Barbara Bensoussan is the quintessential Jewish dropout who never finished her Ph.D. but went on to teach English and Introductory Psychology at the University of Michigan. She worked as a social worker for OHEL, an ESL teacher, and various other stints before easing into full time writing. Her 20-year-plus career followed the growth of frum publishing, and she wrote articles for many Jewish publications before settling in at Mishpacha. Barbara is the author of the young adult novel A New Song (Targum), the food memoir The Well-Spiced Life (Israel Bookshop), and the co-author of Converted Masters, an art book; she has also authored private memoirs and taught writing workshops. All of this, of course, gets accomplished in the margins of Barbara’s day job as a wife, mother and grandmother.
Gedalia Guttentag is Mishpacha’s news and features editor. He studied for more than a decade in the Mir yeshiva, and is active in Jewish education.
Gershon Burstyn was the news and feature editor for Mishpacha magazine from 2013-2020. Before coming to Mishpacha, Gershon was the editor of World Jewish Digest, a monthly magazine, and worked as a reporter and editor at Bloomberg News, SmartMoney.com, People magazine, and freelanced widely. He is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and lives in Ramat Bet Shemesh with his wife and four kids.
Sara Eisemann, LMSW, ACSW, is a clinical therapist who resides in Oak Park, Mi. She received her Master’s in Social Work at Wayne State University over 30 years ago. Sara practiced individual, group and marital therapy at Jewish Family Service of Detroit where she developed a passion for human dignity as a member of Windows, the domestic violence prevent program at JFS. She then went on to private practice at the Birmingham-Maple Clinic.
Sara has always had a strong interest in women’s issues. She is a trained Core Mentor as well as a certified dating coach. Sara is a lecturer on topics of Torah, authenticity and relationships, as well as the author of MatchQuest, a dating advice column in Mishpacha magazine. She is a proud wife, mother, grandmother and community member and is a passionate advocate of living an authentic, connected life.
