8000 Walton Parkway, Suite 110
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Mar 2011
Bill Lipsey is an alumnus of Wexner Heritage MetroWest . Bill and his family moved to Israel for a “year of adventure” last August. He can be reached at lipsey@pzena.com. Arik Einstein, a beloved Israeli performer, sang these words some 20 years ago… They apply today as much as ever. After six months of living and being immersed in Israel and her culture, life and rhythms, I am intensely motivated
Mar 2011
Nina Bruder is an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program, Class V and the Executive Director of Bikkurim: An Incubator for New Jewish Ideas, which identifies promising, innovative, Jewish ideas in their early stages of organizational formation and nurtures them from start-up to sustainability. She can be reached at ninabruder@gmail.com. I recently had the opportunity to apply a lesson learned from a family context to a work context. My
Rabbi Melissa Weintraub is a Wexner Graduate Fellowship alumna and the Co-Founder and Co- Executive Director of Encounter, an organization dedicated to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to healing internal Jewish rifts that have formed in its wake. Melissa can be reached at melissa@encounterprograms.org. Iris Feinberg, is an alumna of the Atlanta 05 Wexner Heritage Program. Iris is a community volunteer and business person in Atlanta and can be reached
Mar 2011
Allison Shapira is the Coordinator of the Wexner Israel Fellowship Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. She can be reached at: ashapira@wexner.net At the beginning of this year, I participated in a week-long personal leadership development program in northern California called the Hoffman Process. The program came highly recommended by my colleagues and classmates at the Harvard Kennedy School who had attended over the past five years. Feeling curious and
Mar 2011
By Rabbi Shira Stutman, a Wexner Graduate Fellowship alumna, and the Director of Community Engagement at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, DC. Shira can be reached at sstutman@gmail.com. Thirty weeks at 1½ hours per week may sound like a long time, but it’s really nothing when it comes to a conversion class. What to include, what to leave out? When planning the Jewish Welcome Workshop 5771, it was
Greg Russo is an alumnus of the Wexner Heritage Program, Metrowest, NJ 08 and a Human Resource Executive in Northern New Jersey. He serves on the Board of UJC Metrowest and as a Vice President at the Hebrew Academy of Morris County. Gregg can be reached at greggrusso@gmail.com. During Shabbat services, when the rabbi first mentioned a protest at Rutgers that night I was lukewarm about attending. I had plans
Karyn Grossman Gershon is an alumna of the Chicago Wexner Heritage Program and the Executive Director of Project Kesher, the largest Jewish women’s organization and one of the fastest growing human rights organizations in Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine. In 2009, Project Kesher expanded to the Russian-speaking community in Israel. Karyn can be reached at projectkesher@projectkesher.org. In 1993, I heard that a tiny non-profit called Project Kesher was convening
Ari Guass is an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program, Class XIII. Ari is the Executive Director of North Carolina Hillel in Chapel Hill, NC. He can be reached at ari@nchillel.org. When I was 24 and in my first stint working for Hillel – before taking a nine-year hiatus and returning to the organization eighteen months ago – my boss, the Hillel director, was known as a maverick and
Mar 2011
Lisa Shapiro Strauss is a Wexner Heritage Alumna, Houston ‘08. She is a practicing Criminal Defense Attorney in Houston, Texas. Lisa can be reached at lisstrauss@sbcglobal.net. The funny thing about a dream is that you really don’t realize it is coming true until the moment has come and gone and you have a chance to reflect back on it. In the summer of 2007, our Houston Wexner Heritage Group was
Mar 2011
Stephen Gynberg is a member of the Wexner Heritage Program Los Angeles 09 group. Stephen is a filmmaker and writer. His latest film is the award winning feature documentary, A Life Ascending. He can be reached at sgryny@me.com. My parents flew to Los Angeles this past Yom Kippur to be with my family. My mother brought her mandel braut as usual and my father brought his Torah. That was a