LEADERSHIP
Philip Wexler
Founding Director Emeritus
Philip Wexler (1943-2023), the founding executive director of IJSS, was emeritus Professor of Sociology and Unterberg Chair in Jewish Social and Educational History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. A graduate of New York University and received his PhD from Princeton University, Wexler was a renowned teacher who devoted his long career to studying the role of education and spiritual practices in the construction of identity. He was especially concerned with counteracting the modern sense of alienation that increasingly erodes self, relationships, and community.
IJSS Staff
Arial Evan Mayse
Senior Scholar In Residence
Ariel Evan Mayse is an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Stanford University, having previously served as the Director of Jewish Studies and Visiting Assistant Professor of Modern Jewish Thought at Hebrew College in Newton, Massachusetts, and a research fellow at the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies of the University of Michigan. Mayse holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from Harvard University and rabbinic ordination from Beit Midrash Har’el in Israel. Mayse's research and teaching interests include: Hasidism, Kabbalah, and Jewish mysticism; comparative religious ethics and theology; ecology and the environmental humanities; medieval Jewish thought; and the philosophy of Jewish law.
Michael Wexler
Associate Director
Michael Wexler is a writer, producer and creator who holds a BA in English Literature from Princeton University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Kansas City, Missouri where he was a professor for three years. He has published eight books including The Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Transformative Paradigm for the World (Crossroad, 2021) and The Seems (Bloomsbury, 2007, 2008, 2009), a young adult trilogy that explores questions of spirituality, meaning and destiny in a fictional/fantasy setting.
Jesse Noily
Program Director
Jesse Noily has an extensive background in program direction, philosophy, and ancient languages. He holds a BA in Religion from Oberlin College and an MA in Divinity from the University of Chicago. He is currently a PhD student at Princeton University, where his research focuses on Jewish manuscript cultures in the medieval Mediterranean basin. He is continuously inspired by the Institute’s mission of creating a site of correspondence between Jewish spirituality and the academy.
Carly Gordon
Chief Operating Officer
Carly Gordon earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh, where she studied language and international studies. She holds a Master’s degree in Global and International Education from Drexel University and has been a study abroad advisor at Arcadia University, The College of Global Studies, and Temple University’s Fox School of Business in the Department of International and Executive Programs. She has also served as COO of the Philadelphia-based Maayan Collective.
IJSS Board of Directors
