The Team

Executive leadership and advisory board members serving Bnei Anusim with Torah, education, documentation, and responsible communal guidance.

Executive Board

Bnei Anusim Inc. / Machon Bnei Anusim

Rabbi Nissim Mordechai Makor

President and Chief Executive Director

Rabbi Nissim Mordechai Makor is a rabbi, shochet, author, Torah educator, and longtime kiruv activist with nearly thirty-five years of experience guiding Jews, Bnei Anusim, converts, returnees, and sincere seekers toward Torah and mitzvot. Since 2023, he has served the Jewish community in Managua, Nicaragua, strengthening Torah learning, Shabbat, Yom Tov, shechita, mikveh awareness, and Jewish education. He is dedicated to dignified, halachically responsible pathways of return to Am Yisrael.

Bnei Anusim Inc. / Machon Bnei Anusim

Rabbi Dr. Jeff Montanari

Vice President and Executive Director

Rabbi Dr. Jeff Montanari, also known as Ari Ben Avraham, is a rabbi, author, chaplain, educator, and defender of Jewish faith and identity. He authored God Made You a Jew, addressing missionary arguments and strengthening Jewish responses in defense of Torah. A former military and public safety chaplain, he brings theology, chaplaincy, and Jewish education experience to the mission of preserving Jewish identity and guiding descendants of Anusim back to Torah.

Bnei Anusim Inc. / Machon Bnei Anusim

Rabbi Shaul Ben Danyiel

Treasurer and Executive Director

Rabbi Shaul Ben Danyiel is a rabbi, military chaplain, educator, author, and veteran with more than twenty-two years of rabbinic experience. A former paratrooper, Arabic linguist, intelligence analyst, and U.S. Army Chaplain, he has served internationally and authored five books. Fluent in Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish, and English, he brings Torah scholarship, military discipline, international experience, and pastoral sensitivity to Bnei Anusim’s mission of education, identity, and return.

Bnei Anusim Inc. / Machon Bnei Anusim

Rabbi Dan Kamzen

Secretary

Rabbi Dan Kamzen brings serious halachic commitment, disciplined rabbinic leadership, and deep pastoral sensitivity to Jewish reconnection. With experience as a rabbi and military chaplain, he guides individuals and families through meaningful spiritual processes with structure, dignity, and compassion. He helps build responsible Torah pathways, educational programs, and communal structures that support sincere return to Jewish life.

Advisory Board

Bnei Anusim Inc. / Machon Bnei Anusim

Rabbi Itzjak “Isaac” Abud

Director, Advisory Board — Spanish Division

Rabbi Itzjak “Isaac” Abud was born in Tel Aviv and educated in religious schools and Yeshivat Hesder, combining Torah study with service in the Israeli tank corps. He served Sephardic communities in Houston and Mexico, including seven years as rabbi of Comunidad Monte Sinai. A Torah educator, author, chazzan, and kiruv leader, he brings decades of Spanish-speaking communal service, Sephardic warmth, and halachic fidelity to Bnei Anusim work.

Bnei Anusim Inc. / Machon Bnei Anusim

Daniela Yisrael

Director, Advisory Board

Daniela Yisrael is an author, speaker, and powerful voice for the awakening and return of Bnei Anusim. Raised in a Protestant family as the daughter of a pastor, her journey changed when she discovered family records linking her ancestry to Sephardic Jews persecuted during the Inquisition. After years of Torah study and Hebrew learning, she completed a formal Orthodox conversion and later made Aliyah. She authored Out of the Inquisition Fire, Into the Torah.

Bnei Anusim Inc. / Machon Bnei Anusim

Carmine Davide Delle Donne

Director, Advisory Board

Carmine Davide Delle Donne, born in Genzano di Lucania, Italy, is a respected teacher, author, and spiritual leader within the Bnei Anusim movement. For more than forty years, he has worked toward the awakening and return of descendants of forcibly converted Jews to their ancestral heritage. He studied Jewish tradition in Milan, founded spiritual and educational initiatives in Italy, and continues guiding seekers toward Jewish memory and reconnection.

Bnei Anusim Inc. / Machon Bnei Anusim

Rabbi Yonatan Zagdanski

Advisory Board Member

Advisory Board member serving the mission of Bnei Anusim Inc. / Machon Bnei Anusim through rabbinic guidance, education, community support, and dignified pathways of Jewish reconnection. Full biography forthcoming.

Bnei Anusim Inc. / Machon Bnei Anusim

Rabbi Shlomo Rizel

Advisory Board Member

Advisory Board member serving the mission of Bnei Anusim Inc. / Machon Bnei Anusim through rabbinic guidance, education, community support, and dignified pathways of Jewish reconnection. Full biography forthcoming.

Bnei Anusim Inc. / Machon Bnei Anusim

Rabbi Aharon Pompier

Advisory Board Member

Rabbi Aharon Pompier was born on the Dutch Caribbean island of St. Eustatius. He completed undergraduate studies at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, and later pursued graduate studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands. In 1994, he moved to Tiberias, Israel, where he has lived ever since. He is married and the father of seven children. In Tiberias, he studied part-time at a yeshiva affiliated with Karlin Hassidut. Rabbi Pompier received smicha in 1997 from Rabbi Ephraim Greenblat, Rabbi Yeshia Herzl, and Rabbi David Peretz. From 1995 to 2001, he served as mashgiach for the Rabbinute of Tiberias. In 2001, he transitioned to work as a shochet, and in 2019 he was promoted to manager and supervisor at Off Tov, where he continues in a senior managerial role.

Bnei Anusim Inc. / Machon Bnei Anusim

Rabbanit Yael Wigoda

Advisory Board Member

Advisory Board member serving the mission of Bnei Anusim Inc. / Machon Bnei Anusim through rabbinic guidance, education, community support, and dignified pathways of Jewish reconnection. Full biography forthcoming.

Bnei Anusim Inc. / Machon Bnei Anusim

Rabbi Andres Boaz Mosquera

Advisory Board Member

Advisory Board member serving the mission of Bnei Anusim Inc. / Machon Bnei Anusim through rabbinic guidance, education, community support, and dignified pathways of Jewish reconnection. Full biography forthcoming.

Bnei Anusim Inc. / Machon Bnei Anusim

Rabbi Shlomo Shulman

Advisory Board Member

Advisory Board member serving the mission of Bnei Anusim Inc. / Machon Bnei Anusim through rabbinic guidance, education, community support, and dignified pathways of Jewish reconnection. Full biography forthcoming.

Bnei Anusim Inc. / Machon Bnei Anusim

Rabbi David Amar

Advisory Board Member

Advisory Board member serving the mission of Bnei Anusim Inc. / Machon Bnei Anusim through rabbinic guidance, education, community support, and dignified pathways of Jewish reconnection. Full biography forthcoming.