8000 Walton Parkway, Suite 110
New Albany, Ohio 43054
614 939-6060
Feb 2015
On January 23, the Wexner Heritage Washington DC 13 class had the wonderful opportunity to join more than 450 members of the DC community in welcoming home Alan Gross, who was imprisoned for five years in Cuba. Gross, an international development contractor, was convicted for crimes against the Cuban state while delivering computer equipment to Cuba’s small Jewish community. He was released on December 17, 2014 as part of a
Feb 2015
Pictured: “a selfie we took while campaigning in the Machne Yehuda Market last week” Campaigning is a roller-coaster, with days of good momentum and days of crisis…I am happy to be a part of the Kachlon Kulanu team as I believe in Moshe Kachlon and think he is an honest and brave politician who sees people and their needs. It is not easy gaining trust of people for a new
Verdi at Terezín tells the story of the Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt concentration camp who performed Verdi's Requiem 16 times with only a single smuggled score. Their conductor, Rafael Schächter, told the choir, "We will sing to the Nazis what we cannot say to them." As an alum of the Wexner Heritage Program in New York, I looked to engage myself with a program that was important to me and
It Isn’t About Hashtags I was asked to write about the phenomenon of “Hashtag Activism,” in light of “#JesuisCharlie”; “#JesuisJuif”; “Je suis George Clooney, the hippest celeb activist at the Golden Globes wearing a ‘Je suis Charlie’ button on stage.” So I understand in view of all this hashtag activism why I was asked to write about the subject, however, I was asked to write about the wrong thing. Yes, hashtagging is
Feb 2015
Pictured: Yehuda Bernstein and Mijal Bitton at the final Wexner Graduate Fellowship Institute Class 24 in Sanibel, Florida Wrapping up our last class workshop as participants in the Wexner Graduate Fellowship on Wednesday morning, I couldn’t help feeling as blue as the clear waters of the Sanibel coast. Each of my classmates had accomplished great things over the past four years. All had contributed in one way or another
Jan 2015
Many Jews will ring in the new year of the trees this weekend and next week with the celebration of Tu B’Shevat (Tuesday night, February 3rd and Wednesday February 4th). These festive seders, where tasty fruits are passed around the table, are a reminder of spring even as we are in the dark skies of winter. In California, Wilderness Torah, a nonprofit organization that connects Jews to the outdoors, will
Last year I published an article in this newsletter about 9Adar. As I mentioned then, the Pardes Center for Judaism and Conflict Resolution has established 9Adar as a worldwide Jewish Day of Constructive Conflict, recalling the tragic and violent conflict between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai some 2000 years ago (view the video here). More than 65 organizations (including The Wexner Foundation) and roughly 100,000 people participated in commemorating 9Adar last
Rabbi Seth Goren (WGFA, Class 16) wrote an op-ed this week about the Jewish legacy of the Civil Rights Movement, and what its leaders teach him about how to live in 2015. Reprinted with permission from the Jewish Exponent. Of the many memorializations of the civil rights movement, among the most familiar to Jews is a photograph of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
Picture it: Jenny, a secular Jew in Los Angeles, perhaps a Wexner Heritage alum, has a weekly online learning session with Orli, a religious Israeli who lives on a kibbutz, perhaps a Wexner Israel Fellowship alum. They are getting to know each other, and their appreciation for the differences and similarities between their lives grows deeper with each conversation. While studying Jewish philosophy online, the complexity and beauty of the
It is not often the case, but sometimes islands of hope coalesce to form a continent, solid enough to be marched upon. These were my thoughts on Friday morning on December 5th, as I watched masses of wonderful Arab and Jewish parents, children and staff of the Israeli bilingual schools, streaming into the Jerusalem junction that was our meeting place for a peaceful march of solidarity, following an arson attack