equity in the Jewish workplace and beyond. In 2019, she launched Year of the Jewish Woman, a vibrant Facebook community where female Jewish professionals and allies can connect and discuss key issues and challenges. She is a vocal advocate and published thought leader in this area.
Rachel has a B.A. in Sociology from Columbia University, a B.A. in Modern Jewish Studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary, an M.A. in Higher Education Administration from The George Washington University, and a Certificate in Experiential Jewish Education from Yeshiva University. She is the inaugural recipient of the Phyllis G. Margolius Impossible Dream Award, a Schusterman Senior Fellow, and sits on the Board of The Jewish Theological Seminary. Rachel lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and three children.

Sponsored by Phyllis Lerner, to advance greater inclusivity and equity in our world.

11:15am-Session 1
1-2pm-Session 2

UPCOMING SPEAKER

June 20th
Doubt Science and the Degradation of Expertise
Speaker: Dr. David Michaels, former Ass’t Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA) and member of Adat Shalom
Sponsor: Claire Engers and David Silberman in memory of Charles and Arlene Silberman

Shabbat Voices: Dr. David Michaels
2026-06-20 11:15 - 14:00
Doubt Science and the Degradation of Expertise

For our sixth Shabbat Voices of the season, please welcome Dr. David Michaels, former Ass’t Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA).
David Michaels PhD MPH, is an epidemiologist and Professor at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. He served as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health from 2009 to January 2017, the longest serving administrator in OSHA’s history. Previously, David served as Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environment, Safety, and Health, charged with protecting the workers, community, and environment around the nation’s nuclear weapons facilities. He was the chief architect of the historic initiative that has provided $32 billion in compensation for nuclear weapons workers who were sickened following exposure to radiation, beryllium or other hazards.
Much of David’s work focuses on defending the integrity of the science underpinning public health, safety, and environmental protections. On this topic, he is the author of The Triumph of Doubt: Dark Money and the Science of Deception (Oxford University Press, 2020) called “a tour de force” by Science Magazine and “a brave and important book, raising the alarm about the systemic corruption of science” by the journal Nature, and Doubt is Their Product: How Industry’s Assault on Science Threatens Your Health (Oxford University Press, 2008).
Throughout his career, David has focused on the health of disadvantaged communities and the impact of infectious diseases on underserved populations. He developed a widely-
cited mathematical model estimating the number of children and adolescents orphaned by HIV/AIDS, and founded and directed the Epidemiology Unit at of the Montefiore-Rikers Island Health Service, the first such unit in a jail in the United States. Learn more about his work here.

Doubt Science and the Degradation of Expertise -11:15am
The tobacco industry perfected the doubt science playbook – for decades it manufactured scientific uncertainty to enable it to market a product that killed millions of people. This playbook, which has been used by manufacturers of asbestos, lead,
pesticides, plastics, and other harmful products, has now been embraced by the federal government to degrade the science and the scientists demonstrating the value of vaccines, of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and of other life-saving public health efforts.
How do we respond to this unprecedented state of affairs?

Ruth Gruber: Her Life and Legacy – 1-2pm, after oneg lunch
Ruth Gruber, who died in 2016 at age 105, was a well-known photojournalist, author of 18 books, government official, Reconstructionist Jew, the youngest person (at that time) to be awarded a PhD, and… my mother. A student in Cologne, Germany, she witnessed Hitler’s rise to power and then a decade later was sent by the Roosevelt Administration to escort to the U.S., 1000 refugees fleeing Nazi Europe. As a journalist, she covered the UN partition of Palestine, Israel’s War of Independence, and the waves diaspora
Jews immigrating to Israel from North Africa, Yemen, Iraq, and Ethiopia. This presentation will present Ruth Gruber’s life and legacy.

Sponsored by Claire Engers and David Silberman in memory of Charles and Arlene Silberman.
