The Latest From The Foundation

In this season of graduations, many parents take stock of themselves. Have we conveyed good values to our children? Has our exhausting and completely love-filled child-rearing been net positive? Here are a few choice quotes from the tradition, offered by Wexner Graduate Fellowship Alum, Rabbi Justus Baird (Class 15), to help us think about the enterprise of bringing children into the world:   It takes three to make a child

Conversations among Wexner alumni almost inevitably include discussion of our work as leaders in the Jewish community.  When that topic comes up, I feel somewhat abashed.  The truth is that I committed a huge amount of my time and energy to leadership roles before I entered the Wexner Heritage program.  I don’t think I ever said no to a committee membership, a chair position or a board seat, and I

I write this article a short two days after the unbelievable discovery that three women, taken when they were girls and missing for ten years, were found alive and safe, rescued from a house blocks from where they lived. I work for Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, and these women are constituents of ours.  Details of the horrific conditions they were subjected to for ten years are starting to come out.  The

I am a religious listener to NPR’s This American Life, a weekly radio show that brings unique “slice of life” stories centered loosely around a theme each week. Religious, that is, in both senses: I am a religious Jew and I listen to the program without fail each week. The stories are often compelling, thought-provoking, and educational. Sometimes they are even profound and moving. Recently, my ears perked up at

Lev is an alumnus of The Wexner Graduate Fellowship (Class VII).  A day school professional, rabbi and educator, Lev is enjoying a year filled with learning, volunteering, and abundant time for family and friends.  He can be reached at ravlev@aol.com . In the spring of 2011 our local synagogue planned a Torah-writing project.  In addition to commissioning a new scroll, the yearlong undertaking sought to cultivate community, expand congregational learning,

Rachel Kest is an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship (Class 11) and is completing her 13th year at Temple Shir Tikva in Wayland, MA as the Director of Elementary and Family Education.  Rachel can be reached at rachelkest@gmail.com.  In my role as principal of a Religious School, I frequently ask parents to take on leadership roles – from being a member of the school committee to being a room

Rabbi Rachel Goldenberg is an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, Class XI.   Rachel has been the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe  Zedek since 2007. She currently serves as co-chair of Rabbis for Human Rights-North America.  Rachel can be reached at: rabbirg@snet.net. When I started as the rabbi of my synagogue, the congregation had just come through a difficult period of instability of rabbinic leadership and of dysfunctional

Chaim Gelfand is an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program (Class 8). Chaim is the the School Rabbi for the two elementary schools of the Perelman Jewish Day School in suburban Philadelphia. Chaim can be reached at rabbi@pjds.org Nearly 15 years ago, I sat in a crowded Jerusalem synagogue as the Kabbalat Shabbat service began. Studying in Israel that year, I’d prayed there with some regularity. Familiar with the

Rebecca Meyer Carr is a Wexner Graduate Fellowship alumna, (Class III) and the Manager of the Patient Services department of HelpHOPELive, a nonprofit organization providing fundraising guidance to transplant and catastrophic injury patients.  Rebecca can be reached at: rebeccamcarr@verizon.net.  For many of us, asking for money is just part of what we do in our daily work lives.  No matter how much training we’ve been given, or how often we’ve

Michael is a graduate student at Emory University getting his PhD in American Religious Cultures. His work focuses on North American Jews and therapeutic culture. He is a Fellow of the Tam Institute of Jewish Studies at Emory, and an alumnus of the Atlanta 2005 Wexner Heritage Program. Purim was wonderful this year. My three children really get into the joy of the holiday. They eagerly anticipate shaloch manot deliveries,