The Latest From The Foundation

It has often been observed, sometimes ironically, that the one thing on which all Jews agree is that we don’t like to agree.  Jews love their machlokot (conflicts). The question is:  how do we manage those conflicts in a constructive and productive manner? The Talmud recounts the story of the initially peaceful and constructive conflict between the students of Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai some 2,000 years ago that tragically

Wexner Colleagues: I am excited to tell you that I’ve joined the Friends of Israel’s Environment, a group of concerned Americans who support the work of Adam Teva v’Din – the Israel Union for Environmental Defense.  Adam Teva v’Din (ATD) is Israel’s leading non-governmental advocacy organization seeking to improve environmental protection and enforcement of environmental laws. Over the past decade, ATD has helped many thousands of Israelis tackle life-affecting environmental

Six months ago on a stage in Tel Aviv, with the sun sinking into the Mediterranean behind us, I and several dozen classmates from San Francisco, Columbus and my hometown of Miami, received our certificates of completion from the Wexner Heritage program. A few months prior, sitting in a bank boardroom, our Heritage classroom for the past two years, we had been told that our Jewish experiences were rare and

Philanthropic work can be tremendously rewarding if done right. As lay and pro-leaders, we are trying to figure out how to maximize the meaningfulness — the joy of giving — for others. We’d love to have a conversation with Wexner fellows and alumni about positive (and negative) experiences and what you are hoping for when you get involved in philanthropy. It’s so important that we get this right! Here are

  Pictured: Repair the World Philadelphia Fellows In one of the climactic scenes from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Queen Amidala (played by the oh-so-Jewish actress Natalie Portman) exasperatedly argues for help and presses her colleagues to immediate action: “I’ve come before you to resolve this attack on our sovereignty now!” she declares. “I was not elected to watch my people suffer and die while you discuss this

Ten years ago, not even college admissions officers knew the term “gap year”. Now, everyone’s doing it, especially Jews. And there is a gap, a real lack, of substantive, authentic, well organized, and safe Jewish programming for these teens, so many go off and do service programs or other gap year programs in a non-Jewish context. Now they don’t have to. Do you know (or know people who know…) high

Dr. Tina Seelig, from the Stanford Design School, taught Wexner Heritage and Graduate Fellowship Alumni about creativity at the San Francisco Regional Networking Day. 
At the open space brain storm session during the San Francisco alumni gathering, I led a spontaneous discussion for whomever wanted to come talk. 20 alumni were encouraged to come up to an open mike and declare to the packed house what issue most impassioned them.

Participants of the Israel Alumni Beth Midrash: Meron HaCohen (Class 10), Tsvia Efrati (Class 2), Shmuel and Hagit Porat (Class 10), Yaron Charka (spouse Class 22), Kobi Goldberg (Class 23), Yitzhak Avigad (Class 6) and (not pictured) Deb Housen-Couriel (Class 12) Alumni of the Wexner Israel Fellowship launched a Beit Midrash. We gathered at the Foundation’s office in Jerusalem and even a non-objective observer could note two signs of how successful

Rabbi Elie Kaunfer is planning a free conference call/text study for any and all interested Wexner alumni on Wednesday, December 11th, 2013, 8:30-9:30pm EST.  We are trying a new model of after hours text study.  If this call is well received, we will likely continue to offer similar sessions. Since many of us have trouble with the metaphor of God as king, common in the liturgy, I thought we would

Naomi Benatar from the Wexner Service Corps blogs about what it feels like to “do something for someone who isn’t you.” Some of her takeaways from last Sunday afternoon: be thankful for what you have; you can change the world; get to it. Click here to read more on Naomi’s blog. Naomi Benatar is a senior at Upper Arlington High School who takes classes at The Ohio State University. In