8000 Walton Parkway, Suite 110
New Albany, Ohio 43054
614 939-6060
Dispatches from the network and updates from the Foundation.
May 2017
It was one of those dark, stormy spring weeknights that had an autumn feeling to it — it’s the kind of night when you cancel whatever is on your social calendar and cuddle up to re-binge Game of Thrones so that it’s nice and fresh in your mind ahead of Season 7. Yet, despite all odds, 20 or so Russian Speaking Jews (RSJs) gathered all the way uptown — crossing 14th,
May 2017
At The Wexner Foundation, we assess and adapt our work constantly so that we continue to excel in training you, our leaders, who strengthen communities in North America and Israel. Part of our formula requires us to stay at the front of fast-breaking technological developments so that members of our network can use an optimal set of tools to “change the world for the better” — to quote Les. Toward
The WhatsApp group for the Russian-speaking Jewish (RSJ) Wexner cohort of New York 16 has been a lively forum for political debate and discussion since its inception last summer during the New Member Institute (NMI) in Snowmass, CO. Frankly, it’s been hard to discern whether we terribly like each other and want to talk all the time or whether the unprecedented political events of the last eight months have gotten
May 2017
CONGRATULATIONS TO: Sarah Benor, WGF Alum (Class 11), on publishing her book, We the Resilient: Wisdom for America from Women Born Before Suffrage. Maital Friedman, WGF Alum (Class 23), on becoming Alumni Director for the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Muslim Leadership Initiative. Elisha Gechter, TWF Staff, on receiving the Spot Award from the Harvard Kennedy School and the Center for Public Leadership and to her and her husband Sam for receiving
May 2017
The Wexner Foundation is proud to announce the members of Class 30 of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship/Davidson Scholars Program. As these exceptional professionals pursue graduate training for careers in Jewish Education, Jewish Professional Leadership, Jewish Studies and the Rabbinate, they will participate in a prestigious four-year professional development program comprised of leadership training, cohort-based learning, peer support, professional mentoring and networking. They join a network of Jewish leadership excellence
Apr 2017
Ever since I can remember, we celebrated a communal birthday for my father, Danny Levonovski. He is one of 25 that survived from a group of 131 children from Kaunas. They were exiled from their hometown, separated from their parents and sent by train, in the cold, to Auschwitz. When they got there, sequential numbers were branded on their arms. Regardless of their own birthdays, they celebrate the day of
Apr 2017
Ninety alumni from all of our programs report back on highlights, challenges and take-aways from the recent Summit’s concluding gathering in Zichron Yaakov. How might we (Re)Imagine the North American Jewish Community and Israel’s Relationship? Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi, WGF Alum (Class 2) I think one of the most important things that has happened in terms of my own understanding of the relationship between the two communities — as somebody who has
Apr 2017
Reposted with thanks to JCastNetwork.org Another Yom HaShoah has come and gone, now 67 years since the end of World War II. Not that in all those years we’ve gotten it just right when it comes to marking these most overwhelming events in all the 4,000 years of the Jewish people. I think about this a lot, as a synagogue rabbi trying to program something moving and intelligent each spring.
Apr 2017
CONGRATULATIONS TO: Noa Asher, alum of The WIF (Class 22), on becoming Trade Representative for the Ministry of Economics in Israel’s Embassy in Japan. Moshe Elad, alum of The WIF (Class 6), on his book, “The Core Problems in the Israeli Palestinian Conflict.” (Haifa: Pardes Publishers, 2014). Uri Gordin, alum of The WIF (Class 22), on being appointed Commander of Israel’s NACHAL Brigade. Shira Hammerman, alum of The WGF (Class
Larry Moses, Senior Philanthropic Advisor and President Emeritus, recently served as Scholar in Residence for the Yom HaShoah events in South Bend, Indiana, his home town. In addition to delivering keynote presentations at the Jewish community’s Yom HaShoah ceremony and the city-wide gathering at the courthouse the next day, the Moses family commissioned and dedicated an addition to the Holocaust memorial on the campus of the Jewish Federation of St.