MEET OUR TEAM
Hannah Sherman
Executive Director
Hannah Sherman joined the PDX Hillel team as Executive Director July 2018. Prior to moving to Portland, she spent four years working at Santa Barbara Hillel, reinventing the student leadership board as well as supervising other staff members to expand Hillel's reach into the university community. Additionally, Hannah was a participant in Hillel International's Weinberg ACCELERATE Executive Training Program, a program for select Hillel employees that prepares them to become successful Hillel directors as well as the recipient of Hillel International’s Exemplar of Excellence Award in 2022.
Hannah grew up in the sunny suburbs of Los Angeles before spending four years as a Banana Slug at UC Santa Cruz. She then pursued her graduate studies at Brandies University's Hornstein Program, receiving a dual Master of Arts in Jewish Professional Leadership and Near Eastern and Judaic Studies.
Andy Friedland
Director of Jewish Student Life
Andy Friedland moved to Portland in 2023 from Hartford, Connecticut, where he taught middle and high school Humanities. Prior to teaching, Andy served the Jewish community for five years as the Assistant and Associate Director of the Connecticut Anti-Defamation League (ADL). For his work responding to antisemitism, creating educational programming, and lobbying for legislative change, Andy was recognized as one of Connecticut Magazine’s “40 Under 40” in 2020. Since moving to Portland, Andy has been an in-house substitute teacher at Portland Jewish Academy and a house husband to his wife starting her medical residency at OHSU.
Preceding his work at the ADL, Andy worked in live theater, taught English at a kindergarten in Northeast China, and led an AmeriCorps team based out of Mississippi. Andy is a graduate of the University of Vermont Honors College, where he majored in English and Theater. He earned his master’s in Curriculum and Instruction from UConn.
Jesse Weiss
Springboard Innovation Fellow
Born and raised in California, Jesse Weiss attended Reed College where she helped revive the Jewish Student Union as its president, graduating in May of 2024 with a Bachelor’s degree in English and a concentration in creative writing. Jesse also goes by the following nicknames/Hebrew names: Jess, Shayah, or Shai. Jesse grew up in Silicon Valley, spending her summers in Jerusalem. She moved to San Diego in 2020 with her family where she fell in love with sunny skies and beaches. She loves to sing, play her guitar, listen to audiobooks, travel, and cook vegan and vegetarian meals. Jesse loves being an active part of the Jewish community and it is her goal to help Jewish college clubs and organizations thrive, and Jewish students find strength and growth within their communities.
Linoy Yechieli
Jewish Agency for Israel Fellow
Linoy Yechieli grew up in Kiryat Shmona, a small city in the north of Israel, where she is the eldest of four siblings. When she turned 15 her family moved to Kfar Saba, a bigger city near Tel Aviv where they currently live. As a little girl, she had many hobbies such as singing, writing, crafting, dancing, ice skating and traveling which are her fuel for joy in life up to this day forth.
Since she bought her first guitar, she has been writing songs and performing with her original music, (mostly Hebrew at this time but hoping to add some in English soon). In 2016 she graduated from the Open University with a B.A. in Psychology and Music. Following her passion for music, and the desire to help others, she attended Levinsky College of Education, graduating with a M.A in Music Therapy in 2018. For the past five years she has been working in the music and music therapy field with diverse populations in different ages, developing projects to encourage inclusion and social equality in Israel.
Linoy is very interested in Philosophy and actively explores her Jewish identity in all aspects from a very young age. She is coming to PDX Hillel to continue this Journey and she is looking for people from the Portland community who feel the same calling for jewish-identity-exploration and are willing to share their own unique stories along the way.