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Dispatches from the network and updates from the Foundation.
Jul 2014
Tuli, my driver, greeted me with his handwritten sign and immediately launched into what I can only assume is his typical comedy routine. We walked to the van and he asked me if I spoke Hebrew. “I used to, but it’s been quite a long time,” I told him. “But this year, I am committed to learning again.” We exchanged elementary Hebrew phrases, he complimented my accent, and then I
Aleh is Israel's largest network of residential facilities for children with severe physical and cognitive disabilities. We provide 650 children in Israel with high-level medical and rehabilitative care in four residential facilities. Aleh is their home and their family – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Aleh Negev-Nahalat Eran is our southern branch, located just 15 miles from Gaza, near the town of Ofakim. It provides a high
It is my pleasure to share this photo from our latest alumni learning session with Rabbi David Ingber, the founder and Rabbi of Romemu, in New York City. Since our graduation from the Wexner Heritage Program in 2011, our Westchester 2009 class has continued to learn together, meeting around 5 times a year at various people’s homes. I took the lead in organizing these sessions the past two years. Last
I took a class Monday with Maya Bernstein, who was wonderful. The theme of the day was Bein adam l’atzmo (an internal day of reflection, focusing on ourselves as leaders). The session was about immunity to change. She walked us through a process to help us understand what holds us back and why we’d want the change. What’s our goal? What are the values behind the goal? What are conflicting
Jul 2014
Silicon Valley specializes in creating new things. Silicon wafers with brains. Eyeglasses with cameras. Cars without drivers. To that list, I’d like to add one more innovation: a model of religious life for Israelis that gets beyond pointless divisions between religious and secular Jews. For the last three years, I have served as headmaster of the South Peninsula Hebrew Day School, Silicon Valley’s one Orthodox day school for grades PK-8.
Jul 2014
On Wednesday afternoon, our Wexner Israel Fellowship Alumni Institute began at a resort hotel in Nazareth. I began my remarks with a prayer for Gilad, Naftali and Eyal, for their families and for those seeking to find them. It was a prayer for calm and, as always, a prayer for wise leaders who might somehow find a way to bring peace to the region. All nodded heads in agreement. And
Pictured: Heritage Alumni from Cleveland 05 got together to study the Book of Ruth before Shavuot. Clockwise from back: Susan Borison, Ilana Horowitz Ratner (Wexner Heritage alumna and our teacher), Scott Garson, Steve Soclof, Jessica Semel, Stephanie Silverman, Hallie Abrams, Loren Frieder, Karin Schleifer, Scott Simon. What a wonderful way to start the day. We learned about the Megillah for Shavuot – Ruth – and will be meeting 5 times
For centuries, Jews have turned to the Mourner’s Kaddish upon experiencing loss. For three years, I co-edited an anthology, Kaddish: Women’s Voices, that explores what the recitation of Kaddish means specifically to women. I am delighted to share a bit about this special project. In Kaddish: Women’s Voices, women from around the world share their relationships with the family members they lost, how they struggled to balance the competing
Jun 2014
The following is a letter that Rabbi Elka Abrahamson, President of The Wexner Foundation, shared with the second cohort of the Wexner Service Corps, our Columbus-based teen service-learning initiative, on their final night of their Jewish service-learning trip to New Orleans last week: Dear Wexner Service Corps! I have to be in New York first thing tomorrow morning for an all day meeting and the last flight out meant my reluctant
Jun 2014
As the Wexner Israel Fellowship (WIF) year draws rapidly to its end, I remember one of my greatest laughs from the beginning of the year. We happily spotted the Kosher meat section in one of the supermarkets, just to discover that on one side of it rested sachets of clams and on the other side packages of bacon. Could I learn something from this kind of peaceful co-existence? At Harvard
Wexner Heritage Program nominations are now open for its upcoming cohorts in Northern New Jersey, Philadelphia, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Nominate a Jewish lay leader today!