The Latest From The Foundation

Reposted with thanks to ejewishphilanthropy.com A little over a year ago, I started my role at the Wiener Center for Leadership and Learning at UJA-Federation of New York as Director of Learning and Development.  I became a professional in the Jewish nonprofit sector after spending more than 10 years in corporate America working in human resources, with a specific focus on learning and development.  I decided to switch gears and

Wexner Senior Leaders (WSL) participate in an executive program geared to getting us to use our positions in the Israeli government to innovate projects that will make Israel a better place to live.  We are high-level government civil servants working in ministries that don’t often collaborate to get things done, and therefore we call these projects “XBC’s,” or “Cross Boundary Collaborations.”  The formal part of the WSL Program lasts a

Imagine a world in which all Jewish professionals took time to enhance their own Jewish learning.  A world in which Jewish learning didn’t stop after formal graduate training, and where retirement was not the next opportunity for intensive Jewish study.  Today Jewish professionals — no matter the level of their learning background — rarely take time for intensive Jewish study once they are in the field.  The work is demanding

The WHP Alumni Council is made up of delegates from the 30-plus communities across North America where we have held the Wexner Heritage Program. Delegates help promote the Wexner Network so that alumni can leverage each other to become more effective leaders in order to exponentially impact and improve the Jewish community and our future. We hold quarterly video conferences and meet annually in person. Jill Max (WHP Alum, Baltimore

Reversing nearly seven decades of opposition to Israel in the UN, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, visited Israel this past month, the first time an Indian PM ever visited. In Photo: President Rivlin holds a working meeting with PM Modi in Jerusalem. As a Jewish American committed to Israel’s well-being, I am concerned by the volatility in diplomatic sentiment towards Israel.  We witnessed such a swing last December

Look at any device you are holding right now.  These days it might be appropriate to paraphrase Andy Warhol’s prescient observation…In the future, everyone will have a podcast.  Indeed, there’s a ton out there and, thankfully, in the Jewish community there is a wide range of great, thought-provoking programming from Tablet Magazine’s Unorthodox to Reboot’s The Kibitz. As a Wexner alum, I continue to look at ways to deepen my

Jewish mindfulness is helping revitalize Jewish spiritual life in North America, so why couldn’t it do the same in Israel?  Why couldn’t it help make Judaism more meaningful to Israelis, including the many “secular Jews” who seek spiritual fulfillment from sources outside their religion?  And, by expanding the pluralistic landscape in Israel, why couldn’t North Americans find more common ground with Israelis while sharing a Jewish spiritual experience?  This seems

Sometimes I feel that I am forced to choose between my love for the Jewish people and Israel and my desire to embrace and heal the whole world.  I know this is a question many Jewish leaders grapple with — the universal versus the particular; where to put our time, talent and treasure.  There is an Israeli organization doing fantastic work in developing countries, while at the same time raising

For decades, the relationship between the Jewish communities in Israel and North America has been of critical importance.  In the past few years, however, that relationship has seriously deteriorated; there may no longer exist consensus about even fundamental principles.  Symptoms of the depth of the divide range from rabbis in America being so fearful of conflict that they refrain from speaking about Israel from the pulpit to the propensity of

We in the Jewish education community are really beginning to dive into general education research when it comes to teaching (and learning) sacred texts.  The Mandel Center’s recent two-day conference on developing independent readers of Tanach, organized by Dr. Ziva Hassenfeld, WGF Alum (Class 25) and overseen by the Mandel Center’s Director, Professor Jon Levisohn, WGF Alum (Class 10), was a wonderful testament to how productive such a gathering can