8000 Walton Parkway, Suite 110
New Albany, Ohio 43054
614 939-6060
Rabbi Akiva Herzfeld is a Wexner Graduate Fellowship alumnus (Class 16) who serves as rabbi of Congregation Shaarey Tphiloh in Portland, ME. Akiva recently attending the Wexner Heritage Alumni and Wexner Graduate Fellowship/Davidson Scholars Alumni Study Day in Philadelphia which was held at the National Museum of American Jewish History. He can be reached at rabbiherzfeld@gmail.com. PORTLAND — The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah begins this year at nightfall today and
Nov 2010
Shuli Passow is a Wexner Graduate Fellowship Alumna. Her pastoral care field work as a first year rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary inspired these reflections. Prior to JTS, Shuli served as the Director of Community Initiatives at the Jewish Funds for Justice. She can be reached at shuhead@gmail.com Above my desk, in my former office, was a print of a phrase that expresses a foundational concept of my
Nov 2010
Rabbi Abby Sosland is an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program. She is the Morah Ruchanit (Spiritual Teacher) at Solomon Schechter High School of Westchester, but she is proudest of her role as a member of the Judaic Studies Faculty. She can be reached at rabbisos@aol.com. When I left my job as the assistant rabbi at Town and Village Synagogue in lower Manhattan, I felt ready for something different.
Nov 2010
Rabbi Seth Goren is an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program. Rabbi Goren serves as the Associate Chaplain and Director of Jewish Student Life at Lehigh University. He can be reached at seth.goren@lehigh.edu. As part of a course on race I was teaching a couple of years ago, we took some class time and examined a variety of media materials with an eye toward how race was reflected and
Nov 2010
Dear Fellow Jews, I never thought I would be saying this, but I think we have become too tolerant. I love my intellectual, open-minded people very much, but sometimes, (well, often), our obsessive need to consider all sides of an issue is working against us. Not every option deserves real consideration. For years we have been bending over backwards trying to make Judaism fit every different taste and 51% of
Nov 2010
Dr. Erica Brown is a faculty member of The Wexner Foundation. She is a writer and educator who works as the scholar-in-residence for the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. She is the author of several books, her latest being Confronting Scandal. Erica is the recipient of the 2009 Covenant Award for her work in education. She can be reached at erica@leadingwithmeaning.com. My first class with the Wexner Heritage Baltimore group
Nov 2010
Tobey Barus is an alumna of the Wexner Heritage Program Denver 08 Group. She is an active volunteer in the Denver Jewish community through her work with Jewish Mosaic, Allied Jewish Federation and the Jewish Community Center’s Family Programs. She can be reached at tborus@gmail.com. Last spring a census taker visited our home. (We weren’t dodging the census—it just never showed up!) As he rattled off the list of questions
Valerie Thaler, an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program (Class VIII), is Assistant Professor of History at Towson University in Maryland; she is also a member of the graduate faculty for the MA programs in Judaic Studies and Jewish Communal Service (affiliated with the Baltimore Hebrew Institute). Valerie can be reached at vthaler@towson.edu. The day this article was due (Oct. 22, 2010), was my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary, a
Oct 2010
Rebecca Joy Fletcher is an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program and a scholar and performer of international Jewish cabaret. She is also a playwright, actress, and cantor. Rebecca lives in Brooklyn, NY and can be reached at rebecca.joy@earthlink.net or www.RebeccaJoyFletcher.com. Audiences sometimes ask me how I became so passionate about cabaret. They wonder why a nice Jewish woman, a cantor at that, became enamored with the satiric, fiery,
Oct 2010
Francine Wiseman is a member of the Wexner Heritage Program, Montreal 09. She is a tax partner at Spiegel Sohmer Inc. and the President of Solomon Schechter Academy in Montreal, Quebec. Francine can be reached at fwiseman@spiegelsohmer.com. My parents separated when I was a child and I was raised by three lovable, wealthy and eccentric uncles. They had risen from the poverty of Montreal’s Main and over the years, through