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Dispatches from the network and updates from the Foundation.
Nov 2007
Hearing the Call of Torah By Howard Steiermann July 25, 2007 Howard Steiermann, a San Francisco Wexner Heritage alumnus, is motivated by his experiences as a son of German refugees, as a gay man, and by trying to find a great-tasting, low-fat, chocolate chip cookie. He is past Board President of the Brandeis-Hillel Day School, has served on numerous Jewish and Community boards and was the 2000 recipient of the
Nov 2007
Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson is a faculty member of the Wexner Heritage Program. He is the Dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University, where he is Vice President. He is the author of 6 books, most recently Gift of Soul, Gift of Wisdom: Spiritual Resources for Leadership and Mentoring. Rabbi Artson can be reached at www.bradartson.com Our Judaism is not merely learned. It is lived.
Nov 2007
Rabbi Jordan Millstein, an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program, serves Temple Emanuel of Worcester, MA. He can be reached at rabbijbm@aol.com “What should I call you?” It is among the most common questions a rabbi gets when he/she meets a congregant or visitor to the congregation for the first time. Invariably, when I am asked this question it triggers in my mind a series of old, bad jokes:
Nov 2007
Israel at the UN: Because Words Matter By Hillel Neuer July 18, 2007 Hillel Neuer is executive director of UN Watch in Geneva, an organization that monitors the UN according to the principles of its charter and stands at the forefront of combating anti-semitism at the UN. Formerly with the law firm of Paul Weiss in New York, Hillel routinely testifies before the UN Human Rights Council and other UN
Rabbi Akiva Herzfeld is an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program. Rabbi Herzfeld serves as the Orthodox Rabbinic Advisor at Harvard Hillel, and is the rabbi of Congregation Shaarey Tphiloh of Portland, ME. He is married to Michal Herzfeld, a student at Harvard Law School. He can be reached at akiba183@yahoo.com. This editorial was first published in the Portland Press Herald. In early November of the year 1620, a
Nov 2007
Rabbi Shira Stutman is an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program. She is a Rabbi at Congregation Kesher Shalom in Abington, PA. Shira can be reached at sstutman@gmail.com. In the beginning of Parshat Toldot, God is busy. Within the course of two chapters, God answers Isaac’s prayer for a child; gives Rebekah an answer to her question about her uncomfortable pregnancy (“two nations are in your womb…”); and twice
Oct 2007
Dr. Lila Corwin Berman, an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program, is an assistant professor of history, religious studies, and Jewish studies at Penn State and is spending this year as a fellow at University of Michigan’s Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies. She can be reached at lcberman@psu.edu. *This piece first appeared in The Forward. I had to apologize to my younger self when I agreed to teach
Oct 2007
Eliot Goldstein is a member of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program. He works for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Eliot can be reached at ebg243@nyu.edu Jewish tradition and the Ten Commandments stress honoring our mothers and fathers. This is clearly a “biggie” in Jewish life – but not one of the most easily defined mitzvot. My father is a very active lay leader in a large metropolitan Jewish community.
Laura Lauder is a venture philanthropist and political junkie. Her passion is Jewish education and leadership development. In 2002, she founded a new initiative in recruiting and training Jewish Day school teachers, called DeLeT: Day School Leadership through Teaching, inspired by the Wexner Fellowship model. She can be reached at laura@lauderpartners.com This summer, WH Alumna Laura Lauder, from San Francisco, traveled to Central Europe with Jewish singer/songwriter and Wexner faculty
Rabbi Dara Frimmer, an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program, is Assistant Rabbi at Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles. Outside of work, she can be found hiking in the Santa Monica Mountains or shopping at the local farmer’s market. Last week, she played tennis with Rabbi Ahud Sela, continuing a match started during a Wexner institute. She can be reached at RabbiDara@templeisaiah.com. Adonai said to Avram, “Go forth from