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Dispatches from the network and updates from the Foundation.
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
Five years ago, when I became an American citizen, I was asked to share some thoughts in the Wexner newsletter. I wrote the following about my experience as a French Jew and antisemitism: “what upset me the most was the silence of the French non-Jewish majority. As Elie Wiesel once said ‘to remain silent is the greatest sin of all’. I remember marching the streets of Paris and protesting with
Jan 2015
The UN Commission of Inquiry on Gaza is currently soliciting testimony, from “a wide range of victims of alleged violations“— which ostensibly also includes Israelis — in the context of the Gaza hostilities. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights has done much to publicize this call for information gathering amongst Gazans, while most Israelis aren’t aware of it and therefore, the evidence gathered will only tell the Palestinian side of
Jan 2015
New York Magazine has begun issuing its print magazine every other week, moving from 42 to 26 annual issues. Press coverage suggested that the magazine was losing ground by shrinking its product. A closer look reveals some complexity, that the magazine’s digital platform has taken off and that resources once devoted to the print issue are now to be used to expand the magazine’s on-line efforts. In other words, this
Dec 2014
Sifting through the end of year barrage of fundraising appeals, one can lose sight of why we give and to whom we are giving. As Jewish leaders, we take tsedakah seriously. The initiative we lead, Ask Big Questions, put together a guide to help us have some meaningful conversations about who we give to and why. There are other resources as well, including a clever video by American Jewish World
As “Boomers” approach the end of their midlife careers and seek new paths to meaning while facing unprecedented challenges, Jewish leaders and communities should figure out how to engage them and their skill sets, resources, idealism, time and energy. For the past few years, David Elcott — of The Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at NYU — and I have worked to change the conversation about aging