Deb Gaffin (she/her)
Chief Executive Officer | debg@mayyimhayyim.org
Deb joined Mayyim Hayyim as Chief Executive Officer in January 2026, following nine months as Interim CEO. With a background in education technology and strategic planning, she has more than 20 years of experience leading teams, cultivating partnerships, and delivering innovative learning initiatives for museums, publishers and education companies. She served on Mayyim Hayyim’s board from 2020-2025. As a lay leader, Deb is involved with JCDS and Temple Beth Zion (TBZ Brookline). She loves to play Scrabble, kickbox, and gather people around her Shabbat table for delicious meals. Deb lives in Brookline with her family. Press Release »
Bev Klau (she/her)
Director of Programs and Partnerships | bevk@mayyimhayyim.org
Bev Klau has been the Director of Programs and Partnerships at Mayyim Hayyim since 2024. Before assuming this role, she was facilitating the Beneath the Surface program at Mayyim Hayyim for over a dozen years. Bev has been a classroom teacher in Jewish day schools, a religious school principal, and part of the URJ Eisner Camp staff. Bev holds a master’s degree from Bank Street in Museum Education. She met her husband Max at Pardes in Jerusalem. She loves to cook vegetarian food and support her two teenage children through their performances in community theater productions. She lives in Natick with her family and two cats.
Michaela Ben-Ezra (she/her)
Director of Administration | michaelaw@mayyimhayyim.org
Michaela first learned about Mayyim Hayyim through Temple Beth Elohim in 2007 and immersed prior to becoming bat mitzvah. Michaela was a Judaic studies major at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She forged a strong Jewish identity through her upbringing at Temple Beth Elohim as a cantorial mentee, assistant teacher and youth choir director, personal tutor, and congregant Shabbat service leader for 14 years. She attended URJ Eisner camp and traveled to Israel, where she connected with Jews of all denominations and gained a deep understanding of and love for the broader Jewish community. In addition to her work within the Jewish community, Michaela has a decade of customer service experience and classical musical training, earning accolades as a top scoring soprano at the Massachusetts’s All State Choir festival. She is passionate about mikveh and its ability to uplift the soul, to heal, and to foster joy in life’s transitions. Michaela lives in Quincy and is raising a Siberian Husky puppy, as well as two Blue and Gold Macaw Parrots.
Gabrielle Keen (she/they)
Archivist | archive@mayyimhayyim.org
Gabrielle Keen is a cultural heritage information professional and archivist who is dedicated to preserving the stories and rich traditions of the Jewish community. She holds her master’s degree from Simmons University in Library and Information Science, as well as a BFA in Acting from Oakland University. Originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, Gabrielle was a long-time participant in Temple Beth Emeth’s Youth Choir and spent many years volunteering there. After moving to Massachusetts for her graduate school program, she worked at Simmons University as a reference librarian and in GBH’s Media Library & Archives as an archival intern specializing in audio/visual cataloging and metadata. Gabrielle loves collecting retro audio/visual media and baking pies, and she is excited to both archive and contribute to Mayyim Hayyim’s beautiful story and community. She currently lives in Brookline with her cat, Gideon.
Eliot Mohrmann (they/them)
Program Manager, Mikveh | eliotm@mayyimhayyim.org
Eliot comes to Mayyim Hayyim with a decade of management experience in theater, working with costumes and actors backstage. They’ve also spent time in Jewish nonprofits as a cohort member with Repair the World’s Service Corps in Pittsburgh PA, where volunteered with a queer Jewish community center. Their most recent experience with Mayyim Hayyim was in 2022 when they immersed to complete their conversion to Judaism. Since then, they have become an active part of the community at Temple Shalom Medford and are currently a board member there. An avid reader, they have overflowing bookshelves of Jewish fiction and nonfiction, which they most enjoy pairing with mugs of tea. They live in Medford with their cat.
Yael Marans (she/her)
Hebrew College Rabbinic Intern | intern@mayyimhayyim.org
Yael Marans (she/her) is a fourth-year rabbinical student at Hebrew College. She has taught at Congregation Kehillath Israel in Brookline and Temple Israel of Boston and worked at Ramah Day Camp of Greater Boston, The Bronfman Fellowship and Association to Benefit Children. She draws on Jewish text and ritual to foster conversation, connection and commitment to justice, and she loves getting to work with people of diverse ages and backgrounds. Yael is inspired by the varied, rich ways that mikvah rituals touch people’s lives. She is excited to learn from and be a part of the amazing work at Mayyim Hayyim this year.
Sivan Piatigorsky-Roth (they/them)
Hebrew College Rabbinic Intern | intern@mayyimhayyim.org
Sivan Piatigorsky-Roth is a fifth-year rabbinical student and a cartoonist originally from Toronto (on Huron-Wendat, Seneca, and Missisaugas of the Credit River land) and is currently living in Boston (on Massachusett and Pawtucket land.) Sivan has previously worked in Jewish education for children and older adults, and in spiritual and pastoral care. They have been a mikveh guide since 2021 and are grateful and excited for the opportunity to continue learning at Mayyim Hayyim this year!
Aki Yonekawa (she/her)
Manager, Rising Tide | akiy@mayyimhayyim.org
Aki is a Jewish educator and lover of adventures, Jewish camp, nature, and French fries. She has worked in a variety of educational settings including schools (early childhood through high school), camps, museums, and synagogues. She became a mikveh guide in 2022 and has been guiding and teaching ever since. She brings her love of creative ritual and mikveh immersion to her work as a freelance educator in a variety of settings, and she brings her decades of experience working in immersive educational settings to her work with mikveh. A committed life-long student, she has learned at Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, SVARA, and Yashrut. Lately, she has also been taking drawing classes to support her new-found love of nature sketching.
She spends her summers as a faculty member at Brandeis Camp Institute, an immersive summer program for Jews in their 20s in Southern California. She lives in an attic in Cambridge, a long way from Los Angeles where she grew up.