Rachel McKay Steele
Rachel McKay Steele is a writer and comedian from Charleston, SC, who recently left bagels and Brooklyn for sunny Los Angeles. She has studied comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and has performed improv and stand-up around the country. Her solo show, Shiva for Anne Frank, premiered at the 2019 Hollywood Fringe Festival to rave reviews and won a Producer’s Encore Award. She has worked on numerous award-winning independent films, from Gayby to creative development for the Oscar-nominated What Happened Miss Simone? She is thrilled and humbled to be a part of the inaugural Jewish Writers’ Initiative, even though she never spells Initiative correctly on the first try. Rachel loves breakfast sandwiches, yoga, and her two rescue cats, Roxy and Esther.
Zack Bornstein
I know him as Uncle Nathan. As my Nana’s stoic, kind-eyed brother-in-law, whose name was sewn into the lining of my Bar Mitzvah suit. But to Colonel Mendel Marshak, the Soviet overseer of defeated Germany, Nathan Freisinger is the only tailor in East Berlin fit to fashion his leather jacket. And the suit maker Stalin […]
Emil Stern & Sigmund Stern
Brothers Emil and Sigmund Stern, originally from Sydney, Australia, have established themselves as accomplished writers across different media, with both individual achievements and collaborative projects. Emil’s screenwriting credits include the thriller LIFE BEFORE HER EYES (directed by Vadim Perelman, starring Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood), which was based on his Black List script IN BLOOM, and TENDERNESS (directed by John Polson, starring Russell Crowe). Sigmund Stern has built his reputation as a longtime contributor to renowned satirical publications The Onion and McSweeneys. Together, they were co-creators of comedy noir audio series KING OF THE EGG CREAM with Justin Bartha, starring Richard Kind, Michael Stuhlbarg and Melanie Lynskey, among many others. Emil has also written for Tablet, Jewish Review of Books, and the Washington Post.
Jessie Kahnweiler
Jessie’s films have been featured everywhere from the New York Times to
the Cannes Film Festival. Jessie wrote, directed, and starred in ‘The Skinny’, a dark
comedic series based on her 10-year relationship with bulimia. ‘The Skinny’ was
produced by Joey Soloway and Refinery29. It premiered at Sundance and won a
Webby for best series. Jessie also developed ‘Viagra Diaries’ for CW, ‘Bump’ for ABC,
and staffed on ‘Skam AUSTIN’ for Facebook Watch. Fox commissioned Jessie to write
and direct the comedic thriller Retreat which premiered on Hulu in 2020. Jessie’s short
film, ‘He’s The One,’ premiered at Sundance and her series of the same name sold to
Topic Studios. She is an alumnus of the Sundance Labs, Six Points Fellowship, and the
Jewish Writer’s Initiative.
Currently, Jessie is directing a documentary about circumcision for Reboot Studios and
writing the verticals ‘Pregnant by the Boss’ and ‘Royally Screwed’ for Interactive Films.
IG: @jessie_kahnweiler
Iris Bahr
The Guilt Trip is a dramedy about two sisters, Maya and Abby, who are sent to Poland by their ailing grandmother, Chana, to trace her journey from the Warsaw Ghetto to the camps. Chana hopes this trip will heal the girls’ strained relationship, and perhaps her own wounds as well. Armed with a briefcase and […]
Danielle Berrin
Danielle Berrin works at the intersection of Jewish spirituality and social impact, helping lead development and philanthropic engagement for Or HaLev, a global center for Jewish mindfulness dedicated to personal and collective transformation through contemplative Jewish practice.
An award-winning journalist and storyteller, Danielle spent over a decade as a senior reporter and columnist for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, where she explored the interplay of Jewish identity, politics and culture. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Yedioth Ahronoth, The Forward, Hadassah Magazine, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, and she has provided commentary on CNN, MSNBC, and major Israeli media outlets.
In 2017, the Los Angeles Press Club named her Journalist of the Year for her groundbreaking reporting on sexual harassment—published a year before the #MeToo movement emerged. She later served as California Jewish Outreach Director for the Bloomberg 2020 presidential campaign and was named one of The Forward’s most influential American Jews.
Danielle is a recipient of the David Twersky Journalism Award. She served as a Global Justice Fellow with American Jewish World Service and currently serves on the committee for the Baruch Link Scholar-in-Residence Program in Los Angeles, a weekend of deep exploration of Hebrew literature and culture.
Most recently, she was a 2023–2024 fellow of the Jewish Writers’ Initiative screenwriting program and is currently in her third year of advanced study to teach Jewish mindfulness meditation.
In 2025, Danielle received a first-place Rockower Award for a personal essay she wrote about naming her first child in honor of murdered Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
Doron Drew Feldman
Drew Feldman is a Jewish-American director and writer whose work spans network television, film, documentaries, animation, commercials, and music videos. His films have screened at over 20 festivals worldwide, including Pivot Pals (Best of Fest, Rochester; now on Omeleto) and Touch of Grey (Golden List 2021, co-written with Derek Weissbein).
On television, Drew has directed for REELZ (Murder Made Me Famous, Price of Fame, Johnny Cash: Road to Redemption) and Lifetime (#TextMeWhenYouGetHome), and served as showrunner for The Jewish Story on Unpacked.
For JWI, Drew developed Herzl, a movie-musical about Theodor Herzl–a failed playwright who, shocked by the Dreyfus Affair, abandons everything in a desperate bid to save his people. Scorned by the elite and risking it all, he stages the First Zionist Congress, changing Jewish history forever
Drew’s background includes acting Off-Broadway, touring nationally, and directing theater in the US and Israel. He is a Drama League Fellow and a graduate of Oklahoma City University and the National Theater Institute.
Adam Epstein
Agnostic Jewish American private investigator Allen Sobel is sent to Israel by a rabbi to find the true Messiah that he thinks is being held in a mental ward that treats individuals suffering from Jerusalem Syndrome, a psychological condition that afflicts people that go to the Holy City which causes them to believe that they […]
Marina Michelson
Marina Michelson is a writer, director, and actor originally from Tel Aviv, born to Soviet émigrés from the Republics of Georgia and Moldova. Her work explores identity and power through the everyday lives of women, as well as the rhythms of the contemporary immigrant experience. She holds a BFA in Theater from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and her short films have been recognized on the film festival circuit, including “Stagiaire,” which premiered at the 2021 Maryland Film Festival and “Biophilia,” which garnered the Outstanding Achievement Award for Best Screenplay at the 2018 Brooklyn Film Festival. She is currently in development on her first feature film, a coming-of-age refusenik story set in 1970s Soviet Union, with which she was a Top 50 Nicholl Fellowship semi-finalist, a Humanitas New Voices Fellowship semi-finalist, a 2024 fellow with NYU’s Production Lab Development Studio, and a 2025 recipient of NYU’s Production Lab Financing Slate.
Dan Goldman
Screenwriter, illustrator and narrative designer, Dan Goldman tells stories across comics, animation and video games. His graphic novel Chasing Echoes recounts a road trip of Holocaust survivors’ descendants across Poland to find their family’s land seized by Nazis during WWII. He is currently based in Brooklyn.