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Jan 2010
Aaron J. Hahn Trapper is a Wexner Graduate Fellowship alumnus and the Co-Executive Director and Founder or Abraham’s Vision , a conflict transformation organization working with Jews, Muslims, Israelis, and Palestinians. He is an Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of San Francisco, where he is the founding director of the school’s new Jewish Studies and Social Justice program. He can be reached at aaron@abrahamsvision.org “The Muslims are
Jan 2010
Julie Potiker is a Wexner Heritage alumna. Julie is currently president of the San Diego Jewish Community Center. She can be reached at Julie@potiker.com Recently I had the opportunity to really reflect on what the Wexner Heritage education has meant to me. I was fortunate to be having a very substantive conversation with Harold Kushner when he all of a sudden asked, "So, what did you do with it?" I
Jan 2010
Rabbi David Rosen is a Wexner Graduate Fellowship Alumnus and the founding Executive Director of AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps - www.avodah.net. He can be reached at davidrosenn@gmail.com Ever since I began to work in the field of Jewish service programs, I’ve been encouraging the establishment of my own competition. I’ve spent countless hours advising people who are thinking of starting new service ventures. I’ve asked my staff to turn
Jan 2010
Deborah Housen-Couriel is the, Director of the Wexner Israel Fellowship Program and an alumna of the Wexner Israel Fellowship Program (Class 12). Deb can be reached at dhousencouriel@wexner.net. This coming Shabbat our identical twin sons, Yair and Ely, will become bnei mitzvah, helped through the process by the wisdom of Parashat Shemot ("Names"). There's always a lot to say about names and their meaning in any tradition, and it's not
Dec 2009
Rabbi Julie Pelc Adler is a Wexner Graduate Alumna living in Venice, California. Julie is the Director of Jewish Student Life at Santa Monica College Hillel and the Executive Director of the Berit Mila Program of Reform Judaism. Julie can be reached at rabbipelc@gmail.com. Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about a text I encountered from the Tikkunei Zohar. “Some speak with their eyes, some with their hands, some with
Dec 2009
Rabbi Asher Lopatin is an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program and a rabbi at Anshe Sholom B'nai Israel in Chicago. He can be reached at rabbi@asbi.org. Just a few days before beginning negotiations on a new eight year contract at my modern Orthodox shul, I agreed with a supporter that I would not push for an innovation – women carrying the Torah: Why shake things up before contract
Aaron Dorfman is a Wexner Graduate Fellowship Alumnus and Vice President for Programs at American Jewish World Service. He can be reached at ajdorf@gmail.com In the late 1990s, I was serving as youth director at a synagogue in Northern California. I had worked hard to build up the seriousness of the youth program, including re-instituting having the youth-group president serve on the synagogue’s board, a practice that some adult board
Dec 2009
Daniel Segal is a Wexner Heritage Alumnus from Philadelphia. Dan is an attorney at the firm of Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin and is a member of the International Board of the New Israel Fund. He can be reached at dsegal@hangley.com I have spent most of my career as a lawyer focused on commercial litigation, representing clients in their business disputes. However, I have spent the last ten months professionally
Dec 2009
Deen Aranoff is an assistant professor of medieval Jewish studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA. She teaches courses on Jewish society and culture in medieval and early-modern Europe. She can be reached at daranoff@gmail.com There was no way to anticipate the transformation that would take place as I took my seat as a student of yoga with Dana Flynn. I began to study yoga with Dana two
Dec 2009
Harry Nelson is a Wexner Heritage alumnus from Los Angeles and an attorney at Fenton Nelson, a healthcare law firm, in Los Angeles. Harry can be reached at harry@fentonnelson.com. “Vayeishev Yaakov B’Eretz Megurei Aviv …” “Jacob dwelt in the land of his father's sojourning….” (Gen. 37:1) Buried in the opening verse of this week’s parsha are two competing ideas of how we, as children of Abraham, live. First: “Vayeishev” –