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Dispatches from the network and updates from the Foundation.
Rabbi Laura Sheinkopf, an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program (Class 9), is a graduate of Hebrew Union College and Columbia University. Raised and educated in Massachusetts, she now lives in Houston, she is a writer, a teacher and the mother of two. She can be reached at rabbilms@yahoo.com In this week’s Torah portion, we read about “the Shabbat of the land,” otherwise known as Shmitah, when the Torah
May 2009
Lisa Grushcow, an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program (Class 12), serves as Associate Rabbi of Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York City. She was ordained by HUC-JIR and received her doctorate from Oxford University. She can be reached at rabbigrushcow@crsnyc.org My annual seder table question is simple but good. “Here’s what I want you to bring,” I tell my guests in advance. “Bring something that represents freedom to
Apr 2009
Wendy Rosov, an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program, is the Principal of Rosov Consulting, LLC (www.rosovconsulting.com), a consulting firm devoted to enhancing philanthropic impact in the Jewish community. She can be reached at wendy@rosovconsulting.com. I must confess: after untold amounts of intellectual, social, and financial capital expended on the Leadership Training of Wendy Rosov, I still cannot define precisely what leadership is. One year ago I informed my
Apr 2009
Shmuly Yanklowitz, a Wexner Graduate Fellow alum (Class 19), is a rabbinical student at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, a PhD candidate at Columbia University in Moral Development and Epistemology, and the founder of Uri L’Tzedek (The Orthodox Social Justice Movement). He can be reached at shmuly22@yahoo.com I was asked this year to lead seder for the Jewish soldiers in Heidelberg, Germany at the U.S. Army European Headquarters and a central post to
Apr 2009
Judy Schaffert, a Wexner Heritage alumna from Phoenix, is past president of Temple Solel in Paradise Valley, Arizona and of Jess Schwartz College Prep, The Jewish Community’s High School. She can be reached at judy.schaffert@gmail.com After our temple’s music director left, the choir disappeared. Our new cantorial soloist, a professional singer-songwriter, announced he would start a choir for the High Holidays. Like Nachshon on the seashore, I joined, and recruited
Sarah Gershman, an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program (Class 9), is a presentation skills trainer (greenroomspeakers.com) and the author of a blog: sarahgershman.blogspot.com She can be reached at sarah.gershman@gmail.com What can Tazria-Metzora teach us about how to be a better speaker? In this week's parasha, we learn about the mysterious skin condition called tsaarat. Often mistranslated as "leprosy," tsaarat is traditionally understood as a physical manifestation of a
Apr 2009
Rabbi Akiva Herzfeld, a Wexner Graduate Fellowship alumnus, is spiritual leader of Shaarey Tphiloh in Portland, ME. He can be reached at akiba183@yahoo.com One quiet Friday morning in the middle of winter in Maine, I tramped through the snow and got to synagogue at exactly 10 a.m., which is when I usually open for business in the wintertime. I was in for a shock, however, when I arrived that day.
Apr 2009
Fay-Ann Brodie is an alumna of the Wexner Heritage Washington DC 03 group. She is the owner of FAB Travel in Potomac, MD. Fay-Ann can be reached at FaBrodie@gmail.com. Two texts: From the Haggadah: “In every generation it is a person’s duty to regard himself as though he personally had come out of Egypt, as it is written : “You shall tell your child on that day: This is on
Apr 2009
Rabbi Jay Moses, an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program, is the Director of the Wexner Heritage Program. He can be reached at jmoses@wexner.net Many of today’s Jewish leaders—including some of us on the staff of the Wexner Foundation—came of age in an era where the primary task of Jewish leadership in North America was clear: a couple million of our brothers and sisters were living under an oppressive
Apr 2009
1960 - Montreal My father is carrying heavy, worn boxes of dishes, pots, pans and silverware back and forth from some deep back room closet in our flat. Both of my grandmothers and my mother are battling for their territory in the kitchen. An enormous silver thing gets clamped onto the counter top that morphs fish into gefilte fish in one grind. “Don’t get near it, you’ll hurt yourself!” Not