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Dispatches from the network and updates from the Foundation.
(Pictured) Rabbi Asher Lopatin (Orthodox) with Rabbi Michael Siegel (Conservative) and Rabbi Richard Jacobs (Reform) at Milt’s BBQ for the Perplexed, a local kosher restaurant in Chicago. As an avowed pluralistic Orthodox Jew, I have long appreciated the different movements in Judaism who have contributed so much to the Judaism we observe and celebrate today. Recently, non-denominational Judaism has begun to come into its own, with creative services on Friday
Jul 2013
What a relief! Finally (and none too soon), I can stop brainstorming and thinking “out of the box” in order to be innovative in my work, in my society, and maybe in my private life as well. Guess what! Brainstorming doesn’t work. For years we have been told that in order to innovate, to create something new, to create new paradigms and models for identifying solutions to public needs, for
Jul 2013
When I was growing up, it was a truism: apartheid would end, but not in our lifetime. And when it did end, it would be bloody, a civil war. I heard about the African National Congress and the Afrikaaners, learned about Stephen Biko, and listened to the music of Miriam Makeba. But I honestly don’t remember when I first heard the name Nelson Mandela. My parents had moved to the
Jul 2013
Israel’s 1.6 million Arab citizens represent an under-tapped engine for the country’s economic growth I’ve learned a few things during my decade at the helm of The Abraham Fund, an Israeli/international nonprofit dedicated to advancing a shared society of coexistence and equality among Israel’s Jewish and Arab citizens. One of them is to anticipate the most common objections posed to me by people who oppose our work; or, to be
Jul 2013
Most children are not enthralled about going to Hebrew school. Imagine my son’s reaction when I told him last year that he’d be going to not one, but two, Hebrew schools each week. To be fair, neither of the programs is actually called Hebrew school. The first is at our conservative synagogue and is called Machanei Shai because the program is structured much like a camp with activities such as
Jul 2013
On a beautiful July evening, about 80 people from the Los Angeles Wexner mishpacha gathered for an evening of learning and sharing at the home of dual Wexner Heritage Alumni Dana (LA/Bank of America) and Evan (LA 05) Schlessinger. We were blessed to engage in a very intimate discussion with Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky, the leader of B’Nei David, a vibrant Modern Orthodox shul in Los Angeles, and Rabbi David Woznica
Jul 2013
Here’s the advice I received before starting my position last year as the Senior Jewish Educator at Hillel at UCLA: “Forget about your own passions and interests, at least at first. If you think you’re going to get to campus and it’s going to be the “Aaron Lerner show” – that you’re going to dazzle them with your openness and ability to talk about sex, drugs and rock and roll,
“Jerusalem has greatly sinned, therefore she is become a mockery. All who admired her despise her, for they have seen her disgraced; and she can only sigh and shrink back.” –Eicha (Lamentations) 1:8 The first 9 days of Av are seen in traditional Judaism as days of, if not mourning, then solemnity. We do not feast, we do not celebrate; we are once again living through the days leading
Jul 2013
(Pictured) The migrash (field) at Camp Ramah Nyack, a K-8 Jewish Day Camp in Rockland County New York All it takes is twenty minutes on Friday afternoon. Twenty fantastic minutes. Twenty minutes that my mind and soul yearn for and my body aches for all year long. For twenty minutes my neshama (soul) feels complete, as the physical motions of my body are overtaken by the intense and deep emotions
(Pictured) Eden, Randy and Caroline Gold’s daughter, who was diagnosed with ML4 at 18 months We had been sitting in a conference room together, me and 24 medical researchers from 16 universities and various departments at the National Institutes of Health, for two extraordinary days. As an accountant, I was in over my head, but as a father and board member, nothing could keep me from my responsibility to my