The Latest From The Foundation

In the words of our founder Leslie Wexner, “Make an impact. Change the world.”  Watch these three brief videos as we honor our visionary funder’s dreams becoming a reality today. Feel free to comment below if these videos or your experience at the 30th have sparked any ideas about where to go from here (or, as Les says, “​what got us here, won’t get us there”).    Below is another brief

On the Seder night, we have many textual and culinary contradictions that force us to hold opposing sentiments together in complex relationship to each other. We eat a peculiar sandwich of matza – the bread of our freedom – and maror with a small amount of haroset. The bitter and sweet, the slave and free human being, collapse into each other. We celebrate the release of our people from bondage

Five years ago, when I became an American citizen, I was asked to share some thoughts in the Wexner newsletter. I wrote the following about my experience as a French Jew and antisemitism: “what upset me the most was the silence of the French non-Jewish majority. As Elie Wiesel once said ‘to remain silent is the greatest sin of all’. I remember marching the streets of Paris and protesting with

New York Magazine has begun issuing its print magazine every other week, moving from 42 to 26 annual issues. Press coverage suggested that the magazine was losing ground by shrinking its product. A closer look reveals some complexity, that the magazine’s digital platform has taken off and that resources once devoted to the print issue are now to be used to expand the magazine’s on-line efforts. In other words, this

Sifting through the end of year barrage of fundraising appeals, one can lose sight of why we give and to whom we are giving. As Jewish leaders, we take tsedakah seriously. The initiative we lead, Ask Big Questions, put together a guide to help us have some meaningful conversations about who we give to and why. There are other resources as well, including a clever video by American Jewish World

This photo is from the cover of the authors’ latest book, Leadership in the Bible: A Practical Guide for Today. Jacob acquires Esau’s birthright for a bowl of stew. Jacob, the home-body buys; Esau, the hunter, sells. Twin brothers — very different decisions. The story has a lot to say about what goes into making a good long-term decision. We can assume that as a good hunter Esau possessed a number

This is my first contribution to WexnerLEADS since becoming Director General of The Wexner Foundation, Israel, six months ago. I’ve chosen this moment to write because I have something to “report”: we have just completed the admission process for the first cohort of our new Wexner Senior Leadership Program. Prior to my arrival, the Foundation engaged senior Israeli public service leaders, as well as a number of prominent Wexner Israel

What do you get when you combine 23 Wexner Heritage Alumni from 14 cities (and a variety of program years), the spectacular Wexner staff, brilliant faculty and nonstop food and drink (besides weight gain)? I had the pleasure of being an alumni representative and a speaker at the Wexner Heritage Alumni Delegates Council Annual In-Person Meeting a few weekends ago in Chicago.  The Council is made up of about 50

“The Wexner Israel Fellows spent the first two Sundays of September together with 75 Center for Public Leadership (CPL) fellows from around the world who are all studying at the Harvard Kennedy School. The first Sunday was an Outward Bound Experience on Thompson Island where fellows engaged in a number of physical and mental challenges in mixed teams – including scaling a 60-foot alpine tower. It was the first time

I took a class Monday with Maya Bernstein, who was wonderful. The theme of the day was Bein adam l’atzmo (an internal day of reflection, focusing on ourselves as leaders). The session was about immunity to change. She walked us through a process to help us understand what holds us back and why we’d want the change. What’s our goal? What are the values behind the goal? What are conflicting