The Latest From The Foundation

I’m four years old, with a pony-tail and a big smile.  I sit in my dad’s old Renault car, he just picked me up from kindergarten and we are driving to Beer Sheva at the heart of Israel’s Negev desert.  Even though at the time the city was not that big, it seemed huge to my four-year-old self.   And as we drive up the main street of Beer Sheva,

From left to right: Rachel Tevet-Wiesel (WSL ’15), Ram Shmueli, WIF Alum (Class 11), Noam Tibon, WIF Alum (Class 13) and Sharon Avraham-Weiss, WIF Alum (Class 23). Israel’s Wexner Leadership Forum provides an excellent opportunity for connecting with colleagues from the various Wexner programs, including American alumni living in or visiting Israel.  We meet twice yearly — in the spring and fall — to discuss public policy and leadership issues in Israel,

This year, the Summer Institute with the 28th Wexner Israel Fellowship (WIF) cohort was held in Kennebunkport, Maine.  I was among the eight Fellows who were accompanied by WIF Alum Maria Ben Assa (Class 27) and Foundation staff members Or Mars, Elisha Gechter and Aliza Storchan.  This three-day institute, the first one for us current Israel Fellows about to begin our year at Harvard, was about transforming the group into

It all began back in 1993 when a group of 10 Wexner Israel Fellows were staring their year at Harvard and were on the verge of an amazing professional and life adventure.  Who could have imagined that more than 20 years later this group would still have a strong and wonderful friendship. Our first gathering was in the garden of the Parag home in Ramat Yishai, with the idea that

Reposted with thanks to the blog of the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund.   As a hospice volunteer with the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center and a chaplain intern at a local hospital, Rabbi “Yitz” Greenberg’s teachings from my Heritage Summer Institute more than 10 years ago, remain some of the most meaningful from my two years of study.  So, I was delighted to find out that

It was an exciting, challenging and moving summer conference this year for Israeli Wexner Alumni and program participants, one in which we examined current problems and future opportunities for change in Israeli society.  The underlying conference theme, “Directions Towards a New Israeli Cultural Identity,” elicited much curiosity, discussion, heated argument, engagement and especially a sense of responsibility among our WIF Alumni.  What are the implications of our current national challenges

During his time at Harvard Kennedy School, Gil Avriel, WIF Alum (Class 26) and Legal Adviser to the Israeli National Security Council at the Office of the Prime Minister, published an innovative theory in the Harvard National Security Journal that hopes to change the way we understand ISIS and terrorism.  A year after his graduation, Gil’s Civilitary Theory is cited and commended by world experts, discussed at leading national security conferences

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/from-one-frannie-to-another-mazel-tov-on-your-kotel-bat-mitzvah/

http://http//blogs.timesofisrael.com/singing-out-for-sobel-rights-in-the-wake-of-rosh-hodesh-sivan/