8000 Walton Parkway, Suite 110
New Albany, Ohio 43054
614 939-6060
Dispatches from the network and updates from the Foundation.
Jan 2012
Charlie is an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, Class XVIII and the Director of Digital Engagement and Learning for The Jewish Theological Seminary. Charlie can be reached at chschwartz@jtsa.edu. A rather intriguing puzzle sits on my desk in the form of a sleek, black, five hundred gigabit external hard drive. Encoded in the ones and zeros of this rather marvelous piece of hardware are nearly three decades of The
Dec 2011
Bryan is an alumnus of Wexner Heritage Phoenix 09. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of the Phoenix Jewish Community Foundation and is a member of the Phoenix Jewish Federation Board and Community Planning Board. Bryan and his wife Michelle live in Phoenix with their two children. Bryan works for First Community Financial providing asset based commercial lending solutions. Bryan can be reached at: bryankort@gmail.com. It is said
Dec 2011
Adam Cutler is an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, Class XVII. Adam became a Rabbi of Beth Tzedec Congregation in Toronto in 2009. A Toronto native, he is a graduate of JTS. Adam previously served as the Resnick Rabbinic Intern at Congregation Sons of Israel in Briarcliff Manor, New York and as the Legacy Heritage Fund Student Rabbi of Congregation Shaara T’fille in Saratoga Springs, New York. He is
Dec 2011
Richard is a Chicago alumnus of The Wexner Heritage Program. He is Vice President of Development at Sinai Health System in Chicago. This is a slightly revised version of a D’Var Torah Richard recently delivered at a Board meeting of North Suburban Synagogue Beth EL in Highland Park, IL. Richard can be reached at richard.zelin@sinai.org. Bereshit is one of my favorite books of the Torah. It is filled with rich
Dec 2011
Nina is an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, Class VIII, and is currently the Director of Innovative Collaborations at SLB Radio Productions. Located at Pittsburgh’s Children’s Museum, Nina is initiating collaborative projects and programs that amplify the voices and ideas of kids and families. Nina can be reached at: Nina@slbradio.org Our ‘defining moments’ sometimes come at unexpected times. As leaders, I’m sure all Wexner fellows are tapped to speak
Daniel is an alumnus of the NY Wexner Heritage Program and is a program officer in day school finance at the AVI CHAI Foundation. In this role, Dan oversees ongoing grant programs geared toward improving the financial viability of day schools. Dan can be reached at dperla@avichaina.org. If you ask a large group of parents whose children attend a Jewish day school to name the most pressing school issue on
Dec 2011
Yael Bendat-Appell is an alumna of The Wexner Graduate Fellowship, Class XV. She works at the Solomon Schechter Day School in Northbrook, IL where she teaches and supports students who struggle to succeed in a dual curricular setting while also collaborating with other teachers to support their work with students with diverse learning needs. She lives in Highland Park, IL with her husband Jordan and their son, Adin. Yael can
Dec 2011
Sam is a San Francisco 11 Wexner Heritage member and the California Program Director for the Conservation Lands Foundation where he works to protect the wild lands and rivers of the American West. He serves on the LGBT Advisory Committee of the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation and is a new member of the board of Wilderness Torah. Sam can be reached at samuelrgoldman@gmail.com. The news coming out the day
Dec 2011
Naomi Brenner is an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, Class XIII and an Assistant Professor of Hebrew and Israeli Culture at the Ohio State University. She can be reached at naomibrenner@gmail.com. Recently I was in the process of grading a large stack of midterms, slogging my way through students’ handwriting and trying to assess whether they had mastered fundamental aspects of Jewish Studies. My four-year old daughter walked over
Dec 2011
Alan is a Schusterman/Josey Professor at the University of Oklahoma. He is a Wexner Foundation faculty member and the author, most recently, of The Making of the Modern Jewish Bible (Rowman & Littlefield, 2011). He can be reached at alevenson@ou.edu. Teaching modern Jewish history for close to thirty years, most of that time to Jewish adults, I have often been confronted by the presumption that we are inferior to our