Meet Our
Staff
Introducing the people developing something truly special for Family Camp 2026. We can’t wait to share it with you!
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SIVAN SPECTOR
Admin and Programming Director
Sivan Spector (she/her) is an educator, director, and puppet maker based in Chicago. She has worked in theatres all over the city as an artist and educator, including Firehouse Arts Studio, The Raven, Steppenwolf, Lookingglass, The Neo Futurists, and Chicago Children's Theatre. Sivan worked as the Education & Community Programs Manager at Chicago Children's Theatre for 5 years, and has been teaching Jewishly as the Family Program Coordinator with Tzedek Chicago for the last two years. She is passionate about education and art that empowers the participants, and creates space for their stories to shine. -
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MALIK KARIM
Educator and Foodways CoordinatorMalik is a certified pastry chef and an emerging poet in the Chicago arts scene. As a proud Palestinian, his artistry is a celebration of his heritage and a call to challenge the status quo. In the future, Malik hopes to start a land project championing environmental sustainable and food sovereignty.
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ELI NEWELL
Spiritual DirectorEli Newell is an artist, community organizer and Rabbinic & Cantorial student working at the intersections of live storytelling and building grassroots movements. Eli is a lifelong theatre-maker whose works have been seen in Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul and New York, in venues spanning conventional performance spaces, neighborhood streets, industrial sites, and a long-running speakeasy on the Magnificent Mile. Born and raised in the Twin Cities, Eli is a proud, Jewish Lefty Midwesterner through and through, committed to a life of organizing, rehearsing and storytelling for liberation, including with Sunrise Movement, IfNotNow, JVP, Rabbis for Ceasefire, and many autonomous networks of solidarity and care. A frequent ritual leader in several Chicagoland spiritual communities, Eli loves to facilitate, support and train Jewish and interfaith students of all ages to embody, practice and tell sacred-story. elinewell.org
