The Latest From The Foundation

“ are meeting their mates at a point in life when they have been away from religion for a long time.  And while they may not mean to misrepresent themselves, they may not realize that someday they will want to return to faith.” – From Til Faith Do Us Part I know that many of you will want to judge couples who find themselves in interfaith conflict after years

To be fully honest, as a recent Bexley High School graduate, when I first heard about the Wexner service trip*, it just seemed like an opportunity to relax and have fun. While I was interested in service and helping others, by no means was I expecting such an experience. Over the course of the one week service trip to New York, I was able to understand how harmful and detrimental

How might we engage middle school students in regular reflection on leading a life of meaning and purpose that avoids didactic methods and elicits a wide range of viewpoints and approaches? This was one of the guiding questions that we used to develop the “My Search for Meaning” program at Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School. Hausner, a K-8 pluralistic day school situated in the heart of Silicon Valley emphasizes engaged

A friend recently challenged me, amid a conversation on religion’s relevance to spirituality, to remember a time where I felt a moment of spiritual transcendence. Without a second thought, I knew exactly, remembering a moment several months ago where my senses heightened, my mind seamlessly suspended rational thought, and my heart opened to receive a sudden deluge of connection to something infinite. Something divine. The only problem? It hadn’t been

I have been really fortunate throughout my marketing career. I have worked with some great brands, including Clorox Bleach, Durkee and French’s Spices & Seasonings, Scotts Turf Builder and Miracle-Gro. For the past eight years, I was a Senior Vice President at Nationwide Insurance in Columbus, reminding Americans that “Nationwide is on your side”. But since graduating from the Wexner Heritage Program in 2002, I increasingly found something was missing

Josh Dinar is a Wexner Heritage Alumnus, Denver 08.  Josh is the co-founder of DiningOut Magazines,and a hotel/nightclub/restaurant operator.  He can be reached at josh@diningout.com. My wife’s family happened to be visiting us during Passover this year. We’d been graciously invited to several families’ celebrations, but we were a large crew – siblings, significant others, children, etc. – so crashing another dinner would have been pushing the boundaries of the

Nathalie Kaspy Shtern is a member of the Montreal Wexner Heritage 09 group. Nathalie is the President of Akiva School, the Founder and Executive Director of The Comfy Cozy Fund, and involved in and a member of various organizations in the Montreal community.  She is a Criminologist by profession.  Nathalie can be reached at natshtern@gmail.com. The best lessons are learned through unexpected opportunities.  We often do not realize the breadth

Dr. Sherry Israel is a social psychologist, who was a member of the faculty of the Hornstein Program at Brandeis University from 1991 until her retirement two years ago.  She has been on the faculty of the Wexner Graduate Fellows/Davidson Scholars Program Winter Institute since 2000.  She can be reached at israel@brandeis.edu. A number of years ago, one of our daughters and a friend were hanging around in our living

It has been thirteen years since I graduated with a degree in Jewish Communal Service as a Wexner Fellow. During this time I have sometimes struggled with guilt over my decision not to pursue my career in the Jewish world, especially since my education was paid for by the Wexner Foundation. Last summer I received tenure as a Foreign Service Officer with the US Agency for International Development, where I

I awoke on May 14th to emails from friends and family sending me links to Angelina Jolie’s New York Times article about her decision to undergo preventive mastectomies because she is BRCA1 positive.  I identified with the article because, like Jolie, knowledge of my BRCA mutation put me on a collision course with the same decision.   Jolie’s announcement and the attendant flurry of media attention has brought discussions about