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Mar 2017
WIF Fellows Yuval Ran, Eyal Jacobson, Yuval Laster and Mushira Aboo Dia (Class 28) meeting with US Representative for North Carolina's 11th congressional district, Mark Meadows during their Spring Institute in Washington, DC last week. In the wake of the presidential elections, no place was more fitting to gain an understanding of the new political realities than the US capital. Over spring break, Class 28 of the Wexner Israel Fellowship
Mar 2017
Throughout so many classes, sessions and discussions, Wexner Heritage members and alumni spend a lot of time brainstorming ways to increase inclusion, affiliation and other vital issues relating to Jewish identity. One of my dearest friends has come up with an idea that I believe is brilliant in both design and execution. While my friend prefers to remain anonymous — we are both fans of the Rambam’s eight levels of
Bnai Bayit (“Bet Bet” for short) connects Israelis studying for advanced degrees in North America with members of the local Jewish community to create lasting friendships, foster mutual understanding and strengthen the bonds between Israelis and North American Jews. Check out the website. When challenged to dream about and take action on a new project through the Wexner Foundation’s inaugural Summit: Stronger Together: (Re-) Imagining the North American Jewish and
Mar 2017
On my 1992 application for the Wexner Heritage Program, I wrote about Cantor Jerome B. Kopmar as the most influential person in my life. Long before there was communal conversation about informal Jewish education, Cantor Kopmar was educating Jewish youth in Akron through the medium of Jewish choral music. I only sang in the choir for one year and was brokenhearted when Cantor Kopmar left, knowing deep in my 11
During the four weeks the Wexner Senior Leaders (WSL 17) were studying at the Harvard Kennedy School they had several opportunities to interact with the local Jewish community. Some had Shabbat dinners with undergraduates at Harvard Hillel and others at the homes of communal leaders, including Wexner Heritage alumni. The Senior Leaders also visited Gann Academy — a pluralistic high school — where they met teachers designing the Israel education program and
Mar 2017
On March 5, the first class of the newly expanded Wexner Field Fellowship (WFF), developed in partnership with the Jim Joseph Foundation, came together for their first ever Spring Institute at the Inn at Serenbe outside Atlanta, GA. The fifteen Field Fellows spent most of the time getting to know one another and hearing each other’s Jewish Journeys, while also being oriented to The Wexner Foundation and the required components
Mar 2017
How’s your happiness? There is a well-known expression in the Talmud applicable at this time of year: “When the month of Adar enters, we increase in joy.” During the Hebrew month of Av, the Talmud continues, when we mark the destruction of Jerusalem and the loss of our holiest sanctuary, we are supposed to reduce our happiness (BT Ta’anit 29a), what I call a halakhic (legal) seasonal affective disorder. It
Mar 2017
Photo courtesy of the St. Louis Jewish Light Every Memorial Day weekend the Greater St Louis Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America honors our Jewish veterans by planting flags at over 6,500 grave sites in seven St Louis Community Jewish cemeteries. This program has been in place for many years, with my family participating over the last five years. The recent cemetery vandalism at Chased Shel Emeth has
Feb 2017
In response to The Orthodox Union's recent statement regarding women's roles in Orthodox synagogues, Leah Sarna, WGF Fellow (Class 27), Matt Reingold, WGF Alum (Class 23), Sara Wolkenfeld, wife of David Wolkenfeld, WGF Alum (Class 17), and Dr. Rivka Press Schwartz, past faculty for the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, voiced their reactions in a symposium featured on Lehrhaus—an online forum created to spark thoughtful discourse within the Orthodox community, which received
Feb 2017
“Why is this happening?” is the question I am asked over and over again by my non-Jewish coworkers and friends. But, not once has a Jewish person asked me this question — not my family, not my Jewish friends and not even my own children. Is it because we are afraid to ask why? I often find myself asking how and what questions. How are we going to respond? How