The Latest From The Foundation

Gary S. Cohn is the Assistant Director of the North Pacific Region of the American Technion Society.  He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Bay Area American Red Cross.  He is a past president of the National Association for Temple Administration and a former Board Member of the San Francisco Food Bank.  He can be reached at gary@ats.org  It was back in 1970, at the age of

Jason Rodich is a Wexner Graduate Fellow and a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College.  He can be reached at jrodich@gmail.com In January I participated for a second time on a trip to Bethlehem with Encounter, an organization founded by an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program that brings Diaspora Jewish leaders to the West Bank to meet with various Palestinian leaders. During this trip, I was asked to

Jodi Mansbach is an alumna of the Wexner Heritage Program. When she is not volunteering, Jodi is a wife, mother and now student. Leaving the working world after 18 years, she is working for her Master’s in urban planning at Georgia Tech.  She can be reached at jodi.mansbach@gmail.com Endless meetings. Excessive email. Too much time away from the family.  I was reaching leadership burn out, something I’m sure readers of

Deen Aranoff is an assistant professor of medieval Jewish studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA. She teaches courses on Jewish society and culture in medieval and early-modern Europe. She can be reached at daranoff@gmail.com There was no way to anticipate the transformation that would take place as I took my seat as a student of yoga with Dana Flynn. I began to study yoga with Dana two

Karen Farzad is an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program.  Karen was most recently the Senior Director of Programming at Columbia/Barnard Hillel.  She can be reached at karenfarzad@gmail.com. As a Hillel program director, I staffed the late-night weekly meetings of our student executive board.  The students ran the meetings, with my participation where necessary.  Halfway through one particular meeting, I noticed an unusual amount of tension in the room. 

Rabbi Jethro Berkman is a Wexner Graduate Fellowship alumnus.  He teaches Tanakh and creates experiential education programs at Gann Academy – The New Jewish High School of Greater Boston.  He can be reached at jethroberkman@yahoo.com  During my last two years of rabbinical school I worked as the Jewish Student Advisor at Swarthmore College.  As the only official Jewish presence on campus, I had a wonderful opportunity to exercise leadership and

Rabbi Brett Krichiver is a Wexner Graduate Fellowship Alumnus.  Brett is the Senior Jewish Educator for Hillel at UCLA.  He can be reached at brett@uclahillel.org. Recently I was reminded of a famous statement made by Abraham Joshua Heschel:  “What we need more than anything else is not textbooks but textpeople.  It is the personality of the teacher that the pupils read, the text they will never forget.”  I find this

Rachel Lerner is a Davidson Scholar in the Wexner Graduate Fellows/Davidson Scholars Program.  Rachel is pursuing an EdD in the Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary. She can be reached at rachelalerner@gmail.com. I watched in awe as students ran community-wide Israel education programs, brought new members into their clubs, led hikes for other students at the school-wide Shabbaton and most of all, slowly began to

Zev Eleff is a Wexner Davidson Scholar who will begin his studies at Columbia Teachers College this fall.  He can be reached at Eleff@yu.edu The fact of the matter is that teaching and reaching second-semester high school seniors is a nearly impossible task.  And, for a 23-year-old collegian in his first attempt at managing a classroom, the attempt appeared to be a fool's errand.  Nevertheless, I had to try.  During

Terry Rubenstein is the the Executive Vice President of the Joseph and Harvey Meyerhoff Family Charitable Funds. She has held many lay appointments and was formerly a home builder and newspaper reporter. She has three children and three grandchildren. She can be reached at TMR@magnajm.com A few years ago I was asked to chair an initiative for United Jewish Communities called Gender Equity and Organizational Effectiveness. Supported by Shifra Bronznick,