Who We Are

Yael Shy (Director) is a lawyer and the Director of Development and Education at the Center on Violence and Recovery at New York University. Yael is a member of the Mindfulness Teacher Training program at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, and was named one of the Jewish Week’s “36 under 36″ Jews reshaping Jewish life in the US. She has studied and led meditation all over the world – from Israel and Abu Dhabi to New York City. She was also a co-founder of the Jewish Meditation Center of Brooklyn. Her teachers have included Rabbi David Cooper and Shoshana Cooper, Zoketsu Norman Fischer, Rabbi Joanna Katz, Rabbi Jeff Roth, and Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg. She is a graduate of New York University College of Arts and Sciences and Northeastern University School of Law. Yael is also on the Board of Directors of the Brooklyn Zen Center.

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Tara Ferrante (Student Director) is a student of Anthropology at New York University. She is also a pre-medical student, and she intends to incorporate the holistic and integrative approach of anthropology into her medical practice. Tara hopes to someday spread her commitment to wellness to others. She has been practicing yoga and meditation since 2005.

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Jason Hollander (Associate Director) is editor-in-chief of the NYU Alumni Magazine and NYU Today online. He received his master’s in screenwriting/philosophy from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study in 2007, and has been an adjunct professor in the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. After studying mindfulness practices throughout the city, he founded the People’s Meditation workshops in 2010 and is currently working with NYU’s Wellness Exchange to help combat student stress on campus.

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Rabbi Daniel Smokler (Educator) graduated Cum Laude from Yale University in 2001. He studied for over 10 years with a Hassidic master of prayer before receiving his rabbinic ordination in Jerusalem in 2006. Since then he has worked on college campuses in Los Angels and New York focusing on a ‘practical spirituality’ for young adults.

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