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Dispatches from the network and updates from the Foundation.
Oct 2009
Ellen Bob is an alumna of the Wexner Heritage Program from San Francisco. She co-owned bob and bob fine jewish gifts and books in Northern California for 26 years. Ellen is working for Camp Ramah in California to create a camp in the Northern half of the state. She can be reached at ellenbob@gmail.com. One of the things I love about the stories of Genesis is that we often learn
Angie Atkins is a current Wexner Heritage member from MetroWest, NJ and can be reached at angieolami@comcast.net. My slight worry that the Wexner Summer Institute in Israel would be either a very basic Tourism 101 or the Zionist Rally version of a Club Med Vacation was immediately put to rest by the first day’s border tour: the lines at checkpoint Atarot; the taller-than-Babel-security wall on the road to Bethlehem; and
Oct 2009
Joey Asch is an alumnus of the Wexner Israel Fellowship Program, Class XVIII. He can be reached at joey@justice.gov.il. In his book “The Lost: The Search for Six of Six Million,” author Daniel Mendelsohn describes an encounter he once had with an Australian Jew. When she told him that she was going to be light (meaning “late”), it dawned on him that there really are Jewish people in places other than
Oct 2009
Elise Bernhardt is President and CEO of The Foundation for Jewish Culture. Elise can be reached at ebernhardt@JewishCulture.org. Sh’mini Atzeret, coming as it does on the day before Simchat Torah, is the point for me when the year really ends and begins anew. The transition is so physically marked: the unevenness of the Torah scrolls and then the rewind. The year begins in the same place and yet is fundamentally
Margy-Ruth Davis is Executive Director of the Aleph Society, Inc. mrdavis@steinsaltz.org and Rachel Weiss-Berger, Project Director, Global Day of Jewish Learning (rachel@steinsaltz.org. Please visit www.1people1day.org to learn more. For a moment, imagine the Jewish people assembling at Mount Sinai. In the 21st century. It is difficult to imagine that all Jews would converge at the foot of a single mountain. Instead, there would more likely be congregations dispersed in locations
Oct 2009
Marcia Cohodes is a a Wexner Heritage Alumna from Minneapolis and 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 a member of the UJC Disability Workgroup. She can be reached at macohodes@earthlink.net. In 1993, our oldest child was born and, as I held this tiny miracle of life, I imagined
Sep 2009
Sandy Antignas is an alumnus of the Wexner Heritage Program. He is Chief Operating Officer of Steel Partners LLC, an investment firm in NYC, and he leads a planning and grant making cluster at UJA-Federation of New York focusing on Jewish Peoplehood. He can be reached at santignas@sokho.com While leadership transitions, from one generation to the next are continuous, recently I have been struck by them and my place in
Allan Finkelstein is President and CEO of the Jewish Community Centers Association of North America. Allan can be reached at JCCAL@jcca.org. At the end of Ha’azinu, this week’s Torah portion, Moses comes down from the mountain and concludes his instructions to the Israelites and says,” Take to your heart all the words that I have warned you this day. Enjoin them upon your children that they may observe faithfully all
Sep 2009
Allan Finkelstein is President and CEO of the Jewish Community Centers Association of North America. Allan can be reached at JCCAL@jcca.org. At the end of Ha’azinu, this week’s Torah portion, Moses comes down from the mountain and concludes his instructions to the Israelites and says,” Take to your heart all the words that I have warned you this day. Enjoin them upon your children that they may observe faithfully all
Fred Zeidman is an alumnus of the Wexner Heritage Program and a prominent Houston businessman. He is chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Fred can be reached at fzeidman@xroadsllc.com. Everyone has a favorite permutation of the joke: A gathering of Jews produces more opinions than the number gathered. (My favorite: The United States has one president and 300 million constituents; Israel has one constituent and 6 million prime