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Dispatches from the network and updates from the Foundation.
Marcia Cohodes is a Wexner Heritage Alumna from Minneapolis and a member of the Wexner Alumni Forum. She is retired from a career in investment banking. She is an advocate for individuals with disabilities in the Jewish community and co-chair of the UJC Disability Workgroup. Working with alumnus Jerry Ingber, Marcia helped develop Hillel LIFE: Leadership Initiative for Excellence; a program at the University of Minnesota, funded by alumni of
Ron Moses is an alumnus of the Wexner Heritage Houston ’06 group. He is the immediate past president of Congregation Brith Shalom – a Conservative synagogue, and recipient of the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston’s Ben Susholtz Young Leadership Award in 2009 and the Maimonides Award for State of Israel Bonds in 2010. He can be reached at ronmoses@swbell.net I have good news and bad news. Let’s start with the
Apr 2011
Don Seeman is an Alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program, Class IV and Associate Professor in the Department of Religion and the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies at Emory University. He is both a rabbi and an anthropologist and author of One People, One Blood: Ethiopian-Israelis and the Return to Judaism. He can be reached at dseeman@emory.edu. This column was originally published on March 31 in the online edition
Apr 2011
Lisa Schlaff is an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program and Assistant Principal of SAR High School in Riverdale, NY. She is a co-founder of Darkhei Noam, a partnership minyan in Manhattan. Lisa can be reached at lisaschlaff@gmail.com. My life ten years ago: I lived on the Upper West Side and was deeply involved in the founding of two new Jewish organizations, both of which were cutting-edge in the
Apr 2011
Dr. Benjamin M. Jacobs is an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program, Class XI. He is the Assistant Professor of Social Studies, Education and Jewish Studies at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. He can be reached at bjacobs@nyu.edu. There are 2.6 seconds remaining in overtime at the 1990 NCAA East Regional Final between Duke and UConn. Duke, trailing by a point, calls time
Mar 2011
Bill Lipsey is an alumnus of Wexner Heritage MetroWest . Bill and his family moved to Israel for a “year of adventure” last August. He can be reached at lipsey@pzena.com. Arik Einstein, a beloved Israeli performer, sang these words some 20 years ago… They apply today as much as ever. After six months of living and being immersed in Israel and her culture, life and rhythms, I am intensely motivated
Mar 2011
Nina Bruder is an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program, Class V and the Executive Director of Bikkurim: An Incubator for New Jewish Ideas, which identifies promising, innovative, Jewish ideas in their early stages of organizational formation and nurtures them from start-up to sustainability. She can be reached at ninabruder@gmail.com. I recently had the opportunity to apply a lesson learned from a family context to a work context. My
Rabbi Melissa Weintraub is a Wexner Graduate Fellowship alumna and the Co-Founder and Co- Executive Director of Encounter, an organization dedicated to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to healing internal Jewish rifts that have formed in its wake. Melissa can be reached at melissa@encounterprograms.org. Iris Feinberg, is an alumna of the Atlanta 05 Wexner Heritage Program. Iris is a community volunteer and business person in Atlanta and can be reached
Mar 2011
Allison Shapira is the Coordinator of the Wexner Israel Fellowship Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. She can be reached at: ashapira@wexner.net At the beginning of this year, I participated in a week-long personal leadership development program in northern California called the Hoffman Process. The program came highly recommended by my colleagues and classmates at the Harvard Kennedy School who had attended over the past five years. Feeling curious and
Mar 2011
By Rabbi Shira Stutman, a Wexner Graduate Fellowship alumna, and the Director of Community Engagement at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, DC. Shira can be reached at sstutman@gmail.com. Thirty weeks at 1½ hours per week may sound like a long time, but it’s really nothing when it comes to a conversion class. What to include, what to leave out? When planning the Jewish Welcome Workshop 5771, it was