The Latest From The Foundation

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s passing last Monday caused a dramatic outpouring of public grief in Israel. With a deep sense of irony, it reminded me of another Israeli mass mourning, that of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, which took place 18 years ago. There is a world of difference between the assassination of a serving Prime Minister in midlife and the death of a 93-year old rabbi. Yet the similarity of the numbers of

“Our son said there were over 750,000 people at the funeral and while he wanted to go, he and many of his friends decided it would be too difficult to get into Jerusalem logistically.  How big a giant of Torah law and commentary was R. Ovadiah Yosef, z”l?  Imagine for every person who went, 1-3 wanted to go.  That equates to a quarter to a half of the Jewish people

Funny story: Torah teaches this week that God was furious over human violence and morbid stupidity and decided to flood the world. The only way to survive was for Noah and Na’amah to build an ark and invite creatures from all walks of life aboard. We’re all in the same boat, they realized. Congress, get the message? Rabbi Michael Adam Latz, is the Senior Rabbi at Shir Tikvah Congregation in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where

“Having recently completed a two year leadership program that was funded by the Columbus Jewish Federation and the Wexner Foundation, I especially want to thank these two remarkable organizations for recognizing and investing in young leaders.  Their investment in me and my peers is a gift, one that I hope to repay through my continued commitment to our community.” -Aaron Shocket, a Columbus 11 Wexner Heritage Alum, upon receiving the

Occasionally we are with someone who mistakenly hurts themselves by tripping or dropping something on their toe and we instinctively blurt out “I am so sorry.” This response is usually met with “don’t worry, it is not your fault that I am clumsy!” We colloquially use the words “I am sorry” in situations that are beyond our control but that we wish would be different. We attempt to become closer

The following thoughts were shared last week in Stowe, Vermont, at the 2013 Summer Institute for Current Graduate Fellows and Davidson Scholars. Here we are deep into Elul – the month of introspection, reflection, and contemplation. We hope, as we inch closer to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, that we will be able to gain clarity, say what we need to say to others, say what we need to say

When my husband, Seth, and I, were dealing with the enormous challenges related to our daughter Ayelet’s illness, the outpouring of support we received from our community had a profound impact on my understanding of community. Upon receiving the tragic call from the Gift of Life informing us that no perfect match for Ayelet existed in the worldwide bone marrow registry, we immediately posted on Facebook information about our first

As Saeb Erekat and Tsipi Livni flew to Washington, 17 intrepid Wexner Heritage Members participated in the overnight trip “An Inconvenient Truth: Israel and the Environment,” where they learned how Israel grapples with some of its environmental challenges. 9 miles north of the Gaza strip, at the Ashkelon Desalination Plant, the cubic equivalent of 16 million one-liter plastic bottles are converted into drinking water every hour, supplying Israel with 17%

Here’s the advice I received before starting my position last year as the Senior Jewish Educator at Hillel at UCLA: “Forget about your own passions and interests, at least at first. If you think you’re going to get to campus and it’s going to be the “Aaron Lerner show” – that you’re going to dazzle them with your openness and ability to talk about sex, drugs and rock and roll,

(Pictured) The migrash (field) at Camp Ramah Nyack, a K-8 Jewish Day Camp in Rockland County New York All it takes is twenty minutes on Friday afternoon.  Twenty fantastic minutes.  Twenty minutes that my mind and soul yearn for and my body aches for all year long.  For twenty minutes my neshama (soul) feels complete, as the physical motions of my body are overtaken by the intense and deep emotions