The Latest From The Foundation

Monica Mendel Bensoussan is a member of Wexner Heritage Montreal 09 group. She is an involved member of the Montreal Jewish community through her work with the Bronfman Jewish Education Center, United Talmud Torah and Herzliah High School and the Akiva School.  Monica can be reached at ben@videotron.ca. I experienced a simple, personal and intensely profound leadership moment years ago while serving as chair of my children’s elementary school Yearbook

Rachel Isaacs is an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship/Davidson Scholars Program.  She is a fourth year rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary and is the rabbinic intern at the Park Slope Jewish Center.  She can be reached at risaacs@alum.wellesley.edu I am the type of person who likes large stages and grand gestures.  As a general rule, I compensate for the shortness of my stature with the volume of

Jonathan Gribetz is an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, and the Maurice Amado Foundation Fellow at the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.  Next year, he will be the Ray D. Wolfe Fellow in Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto.  Jonathan can be reached at gribetz@post.harvard.edu We met Yosef at a small synagogue in Istanbul a few years back.  There were just eighteen people

Nessa Liben is a Wexner Graduate Fellow/Davidson Scholar alumnus, FEREP Scholar alumnus, and recent graduate of the NYU Dual Degree program in Nonprofit Management and Judaic Studies.  She can be reached at Nessa.Liben@gmail.com On purim night, I joined a dozen octogenarians for a conveniently located megilla reading at my neighbors’ apartment across the hall.  My neighbors have been married for almost 50 years, during which they have experienced both the

Carla Fenves is an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program. Carla is a rabbinical student at the Hebrew Union College-Institute of Religion in New York.  She can be reached at cfenves@gmail.com This Passover I led a seder on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. While planning with the ship’s staff, the maitre d’ kept insisting that we use only paper plates and plastic utensils for the meal. Despite my

Two weeks ago, Cindy Chazan and I had the pleasure of visiting Baltimore for Wexner Heritage interviews right in the middle of not one but two snowstorms of the century. Who knew it was possible to have 2 snowstorms of the century in one week? So much mazel in three days.  Six feet of snow in 25 minutes does have a way of making travel for interviews impossible, even for

Jeremy Kalmanofsky is an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program and  rabbi of Congregation Ansche Chesed in New York City.  He can be reached at rjk.nycac@gmail.com I don’t mean to be morbid, but I love funerals. Over 9 years in the pulpit I have discovered the particular gratifications of helping people say farewell to their loved ones, reflect on their lives, and place their bodies in the earth. Religion

Rachel Nussbaum is a Wexner Graduate Fellowship alumna and the Rabbi and Executive Director of the Kavana Cooperative in Seattle (www.kavana.org).  She can be reached at rabbi@kavana.org. I am the oldest of five children, and since recently giving birth to baby number two of my own I’ve been marveling at my parents’ child-rearing skills.  I’m particularly struck by the fact that having reached adulthood, my brothers and I have taken

Joshua Cypess is a Wexner Graduate Fellowship alumnus and a graduate student at Brandeis University.  He can be reached at jcypess@yahoo.com. In August 2008, I embarked on a leap of faith in my career and bid a (temporary) farewell to my life as a pulpit rabbi to start a doctoral program in Jewish Studies and Sociology at Brandeis.  I am no stranger to academia, so the transition was mostly smooth. 

Aaron J. Hahn Trapper is a Wexner Graduate Fellowship alumnus and the Co-Executive Director and Founder or Abraham’s Vision , a conflict transformation organization working with Jews, Muslims, Israelis, and Palestinians. He is an Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of San Francisco, where he is the founding director of the school’s new Jewish Studies and Social Justice program. He can be reached at aaron@abrahamsvision.org “The Muslims are