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May 2009
Rabbi Michael Adam Latz, an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program, is the founding rabbi of Kol HaNeshamah in West Seattle, Washington. He is returning to his hometown of Minneapolis next month to assume the pulpit at Shir Tikvah Congregation. He can be reached at malatz@comcast.net It was the height of the rabbinic “busy season” (when isn’t it, really?), September of 2006. I was working the usual “insane” hours
Mara Benjamin, an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program (Class 10), received her Ph.D. in modern Jewish thought from Stanford University. She is Assistant Professor of Religion at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN. Her first book, Rosenzweig’s Bible: Reinventing Scripture for Jewish Modernity, was published in March by Cambridge University Press. She lives with her partner and daughter in St. Paul, Minnesota and can be reached at mbenj@stolaf.edu.
May 2009
Donna Gerson is a member of the Pittsburgh 07 Wexner Heritage Class. She is a contributing editor for Student Lawyer magazine, an American Bar Association publication, and also writes for Thomson Reuters. She can be reached at donna@donnagerson.com In March, my husband and I quit the Conservative shul that we belonged to for nearly 10 years. While the popular (but banal) aphorism – "winners never quit and quitters never
Rabbi Laura Sheinkopf, an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program (Class 9), is a graduate of Hebrew Union College and Columbia University. Raised and educated in Massachusetts, she now lives in Houston, she is a writer, a teacher and the mother of two. She can be reached at rabbilms@yahoo.com In this week’s Torah portion, we read about “the Shabbat of the land,” otherwise known as Shmitah, when the Torah
May 2009
Lisa Grushcow, an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program (Class 12), serves as Associate Rabbi of Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York City. She was ordained by HUC-JIR and received her doctorate from Oxford University. She can be reached at rabbigrushcow@crsnyc.org My annual seder table question is simple but good. “Here’s what I want you to bring,” I tell my guests in advance. “Bring something that represents freedom to
Apr 2009
Wendy Rosov, an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program, is the Principal of Rosov Consulting, LLC (www.rosovconsulting.com), a consulting firm devoted to enhancing philanthropic impact in the Jewish community. She can be reached at wendy@rosovconsulting.com. I must confess: after untold amounts of intellectual, social, and financial capital expended on the Leadership Training of Wendy Rosov, I still cannot define precisely what leadership is. One year ago I informed my
Apr 2009
Shmuly Yanklowitz, a Wexner Graduate Fellow alum (Class 19), is a rabbinical student at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, a PhD candidate at Columbia University in Moral Development and Epistemology, and the founder of Uri L’Tzedek (The Orthodox Social Justice Movement). He can be reached at shmuly22@yahoo.com I was asked this year to lead seder for the Jewish soldiers in Heidelberg, Germany at the U.S. Army European Headquarters and a central post to
Apr 2009
Judy Schaffert, a Wexner Heritage alumna from Phoenix, is past president of Temple Solel in Paradise Valley, Arizona and of Jess Schwartz College Prep, The Jewish Community’s High School. She can be reached at judy.schaffert@gmail.com After our temple’s music director left, the choir disappeared. Our new cantorial soloist, a professional singer-songwriter, announced he would start a choir for the High Holidays. Like Nachshon on the seashore, I joined, and recruited
Sarah Gershman, an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program (Class 9), is a presentation skills trainer (greenroomspeakers.com) and the author of a blog: sarahgershman.blogspot.com She can be reached at sarah.gershman@gmail.com What can Tazria-Metzora teach us about how to be a better speaker? In this week's parasha, we learn about the mysterious skin condition called tsaarat. Often mistranslated as "leprosy," tsaarat is traditionally understood as a physical manifestation of a
Apr 2009
Rabbi Akiva Herzfeld, a Wexner Graduate Fellowship alumnus, is spiritual leader of Shaarey Tphiloh in Portland, ME. He can be reached at akiba183@yahoo.com One quiet Friday morning in the middle of winter in Maine, I tramped through the snow and got to synagogue at exactly 10 a.m., which is when I usually open for business in the wintertime. I was in for a shock, however, when I arrived that day.