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Dispatches from the network and updates from the Foundation.
Nov 2010
Tobey Barus is an alumna of the Wexner Heritage Program Denver 08 Group. She is an active volunteer in the Denver Jewish community through her work with Jewish Mosaic, Allied Jewish Federation and the Jewish Community Center’s Family Programs. She can be reached at tborus@gmail.com. Last spring a census taker visited our home. (We weren’t dodging the census—it just never showed up!) As he rattled off the list of questions
Valerie Thaler, an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program (Class VIII), is Assistant Professor of History at Towson University in Maryland; she is also a member of the graduate faculty for the MA programs in Judaic Studies and Jewish Communal Service (affiliated with the Baltimore Hebrew Institute). Valerie can be reached at vthaler@towson.edu. The day this article was due (Oct. 22, 2010), was my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary, a
Oct 2010
Rebecca Joy Fletcher is an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program and a scholar and performer of international Jewish cabaret. She is also a playwright, actress, and cantor. Rebecca lives in Brooklyn, NY and can be reached at rebecca.joy@earthlink.net or www.RebeccaJoyFletcher.com. Audiences sometimes ask me how I became so passionate about cabaret. They wonder why a nice Jewish woman, a cantor at that, became enamored with the satiric, fiery,
Oct 2010
Francine Wiseman is a member of the Wexner Heritage Program, Montreal 09. She is a tax partner at Spiegel Sohmer Inc. and the President of Solomon Schechter Academy in Montreal, Quebec. Francine can be reached at fwiseman@spiegelsohmer.com. My parents separated when I was a child and I was raised by three lovable, wealthy and eccentric uncles. They had risen from the poverty of Montreal’s Main and over the years, through
Oct 2010
Jodi Mintz Ginsberg is a member of the Montreal 09 Wexner Heritage Group. She is President of Home and School Solomon Schechter Academy. Jodi is a food distributor and can be reached at jm@unifood.com. In an effort to prevent “bullying,” I was recently in school speaking to a group of grade 2 children about acts of kindness. My seven year old daughter Samantha had also taken part in this class
Oct 2010
As part of my summer reading, I picked up two books: one old, one new. My father, a retired English professor, found the first at one of my favorite used book shops: Hillel: The Book Against the Sword, written in the 1950s by Ely Pilchik, the founding director of University of Maryland Hillel. In this biographical study, Hillel the scholar comes alive with his teachings in narrative form. The second
Oct 2010
Johanna Norry is an alumna of the Wexner Heritage Program, Atlanta 05. She is currently the co- president of her synagogue’s Sisterhood, and serves on the board of Limmud Atlanta + Southeast, and has served on the boards of the Federation of Greater Jewish Atlanta and The Weber Jewish Community High School. Johanna can be reached at johannanorry@mac.com. Just over a year ago, my friend Erin made a pretty radical
Oct 2010
Rabbi Jennie Roseenn is a Wexner Graduate Fellowship Alumna, Class IV. She is the Program Director for Jewish Life and Values at the Nathan Cummings Foundation. Jennie can be reached at jennie.rosenn@nathancummings.org. It happened nearly twenty years ago, and I hope I will never forget it. I had just finished my first year of rabbinical school and was serving as the student rabbi of a congregation on Cape Cod for
Sep 2010
Raquel Ukeles is an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program and a Golda Meir postdoctoral fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is the academic director of www.intellectualencounters.org, on philosophy and science in the world of medieval Islam. Raquel can be reached at rukeles@gmail.com. As a veteran participant in inter-religious programs, I’ve learned a tremendous amount by watching the successes and mistakes of others. For example, the most
Sep 2010
Scott Hurley is an alumnus of the Wexner Heritage Program, San Francisco 08 and JCC President on the San Francisco Peninsula. Scott can be reached at scott.hartley@fox-shjeflo.com. I chose Judaism because my family was going to be in the Jewish community and I wanted to be an official member instead of a long term guest. I was drawn to the Jewish values of family, education and the importance of leading
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!