Nicky Newfield
Jewish Interactive Founder and Director
Nicky Newfield is a very passionate Jewish educator married with 3 children and living in Johannesburg. She qualified at the University of Witwatersrand with a B.Sc physiotherapy in 1999. Married in 2002, she and her husband went to learn Torah in Jerusalem at Midrashet Rachel for 3 years. They returned to South Africa to a physiotherapy practice and teaching Taharat Hamishpachah and Chumash to women.
In 2007 Nicky got involved with CentreTrain and Craig Meltzer in order to help develop Shabbat Interactive. She wrote the curriculum for the program and drove the dream to fruition. Shabbat Interactive was launched in 2010. In July 2011 she started a non–profit organization, “Jewish Interactive” in order to market Shabbat Interactive internationally and to develop more innovative Jewish educational material.
Corinne Ossendryver
Instructional Designer and Operations Manager
Corinne Ossendryver is a multimedia instructional designer who has designed and produced interactive lessons on the computer for schools in Israel, United States, South Africa and Kenya. Corinne designed and produced Shabbat Interactive. One of her products, “Message in a Fossil”, won several awards in the United States, including ComputED Gazette’s Best Children’s Educational Software Award in upper elementary science, Curriculum Administrator’s Top 100 District’s Choice Award and the 1997 Technology and Learning Software Award for Science.
Corinne has a B.Sc in Computer Science from the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa) and a Masters degree in “Communication and Education through Computers” from Tel Aviv University (Israel). She loves taking complex subjects and making them simple and fun to learn. Corinne is married to Ilan Ossendryver, and has two children, Talya and Nadav.
Craig Meltzer
Chief Technical Officer
Craig Meltzer guides and directs the technical evolution of Jewish Interactive. Craig founded CentreTrain, the e-learning company which originally developed Shabbat Interactive and the underlying platform. Shabbat Interactive became the culmination of many years of working to provide high-quality, interactive and multi-lingual educational material to corporates, non-governmental organisations and educational institutions in South Africa and throughout the world. Craig has a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cape Town and has worked in education and technology for over ten years in South Africa and the UK. He is also the CEO and founder of Ultimate Dream Teams, a company specialising in online sports competitions.
Chana Kanzen
UK Manager and Curriculum Writer
Chana Kanzen has an honours degree in education, qualified teachers’ status and has been teaching for almost 20 years. She has helped to write and develop integrated curricula, established community programmes and lectures to parents and teachers on a variety of educational topics. Chana most recently was the Head of Jewish studies at Morasha Jewish Primary school in London, England. She left to become a teacher mentor at the Jewish Curriculum Partnership, an Educational Consultant and lecturer.
Chana is passionate about innovative kodesh teaching and leapt at the chance to be involved in Jewish Interactive. She believes that Jewish Interactive is the cutting edge of Jewish education as we know it, and has helped implement the programme in a large number of schools in the UK. Chana currently resides in the UK with her husband and 3 children.
Martin Glatt
Main Trustee of the Glatt Charitable Trust and Funder of Jewish Interactive
Martin is the business and financial advisor to Jewish Interactive. He is the former owner and director of Tiger Wheels and Tyre, Sasfin Bank, Wechsler Eetrite and Business against Crime. He is a major philanthropist in South Africa and Israel, and is currently dedicating his time to enhancing the Jewish Experience at the Kotel (Western Wall), Jerusalem. His passion is enhancing Jewish education to enrich and instill a love of Jewish heritage worldwide. For further information, read here…
Rochi Silke
Graphic Artist and Video Producer
Rochi Silke is Jewish Interactive‘s graphic designer and video producer. She has a BA in “multimedia” from the Jerusalem Film School. She has worked as a video editor, a feature producer and has produced two advertisements for Israel’s Channel 2.
Rochie was born in Johannesburg and made Aliyah with her family 12 years ago. She recently got married and moved back to South Africa.
Nicole Mandelberg
Workshop Facilitator
Nicole Mandelberg is married with 3 children and lives in Johannesburg. She qualified at the University of the Witwatersrand with a B. Sc Occupational Therapy in 2000. She has worked in private practice with children with learning difficulties as well as teaching study skills to high school pupils. She also teaches Taharat Hamishpacha and now runs Jewish Interactive‘s iPad workshops for primary schools and parents.
