MEET

Yavni Bar-Yam

Hello! I'm Yavni Bar-Yam, and I am excited for the chance to learn with you! I have studied Judaics with many wonderful teachers and havrutot (study partners) at the beit midrash of Bar Ilan University, at Hadar Israel, in the Yashrut Halakha Shiur, and outside of institutions. I have served as a teaching artist at the American Jewish University's Brandeis Collegiate Institute and at BIMA at Brandeis University, and most summers I teach at the National Havurah Committee Summer Institute.

My interests are broad, and I am happy exploring any topic and genre. I am especially drawn, though, to literary qualities of texts—narrative, characters, voice, metaphor, structure, and absurdity. I also love using texts as materials, tools or substrates in creative processes—both in my own artistic endeavors (mostly writing fiction and devising puppet theater), and in facilitating or supporting others' creative processes, be they explicitly artistic, or the creativity of intellectual insight-generation and emotional meaning-making in discussion and study.

I have a particular interest in seeking out and learning from voices from underrepresented and marginalized groups and identities.

I have an undergraduate degree in physics and a graduate degree in creative writing, and I take care of other people's children.