The Latest From The Foundation

On a beautiful July evening, about 80 people from the Los Angeles Wexner mishpacha gathered for an evening of learning and sharing at the home of dual Wexner Heritage Alumni Dana (LA/Bank of America) and Evan (LA 05) Schlessinger.  We were blessed to engage in a very intimate discussion with Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky, the leader of B’Nei David, a vibrant Modern Orthodox shul in Los Angeles, and Rabbi David Woznica

(Pictured) Eden, Randy and Caroline Gold’s daughter, who was diagnosed with ML4 at 18 months  We had been sitting in a conference room together, me and 24 medical researchers from 16 universities and various departments at the National Institutes of Health, for two extraordinary days.  As an accountant, I was in over my head, but as a father and board member, nothing could keep me from my responsibility to my

On this Independence Day, it seems, we might consider what “union” might look like in the twenty-first century by revisiting a troubling period in American Jewish History. Isaac Mayer Wise served as president of the November 1885 Pittsburgh Conference, where eight pillars of “progressive religion” formally separated their movement from traditional American Jews. While Wise was well-known for offering compromises and seeking the middle-ground, this would no longer do for

What a happy mix: a group of eighteen Wexner Heritage Alumni and current National Young Leadership Cabinet members from Pittsburgh, sharing a breakfast study session with Wexner faculty, Arna Poupko Fisher.   So, how do you become a stronger leader? Arna came armed with both traditional and nontraditional texts for our discussion, and it was a thrill to see a Talmudic text, rather than, say, Forbes Magazine, illustrate the power

(Pictured) Wexner Heritage Alumni Dan Perla (NY 1) and Rae Janvey (NY/Skadden) meet up at Mechon Hadar’s Summer Kick Off More than 150 people from all walks of Jewish life came together Monday evening to kick off Mechon Hadar’s annual summer program in New York City. Many Wexner Heritage and Graduate Fellowship Alumni were present, including Mechon Hadar’s three founders, Rabbis Shai Held (Class 7), Ethan Tucker (Class 11), and

For our last session of the Wexner Heritage Program, we were challenged to create an ‘ot’ (a sign / symbol) that could be presented to each member of our cohort as a marker or remembrance of our last two years.  The genesis of this idea stems from the tradition of a Siyuum, a celebration that takes place upon the conclusion of something important like the conclusion of the writing a

The first cohort of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Alumni Mentoring Program officially launched on February 20, 2013 in Princeton, NJ. Twenty mentors and twenty mentees, having applied and been selected to be part of the Mentoring Program, participated in a full day of training with consultant Rae Ringel, .  The Mentoring Program was developed in partnership with the Jim Joseph Foundation. The group began in-depth training initially as a

Go down this checklist and see if your worship community is facing the same challenges as the one in which I participate: You are growing so fast that finding appropriate spaces is a problem. 20 and 30-somethings are being drawn to your mix of innovative and accessible services and programs and spreading the word virally by social media and by word of mouth. Jews-by-choice, intermarried couples, LGBT and simply disaffected

Below is a recording of a lunch and learn that Gidi Grinstein, Wexner Israel Fellow Alumnus, Class XIII, led for the Wexner Heritage Alumni and the current Wexner Russian Speaking Jews Class in New York last week.  

Joey Asch graduated this month from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, as a Wexner Israel Fellow. He is a senior prosecutor for the Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office, dealing with major political, and white collar crimes. He can be reached at chani.joey@gmail.com Parshat Balak is an unusual story both in its content and in the way it is described in the Torah. It’s strange that the Torah chose