Shefa announced today that David Zvi Kalman will serve as its new Advisor for Scholarly Projects, working to deepen the organization’s growing body of work at the intersection of Judaism and psychedelic experience.

As Shefa continues to pioneer ritual frameworks and best practices for Jewish psychedelic use, this position will help expand the scholarly backbone behind that work—developing research, books, articles, and other resources intended for a broad audience. The goal is to make emerging insights in the field more accessible, grounded, and connected to Jewish tradition.

David Zvi Kalman is a Jewish futurist who sees the development and reinforcement of new forms of Jewish spiritual experience as a key part of emergent Jewish thought. A leading scholar of Judaism and technology, he is a frequent connector between specialists and the public and is passionate about making ideas available to people in the formats where they will be best received. He is the owner of Print-O-Craft Press, an independent Jewish publishing house, a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, a senior advisor for Sinai and Synapses, and the host of the Belief in the Future podcast. He received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania.

In this role, David Zvi Kalman will focus on building bridges between experienced psychedelic users and those who are simply curious, fostering conversations that can help normalize safe psychedelic exploration within the Jewish community. This work is especially important for forging ties to organized Jewish communal life, including synagogues and other religious institutions. The position also supports Shefa’s broader efforts to shape and coalesce the developing academic study of Jewish psychedelics, as evidenced by its pioneering Jewish Journeys survey of psychedelic use. 

“Shefa has always believed that thoughtful practice must be paired with thoughtful study,” Rabbi Zac Kamenetz said. “Dr. Kalman’s role helps us ensure that the growing interest in Jewish psychedelic life is matched by rigorous, accessible scholarship that can guide the community forward.”