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Dispatches from the network and updates from the Foundation.
Mar 2017
On March 5, the first class of the newly expanded Wexner Field Fellowship (WFF), developed in partnership with the Jim Joseph Foundation, came together for their first ever Spring Institute at the Inn at Serenbe outside Atlanta, GA. The fifteen Field Fellows spent most of the time getting to know one another and hearing each other’s Jewish Journeys, while also being oriented to The Wexner Foundation and the required components
Mar 2017
How’s your happiness? There is a well-known expression in the Talmud applicable at this time of year: “When the month of Adar enters, we increase in joy.” During the Hebrew month of Av, the Talmud continues, when we mark the destruction of Jerusalem and the loss of our holiest sanctuary, we are supposed to reduce our happiness (BT Ta’anit 29a), what I call a halakhic (legal) seasonal affective disorder. It
Mar 2017
Photo courtesy of the St. Louis Jewish Light Every Memorial Day weekend the Greater St Louis Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America honors our Jewish veterans by planting flags at over 6,500 grave sites in seven St Louis Community Jewish cemeteries. This program has been in place for many years, with my family participating over the last five years. The recent cemetery vandalism at Chased Shel Emeth has
Feb 2017
In response to The Orthodox Union’s recent statement regarding women’s roles in Orthodox synagogues, Leah Sarna, WGF Fellow (Class 27), Matt Reingold, WGF Alum (Class 23), Sara Wolkenfeld, wife of David Wolkenfeld, WGF Alum (Class 17), and Dr. Rivka Press Schwartz, past faculty for the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, voiced their reactions in a symposium featured on Lehrhaus—an online forum created to spark thoughtful discourse within the Orthodox community, which received
Feb 2017
“Why is this happening?” is the question I am asked over and over again by my non-Jewish coworkers and friends. But, not once has a Jewish person asked me this question — not my family, not my Jewish friends and not even my own children. Is it because we are afraid to ask why? I often find myself asking how and what questions. How are we going to respond? How
Feb 2017
I was talking to an Orthodox friend who has a very influential position in the Jewish educational world. He was, quite understandably, bemoaning the incidence of intermarriage among the Modern Orthodox. It used to be a stigma, he explained. No one is sitting shiva anymore. In our increasingly tolerant world, it is not the same as it used to be. He, of course, is right. My generation (Orthodox Baby Boomers),
Feb 2017
Reprinted with permission from eJewish Philanthropy It’s been almost six years since an idea popped into my head and I felt compelled to turn that vision into reality. It’s been an amazing journey so far, so I thought that I would share some of what I’ve learned. 1. Passion — You’ve got to love your idea and believe that it can really transform the community. You’ll want to tell the
Feb 2017
The sages taught: Never again. Rav Fear said: Let us stockpile every advantage and every power for ourselves so none can use it against us in the future. Rav Emmunah said: Let us help societies share powers and advantages more equally, so no individual or group will use its brute strength to intimidate, dominate, exploit or otherwise lord themselves over others. And the law is with Emmunah. For of the
Top row from left to right: Rabbi Steve Greenberg. Rabbi Rahel Bat-Or, Shep Rosenman, WHP Alum (Los Angeles 1), Noey Jacobson; Bottom row from left to right: Miryam Kabakov, Rena Selya Cohen, Julie Gruenbaum Fax, WHP Alum (Los Angeles 1), Rachel Fried How do you change a communal conversation? How do you create an environment where sensitivity can flourish, where language is minded, where the implications of throwaway comments are
Feb 2017
Reposted with permission from The Jerusalem Post. Just as tax day is an audit of our financials and Rosh Hashana is an audit of our souls, Tu Bishvat is the time in the Jewish calendar when we take stock of the glory of nature. Across the 510 million square kilometers that blanket the third planet from our Sun, about 7.7 million species fly, swim and roam; about 300,000 species sprout,