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Dispatches from the network and updates from the Foundation.
Jun 2008
Deborah Lipstadt is Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University. The author of “History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier,” she fulfills her role as a public intellectual at her blog, www.lipstadt.blogspot.com This week’s Parasha, Naso, addresses the duties the Priests were obligated to perform in the Ohel Moed . I am reading Torah for the first time this Shabbat and repeated
May 2008
Jane Scher, an alumna of the Wexner Heritage Program from San Diego, and a member of the WH Alumni Forum, participated in the recent Wexner alumni mifgash to Poland and Hungary. She shares some of her thoughts below. She can be reached at janescher@schers.us We were all fed and warmly dressed with coats and scarves and boots and gloves in Poland in spring. And we were chilled to the bone.
May 2008
David Bryfman, an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program, is a PhD candidate in Education and Jewish Studies at NYU, writing his dissertation about the identity development of Jewish teenagers in formal and informal Jewish educational settings. He can be contacted at bryfman@nyu.edu This week I am again reminded of the Jewish maxim: “Who is wise?” The one who learns from every person” (Pirkei Avot 4:1) Based on the
May 2008
The Wexner Foundation Electronic Beit Midrash Parashat Ki Tissa Today’s Biblical Landscape: Midrash and the Boss By Stephen Hazan Arnoff February 20, 2008 An alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, Stephen Hazan Arnoff is the Executive Director of the 14th Street Y of The Educational Alliance. He will be speaking on Bob Dylan’s religious vision in context of Jewish education, culture, and leadership at a Wexner Foundation Lunch & Learn
May 2008
Karen Kaufman Perlman is an alumna of the Wexner Heritage Program in Los Angeles and currently a resident of San Francisco. She is on the Boards of the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation, the Jewish Community Center, and the Jewish Vocational Service. She can be reached at karenperlman@aol.com A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of traveling on a UJC boutique mission to Ethiopia and Israel, along with 13
May 2008
Deb Housen-Couriel, an alumna of the Wexner Israel Fellowship Program, is now its Director. An attorney and former senior official in Israel’s Communications Department, she made aliyah from Massachusetts to Israel following her college graduation. She can be reached at dhousencouriel@wexner.net. For many years I have felt that this day, or more precisely, the hours leading up to this day, are an exercise in ambiguity. There is no Erev Chag
Searle Mitnick, a Wexner Heritage alumnus from Baltimore, is Chair of the Jewish Federation’s Hillel Council and a board member of JESNA. A real estate and business attorney, he is the former president of the Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School and Beth Tfiloh Congregation. He can be reached at smitnick@gfrlaw.com The Parsha for this coming Shabbat is Emor. In this Parsha, all of the biblical holidays are enumerated and described.
Apr 2008
Ellen Kagen Waghelstein, an alumna of the Wexner Heritage Program from Washington, DC, is the founding president of Partnership for Jewish Life and Learning, former chair of UJC National Young Leadership Cabinet and of Panim, and on the faculty of Georgetown University. She can be reached at ebwags@aol.com. I recently found myself flying out to Portland, Oregon where I was to be part of a meeting hosted by a Native
David Arnow, a Wexner Heritage alum from New York, recently co-edited My People’s Passover Haggadah (Jewish Lights, 2008) with Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman. He is the author of Creating Lively Passover Seders: A Sourcebook of Engaging Tales, Texts & Activities (Jewish Lights, 2004). He can be reached at darnow@aol.com The notion that an “authentic” Passover Seder does not necessarily require a precise recitation of an unchanging text year after year
Apr 2008
Asher Lopatin, an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, is the rabbi of Anshe Sholom B’nai Israel Congregation. He has rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik and from Yeshiva University and was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army with the rank of Second Lieutenant after serving over two years in the Army reserves. He can be reached at rabbi@asbi.org. My wife Rachel always laughs when I complain about my six-week