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Dispatches from the network and updates from the Foundation.
Apr 2009
Wendy Rosov, an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program, is the Principal of Rosov Consulting, LLC (www.rosovconsulting.com), a consulting firm devoted to enhancing philanthropic impact in the Jewish community. She can be reached at wendy@rosovconsulting.com. I must confess: after untold amounts of intellectual, social, and financial capital expended on the Leadership Training of Wendy Rosov, I still cannot define precisely what leadership is. One year ago I informed my
Apr 2009
Shmuly Yanklowitz, a Wexner Graduate Fellow alum (Class 19), is a rabbinical student at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, a PhD candidate at Columbia University in Moral Development and Epistemology, and the founder of Uri L’Tzedek (The Orthodox Social Justice Movement). He can be reached at shmuly22@yahoo.com I was asked this year to lead seder for the Jewish soldiers in Heidelberg, Germany at the U.S. Army European Headquarters and a central post to
Apr 2009
Judy Schaffert, a Wexner Heritage alumna from Phoenix, is past president of Temple Solel in Paradise Valley, Arizona and of Jess Schwartz College Prep, The Jewish Community’s High School. She can be reached at judy.schaffert@gmail.com After our temple’s music director left, the choir disappeared. Our new cantorial soloist, a professional singer-songwriter, announced he would start a choir for the High Holidays. Like Nachshon on the seashore, I joined, and recruited
Sarah Gershman, an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program (Class 9), is a presentation skills trainer (greenroomspeakers.com) and the author of a blog: sarahgershman.blogspot.com She can be reached at sarah.gershman@gmail.com What can Tazria-Metzora teach us about how to be a better speaker? In this week’s parasha, we learn about the mysterious skin condition called tsaarat. Often mistranslated as “leprosy,” tsaarat is traditionally understood as a physical manifestation of a
Apr 2009
Rabbi Akiva Herzfeld, a Wexner Graduate Fellowship alumnus, is spiritual leader of Shaarey Tphiloh in Portland, ME. He can be reached at akiba183@yahoo.com One quiet Friday morning in the middle of winter in Maine, I tramped through the snow and got to synagogue at exactly 10 a.m., which is when I usually open for business in the wintertime. I was in for a shock, however, when I arrived that day.
Apr 2009
Fay-Ann Brodie is an alumna of the Wexner Heritage Washington DC 03 group. She is the owner of FAB Travel in Potomac, MD. Fay-Ann can be reached at FaBrodie@gmail.com. Two texts: From the Haggadah: “In every generation it is a person’s duty to regard himself as though he personally had come out of Egypt, as it is written : “You shall tell your child on that day: This is on
Apr 2009
Rabbi Jay Moses, an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program, is the Director of the Wexner Heritage Program. He can be reached at jmoses@wexner.net Many of today’s Jewish leaders—including some of us on the staff of the Wexner Foundation—came of age in an era where the primary task of Jewish leadership in North America was clear: a couple million of our brothers and sisters were living under an oppressive
Apr 2009
1960 – Montreal My father is carrying heavy, worn boxes of dishes, pots, pans and silverware back and forth from some deep back room closet in our flat. Both of my grandmothers and my mother are battling for their territory in the kitchen. An enormous silver thing gets clamped onto the counter top that morphs fish into gefilte fish in one grind. “Don’t get near it, you’ll hurt yourself!” Not
Apr 2009
Dr. Erica Brown is the Director for Adult Education at The Partnership for Jewish Life and Learning and the Scholar-in-Residence for The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. She is the author of the book, Inspired Leadership: A Jewish Perspective and Jewish Boredom (forthcoming) and co-author of The Case for Jewish Peoplehood. She can be reached at ebrown@pjll.org Fire is both attractive and repellent, mesmerizing and useful, an instrument of danger
Mar 2009
The darkening sky behind me represents a heavenly mechitzah dividing Martin Luther King Day from Inauguration Day. I stand humbly at the edge of both occasions, profoundly aware of the awesome destination confluence of these two occasions, one just ending and one about to dawn, represent for our nation and for this world. When you lie your head down upon your pillow tonight, remember that it is a good night