BRONFMANIM T Am Magaz f t Bfma Yt F
2009
byfi.org
o xrd ar th f ctrbutr r th dtr ad d t rrt th ffcal t f Th Brfma Yuth Yuth Fllwh iral.
Th Brfma Yuth Fllwh iral 163 Dlawar Av. sut 102 Dlmar, nY 12054 emal: ava.char@byf.r ava.char@byf.rg g Tl: (518) 475.7212 Fr mr frmat abut th Brfma ummr fllwh: www.brfma.rg Fr mr frmat abut th Amt Brfma rgram: www www.amt-brfma.rg .amt-brfma.rg Fr mr frmat abut BYFi alum: www.byf.rg Fr alum rlatd qur ctact u: Bcky Vrwd, Drctr f Alum egagmt Th Brfma Yuth Fllwh iral 375 park Avu, 17th Flr nw Yrk, nY 10152-0192 emal: bcky@byf.rg Tl: (212) 572.7148 We are grateful to The Samuel Bronfman Foundation for their ongoing support and vision.
bronfmanim The Alumi Maazie f the Bfma Yuth Fellwships
2009
In these pages a Leer rom Rbbi Shimon felix, Executive Director ...................... ................................ .....................2 ...........2 a Leer rom Elijh Dornsreich, President of BYFI Alumni Advisory Board & Becky Voorwinde, Director of Alumni Engagement ............................................3 the Ligh Bulb Momen—by Melissa Korn (BYFI ’01) .............................................4
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Miliry Service s formive Experience: Relecions rom Bronmnim—edited by Matti Friedman (BYFI ’94) ....................8 Eating Dirt in the Desert by Michael Grumer (BYFI ’04) On the State o the Military by Zvi Benninga (Amit ‘02) Strength & Modesty by Daphna Ezrachi (Amitah ’05) Because o You We’re Alive by Yair Agmon (Amit ‘04)
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Wh Do We Need from Our Leders?— by Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld .......... 12
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ampliying Impc—the BYfI alumni Venure Venure fund compiled by Victoria Neiman..................... ............................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ....................14 .........14 Step Into Shabbat & Minyan Na’aleh— Julie Geller, (BYFI ’91) The Kavana Cooperative—Noam Pianko (BYFI ’90) The Bay Area Learning Initiative—Sara Bamberger (Yozma (Yozma ‘96-‘98) One to Watch: Hannah Rabinowitz (BYFI ‘ 07)
Judism llows me o eel hisory vibrnly nd urgenly in my body a conversation with Jesse Zaritt (BYFI ‘95) and Asya Zlatina (BYFI ’04) .................18
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Clss Noes—BYfI & amiei Bronmn ................. ............................ ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................21 .......21
BYfI S:
BYfI Execuive Commiee
av Chrne, Administrative Director Rbbi Shimon felix, Executive Director Je Roo, Web Development & Communications Heher Smih, Accounts Manager Becky Voorwinde, Voorwinde, Director of Alumni Engagement Brbr Widmnn, Administration
Elijh Dornsreich (BYFI ’92) Ned foss Dn Rucher (BYFI ’89)
amiei Bronmn S:
Edioril Suppor Mi friedmn (BYFI ’94) Becky Voorwinde (BYFI ’97)
Or aviksis Elirz Shimn Bermn Idn Snir BYFI.org
I’s no secre h BYfI’s summer
Fellowship program is somewhat cerebral. Our ellows are uniormly bright, intellectually curious, high achievers. The program itsel is heavy on text study - be it the poetry o Yehudah Amichai, the Chassidic parables o Rav Nachman o Bretslev, an essay by Gershom Scholem, or a passage rom the Talmud - and ull o high level conversation on political and social issues with leading intellectuals, artists, activists, and politicians.
Rbbi Shimon felix, Executive Director
“...wh excies me
mos bou BYfI’s sregic direcion is our ongoing nd expnding ocus on supporing Bronmnim o pply heir lens o benei he Jewish communiy nd wider world.”
It is also no secret that the Jewish people are somewhat cerebral, placing study (preerably Torah study, but, apparently, other disciplines will do) right at the top o our list o values. And yet, one o the Rabbis o the Talmud, Rabbi Shimon the son o Gamliel, in Pirkei Avot (The Ethics o the Fathers), tells us that lo hamidrash ikar ella hama’aseh, it is not study which is the main thing, but, rather, action. As central as Torah study is, it is what we do, do, rather than what we know, know, that is important. It is or this reason that what excites me most about BYFI’s strategic direction is our ongoing and expanding ocus on supporting Bronmanim to apply their talents to benet the Jewish community and wider world, highlighting, in particular, the BYFI value o social responsibility. From its inception in 1987, BYFI has been committed to engaging our Fellows in both the cerebral as well as the more practical aspects o Jewish tradition and lie. As we have evolved, we’ve added new elements to our programming and activities which inspire, encourage and enable our alumni to take their talents and use them or the greater good, in ways which are unique and exciting, and which continue to have a wide impact. You will read about some o them in this, our second edition o Bronmanim, the BYFI alumni magazine. I am especially gratied by the inclusion o a number o articles by our Amitim - Israeli Fellows. In 1998, we created the Amitei Bronman Fellowship program. Parallel to BYFI, and meeting or a migash (encounter) with their American counterparts during the ellowship summer in Israel and in the US during their Chanukah trip to America, the Amitim have become a part o our alumni community, interacting with their American counterparts in a number o ways, including meeting with some o them in Washington DC and New York, and volunteering together in Jerusalem during gap year programs which our American and Israeli Fellows have initiated. We hope to continue to integrate our Israeli alumni into the greater alumni community, as we continue to work to help the entire community get out there and make a dierence. Sincerly,
Rabbi Shimon Felix
Our oldes lumni urned ur ned 40 his yer yer.. We say this not to make anyone eel old! – but rather to celebrate the maturity and depth o our community in our program’s program’s 24th year. year. We are a multi-generational, pluralistic and committed network o talented Jews. Our ongoing initiatives aim to encourage, inspire and enable Bronman Fellows to apply their talents and passion to strengthening and serving each other, the Jewish community, and the wider world. The Jewish community is looking or leaders in this time o tremendous change. The Bronman alumni community is a talent bank or the Jewish people. The BYFI summer program develops Jewish leaders who value pluralism, Jewish learning, engagement with Israel, and social responsibility. responsibility. By partnering with organizations in the broader Jewish community, we are helping our alumni to serve as innovators, volunteers, proessionals and board members. Our alumni are bringing BYFI’s core values to the larger Jewish community. We are strengthening our alumni network, not only in North America but also in Israel with our Amitei Bronman peers, to serve as a model or open, stimulating and respectul dialogue. We are an open-source environment or skill-sharing, ideas sharing, collaboration and mutual support. Through the work o our Alumni Advisory Board, our current and upcoming alumni initiatives impact the community in the ollowing ways:
Neworking & communiy building – opportunities or alumni to network, interact, and share resources. We are in the process o customizing a detailed alumni database and revising our alumni web spaces including our Facebook group and byi.org.
a supporive nework – in the all, we matched our second round o 26 Alumni Advisors to serve as guides to our 2009 Fellows with their Ma’aseh Action Projects, where Fellows create service projects that bring Bronman to their local communities. We are hosting our irst ever day o learning to support career and personal growth or college-age alumni and recent graduates led by older alumni. Our weekly emails continue to highlight opportunities or jobs, internships, ellowships and proessional development.
Invesing in socil innovion – the BYFI Alumni Venture Fund provides a platorm or alumni to support their peers’ cutting-edge initiatives and projects. This year, in addition to our undraising and grantmaking, we are creating team coaching opportunities so alumni with proessional and volunteer expertise can support alumni leaders who are making a dierence.
Conen nd ides – BYFI remains a resource or quality content, thoughtul discussion, and stimulating Jewish learning, both online with regular commentary o the weekly parsha and lively listserve discussion and in the real world. Through intimate events like salon discussion groups that alumni can lead locally, locally, Jewish learning with aculty and alumni educators, and our successul Alumni Venture Fund Speakers Series, we hope to inspire alumni and spark conversation and action.
Together, ogether, as a voice o pluralistic young Jews, our network is shaping North American and Israeli Jewish lie. Thank you or your engagement and commitment. Please contact us with your questions or concerns or i you’d like to deepen your involvement. Best,
Becky Voorwinde, ‘97, BYFI Director of Alumni Engagement
Elijh Dornsreich, ‘92, President of BYFI Alumni Advisory Board
“The Bronfman alumni community is a talent bank for the Jewish people.”
Elijah and Becky
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The Light Bulb Moment by Melissa Korn (BYFI ‘01)
There’ss no ormula or There’ or creation, no one way to successully start a business, launch a non-prot, write a book or a screenplay.. But one common thread runs through the stories told by screenplay the scores o Bronman Fellows who have done those things, who have in one way or another gone orth and conquered: Many can peg their impulse toward innovation to a single experience. While an idea may have been brewing or weeks or, in some cases, years, that one event made them realize that the world as it is doesn’t need to be that way,, and they could be the ones to change it. way Jeremy Hockenstein, a 1988 Bronman Fellow who co-ounded outsourcing company Digital Divide Data, was surprised at how simply he came upon his idea. Later, he would also be surprised to nd out that this was not exceptional: When he was awarded the Skoll Award or Social Entrepreneurship in 2008, Hockenstein expected to “learn” how to be a social entrepreneur rom the other, more seasoned winners. “I just did it by accident,” he said. Apparently, Apparently, so did everyone else. They saw an opportunity, did a bit o research, and took a leap. Hockenstein’s opportunity came during a work trip to Hong Kong and Hockenstein’s Cambodia in 2000, when he ound himsel m ore interested in the native people than in Angkor Wat’s Wat’s temples. (Though those were nice, too, he said.) He was impressed that local organizations were teaching computer skills to uneducated and unemployed people rom the area, but was dis-appointed that they didn’t do much to translate the training into good jobs. The ollowing year, Hockenstein and ve riends returned to Phnom Penh to nd out what they could do to help. Building on the model
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o Indian call centers, they created Digital Divide Data, which provides computer training by translating print media into digital texts. (The company’s company’s rst project was d igitizing a ew years o the Harvard Crimson.) Local employees attend university part-time with the help o company-sponsored nancial aid, and once they graduate the company helps place them in jobs higher up the pay scale. While the trip to Angkor Wat provided his ultimate inspiration, a more personal experience – his m other’ other’ss birth in a concentration camp – gave Hockenstein his initial drive toward tikkun olam. “I had some sense that it was a miracle that we were alive,” he explained. “What can we do other than help the world?” Hockenstein kept a oot in the (slightly) more nancially secure consulting world until two years ago, when he nally took the plunge and devoted himsel entirely to Digital Divide Data. Sure, it was a risk, he says, and his salary shrank a bit, but he saw no alternative. Starting with a class o 20, the rm now has 600 employees in Cambodia and Laos, with a long-term goal o 1,500. Far rom southeast Asia, in a Colorado classroom, Deb Dusansky decided she needed to change something when she realized she didn’t like Hebrew school. The 1987 Fellow, or years a director o religious schools at synagogues, had watched too many children study or their Bar and Bat Mitzvahs only to return to homes that had little or no Jewish identities. “I just got really disheartened sitting with kids, by themselves, and never seeing the parents,” said Dusansky Dusansky,, a counselor who ounded
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the Boulder branch o Jewish Family Services. Just because the kids were preparing or a ma jor Jewish lie event, she ound, it didn’t mean they were partaking in any major – or even minor – religious or spiritual activities at home. Knowing that a signicant portion – nearly hal o North American Jews, according to some sources – are either unaliated or members o interaith amilies, Dusansky launched Boulder Stepping Stones, an educational program that provides up to two years o religious education classes and Shabbat dinners to a ew hundred people a year. She explains her mission with a sense o urgency: “I we’re going to marginalize people rom interaith backgrounds, or people who are unaliated, it’s going to kill Judaism.” Dusansky’s Dusansky’s program is not meant to convert non-Jews or orce people to join synagogues, she says: “We must embrace amilies where
couldn’t just point to a single book and say, “Start here.”
Taylor Krauss also needed a physical push beore ounding Voices o Rwanda.
Epstein’s Epstein’s step-ather gave him the nal push by asking why he didn’t make a book like that himsel. So he did.
Working on the Ken Burns World War II documentary, The War, Kraus spent much o 2003 rifing through hundreds o hours o lm reels and stacks o photos in Washington’s Washington’s National Archive. “It was almost as i, in the oce every day, our team was re-experiencing the war,” the 1997 Fellow said o his immersion in material about the war and the Holocaust. When he lited his head rom that ootage, contemporary newspapers were chronicling the ravages o another genocide, this time in Sudan. “In the interest o studying how genocides continue to happen,” Krauss said, he went to Rwanda on the eve o the 10th anniversary o that country’s devastating civil war, but a lm that developed out o that visit didn’t quite satisy him. Krauss said he realized that even i the lm reached an audience on public televi-
Collaborating with his ancé, Epstein started crating a non-traditional Gemara – a compendium o rabbinic commentary on Jewish law – that allows people who don’t read Hebrew to engage in Torah study. study. “The original thought was to create a book that inspired people toward Jewish learning and Judaism in general in the same way that an inspiring teacher or an inspiring Jewish event could do that,” Epstein said. He included English translations o biblical texts alongside the Hebrew, as well as English commentary rom traditional sources like the rabbinic commentator Rashi. But he took the project – named Adashot, Hebrew or “lenses”
Fromlefttoright:DavidZviEpstein‘04&fianceYaelRichardson;staffatDigitalDivideData(DDD),DebDusansky‘87;JeremyHockenstein‘88(farleft)andstafffromDDD;
they are.” Her main ocus is to expose amilies to Judaism and provide resources or those still guring out where they belong, even i that doesn’t end up being Hebrew School. David Zvi Epstein’s “a-ha!” moment, which would also target those on Judaism’s Judaism’s outer reaches, cluttered up his apartment or months beore any solid plan took orm. It was 2007, and the ’04 Fellow was working with Montreal’s Montreal’s Ghetto Shul, which happened to be looking or a new home. He oered his apartment as a place to store the shul’s books, which let him surrounded by complicated texts and study guides or nearly six months. “I got to see very close how people would come in wanting to learn something but not knowing how,” he said, and he grew rustrated that he 6
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-- a step urther, including passages rom Franz Kaka, Yehuda Yehuda Amichai and even Zen and the Art o Motorcycle Maintenance in order to embrace people more amiliar with an English literature class than traditional Jewish text study. Epstein received a BYFI Alumni Venture Venture Fund grant to help deray some start-up costs or the project. But he says support rom the Bronman organization extended ar beyond the nancial. Alums acted as sounding boards and arfung members o the Jewish community have reached out expressing interest. Epstein is still looking or a publisher, publisher, but groups such as Brandeis University’s University’s Beit Midrash and Limmud France are already using sections o the book, parts o which are available online at adashot.com.
sion in the U.S., it likely would not inspire viewers to get o their couches, let alone help share Rwanda’s history so it didn’t also become the country’s uture. “I you don’t actually think that your audience is going to do what you think should be done, will you do what you think should be done?” he wondered. A year later, he realized exactly what needed to be done. As Krauss explains it, he awoke one morning wanting to create a more substantial project with the stories Rwandans were telling him about the months o killings. He wanted to use the vivid testimonials to commemorate the mass death and to provide Rwandans and people around the world with a cautionary lesson about genocide. Fund-raising in his spare time while
nishing work on The War, Krauss turned Voices o Rwanda into an ocial non-prot by 2006. Aided by a grant rom the BYFI Alumni Venture Fund, the group has now translated and transcribed about 1,000 hours o testimony. Like Krauss, Ilana Lapid wanted to engage an audience. But just a ew years ago, she didn’t even know she wanted an audience. The 1994 Fellow had always been inspired by lm. The Macedonian movie Before the Rain, which tells o ethnic confict between Albanian and Macedonian villages, moved Lapid to study international relations when she attended Yale. But it wasn’t until years later, later, when she stood ace-to-ace with a lm crew at the doorway o her apartment in Romania, that she understood the extent o the medium’s power. To rewind: Lapid was in Transylvania on a Fulbright Scholarship, working on an art project
Southern Caliornia’s MFA program in lm and television production upon returning rom Romania. Red Mesa, her thesis lm about a young woman in New Mexico torn between her love or an illegal migrant worker and or her amily, premiered this summer at the New York International Latino Film Festival. Having grown up in Jerusalem, Ottowa and New Mexico, Lapid says she is particularly interested in nomadic cultures. Her lms span the Mexico-New Mexico border region, Transylvania and even Aghanistan. She is currently working on a documentary tracking her eort to bring a mate to the only pig in the Kabul zoo. People standing behind movie cameras t the bill o innovators. Those in suits and ties, not so much. But 1987 Fellow Joel Hornstein isn’t any old suit. Hornstein took the skills he acquired over years on Wall Street to launch
agement world could be run better. better. That didn’t mean, however, that he was ready to jump ship and build up his own roster o clients right away. away. By 2004 Hornstein knew he could get nancing to start his own asset management rm, but he had just been oered the coveted job at Citigroup. He took it and then, a day later, later, realized he hated it and quit. Determined to venture out on his own this time, he was nearly pulled back into the old with an oer rom Smith Barney. It was on a cross-country trip, as Hornstein was seriously considering that job, that he got his nal nudge toward the unknown. He and his wie were listening to Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead in the car. The parallels to Rand’s character Peter Keating, the miserable man who lives as others tell him to, were disconcerting. It didn’t help that his wie kept pausing the iPod to tell him, “This is you, Joel.” By the end o the drive, Hornstein
IlanaLapid‘94;JoelHornstein‘87;TaylorKrauss‘97speakingwithFormerRwandanAmbassadortotheU.N.JosephNsengimana&formerFirstCounsellorNicholasShalita
with Gypsy children. Her apartment, in the capital city o Kuj, overlooked a cinema. One day, day, she saw people gathering or what turned out to be the rst-ever Transylvania Transylvania International Film Festival. A group o lmmakers knocked at her door, hearing she had some extra space or them to crash, and over the ensuing days she learned o their passion or an artistic orm that was once all but orbidden under communist rule. “Thirteen years ater the revolution, they have the possibility to tell stories through cinema that nobody had been telling,” Lapid recalled. “They elt personally responsible or bearing witness to history.” history.” Lapid was moved by their stories and realized that she, too, had some important ones to share. She enrolled in the University o
a creative boutique asset management rm, Structural Wealth Management. Hornstein attended Harvard College and Yale Yale Law School and worked at Goldman Sachs, McKinsey & Co. and then at Citigroup, where he rose quickly through the ranks and was ultimately oered the post o chie nancial ocer in the international retail unit. “I spent my whole career avoiding risk,” Hornstein said. “I had always been so hierarchically minded, trained to believe that all I could aspire to was being as good as the best that existed already. already. I was so ready to believe that big institutions did things perectly.” perectly.” Ater a series o talks with a ormer Yale Law classmate, Hornstein realized the wealth man-
realized he didn’t want to be “the guy who climbs the ladder to nowhere.” He was ready to become his very own Howard Roark. Four years into running his own company, Hornstein said, “I’ve never been more proud o what I’ve done.” n Melissa Korn, a 2001 Bronman Fellow, lives in New York City with her boyriend and pet sh. She writes about personal nance, or-prot educators and student lenders or Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. Beore starting at Dow Jones in 2007 she worked or the Financial Times and Fast Company Magazine.
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M i il l i i t t a y a S e r r e F o r r v i v c or rm i a t c e e a s ti s i v v e e E x a x p p e e R e r r ef e i i e e f ec n ct c e ti e: i o n o s r r o o B r m ro on ma ni m e d di i t t e e d d b y M M a t tt t i i F F r ri ie e d m d ma n a n ( B Y Y F I ’ ’ 9 94 ) 4
Miliry service, wih is rils, rusrions nd hrd-won personl vicories, is nerly lwys ormive experience or hose who undergo i, volunrily or oherwise. the experience remins sered ino he memory o he amiim nd Bronmn fellows who hve spen ime in uniorm, long er hey reurn o civilin lie. In hese essys, Isrelis nd n americn who served in he Isreli Deense forces wrie o wh hey lerned nd wh hey ugh, nd o how he miliry chnged hem or ohers or beer or or worse.
Matti Friedman ‘94 grew up in Toronto, was a Bronman ellow in 1994 and moved to I srael the next year.. Since then, he has been a dairy armer, soldier, year soldier, university student and reporter. Today Today he works as a correspondent in the Jerusalem bureau o the Associated Press. He is married to Naama and has twin boys, Aviv and Michael.
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and Israel, get to know the land (m ostly by marching on it), and to really become a part o Israeli society. society. I chose military service because I know that while I am in uniorm, there is one more soldier who acts with a moral compass and exercises the IDF’s value o purity o arms. I chose military service because today one in our Israeli 18-year-old boys does not go into the army. I hope some o these boys notice me or others like me and realize that while they shirk their duty to their country and people, others leave their lives behind to serve.
MichaelGrumerservingintheI.D.F
Eing Dir in he Deser Michael Grumer (BYFI ‘04) When I made aliyah in 2007, I took the obligation o service on mysel. I could have waited a ew years to move to Israel, at which point my age would have exempted me rom the drat, but I decided that that wouldn’t be right. Everyone does their time in the army, army, and ater they resume their lives they benet rom others serving and keeping them sae. I elt I needed to serve m y time to eel right about continuing to enjoy that protection. I have spent nearly the last two years in an inantry unit – the 50th 50 th Battalion o the Nahal Brigade.
Ideology is one thing, o course, and actually living it is another. Serving in a combat unit is trying, mentally and physically. I have thought many times, “how did a kid rom the Bronx end up running around in a Middle Eastern desert with an assault rife?” At the same time, the challenging experiences orged riendships that will prove to be lielong. Every soldier eventually realizes that he depends on everyone else and everyone else depends on him. You don’t make riends like these in college. Some people say that the Israeli winter is not so cold. I say that those people haven’t spent any time guarding the Lebanese border, border, camping out in the bushes on stakeouts or days at a time. Rain is naturally depressing, but even more so when you do not have an umbrella and you can’t go inside. That aside, the winter I spent on the Lebanese border was one o the most rewarding times o my
service, because I elt something I’ve never elt in any other situation: I saw the distant lights o towns and kibbutzim at night and I knew that the people there were sleeping peaceully because o the work I was doing. That eeling is what keeps me going, during patrols and stakeouts and mind-numbing shits o our hours on, our hours o in a guard tower or days at a time. When we get out or weekends and sleep normally it builds us back up physically, but mentally is a dierent story. Mental strength is all about motivation, and my motivation comes rom the act that my work is enabling people to go about their daily lives while worrying as little as possible. Eventually a day will come when we will not need to send our children to the mil itary. itary. While I pray that day will come soon, I am proud to perorm this service until it does. Michael Grumer was born and raised in the Bronx. He is currently serving in an inantry th Battalion o the Nahal unit or the 50 th Brigade or the Israeli Deense Forces. Michael is a 2004 Bronman Fellow.
On he Se o he Miliry Zvi Benninga (Amit ‘02) As any military expert will tell you, in order or an army to work well it has to work in
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I ended up in a platoon with a number o other Americans. The Israelis all had similar reactions to us: they could not gure out why we would want to leave our cushy lives behind to eat dirt with them in the desert. Each one o the Americans had his own story, mostly to do with ideology and Zionism and wanting to serve Israel. Most o the Israelis eventually came to admire this, while others remained convinced we were crazy.
I chose combat service because I elt, and still eel, that it is the best way or me to give back to this country, to learn more about Israelis
Article sub-title
ZviBenningarelaxingonvacati ZviBenningarelaxingonvacationafterthr onafterthreeyearsofserviceinth eeyearsofserviceintheI.D.F eI.D.F
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perect synchrony. It cannot have dissenters and ree thinkers among its ranks. It cannot accept soldiers who question the authority o its commanding ocers or their judgment o a situation. Military training is thereore devoted to a large extent to displacing personal impulses and replacing them with the ability to ollow orders, an ability which is not learned until it is internalized. As Elias Canneti, the writer and Nobel laureate, wrote, “No one can truly be called a soldier until he has intensively incorporated into himsel this whole body o prohibitions,” until he recognizes himsel only within the orders o others. Archimedes discovered that an object submerged into a ull bath will displace water in volume equal to its own. A similar phenomenon can be viewed when training soldiers – their ability to ollow orders and believe in the judgment o their superiors is directly proportionate to the degree to which they reject their aith in their own ability to ully understand a situation and decide upon a proper course o action.
ethos, the heroism, the sense o calling in their wards rom a very young and impressionable age. In adulthood many men continue to serve in the reserve corps, and when strangers meet they oten appraise each other’s worth according to their military experience. I ear being dismissed as just another liberal, guilt-ridden, sel-hating Jew, so allow me to state: Israel is my homeland and my home. I am not a pacist. I have served my ull military duty and still serve in the reserves. I truly believe the army is a necessary part o lie in Israel. However, However, just as an organism in which one o the organs swells beyond proportion is diseased, so is my country, country, which has lost itsel to the stranglehold o the military. Since my release rom the army I have started to reassess the state o my country. country. I have seen what happens to those who live under military occupation and I have seen what happens to those who occupy them. I see a state obsessed by violence and devoured by hate.
Israel is a military state. We have been, legally, legally, in a state o emergency since the inception o the state, and this mentality has trickled down into the rame o mind o its citizens – the Jewish ones, that is – who believe we are constantly on the brink o extinction. The school system devotes a lot o time and money not only to preparing teenagers or their military service but to enhancing the military
I have seen what happens when the entire population is composed o soldiers who have orsaken their ability to criticize their commanding ocers, and I have seen what happens to those ew who have retained a critical and independent view o the country: they are labeled sel-hating Jews and are considered traitors in our midst. As a country we have lost the ability to accept criticism,
since it is always perceived as an unjustied attack; we have lost the ability to change, to grow. Unless we regain these, our hopes or a better uture will be lost. Zvi Benninga (Amitei Bronman ‘02) - Ater nishing a year o community service with the Amitei Bronman Garin (group), three years o military service, and a short stint o travelling, Zvi is now studying Medicine and Liberal Arts at the Hebrew University.
Srengh nd Modesy Daphna Ezrachi (Amitah ’05) I never decided to join the army – it was a simple act o nature since I was born. My ather was a pilot, my sister an education oicer and my brother an inantry soldier. As I approached army age the only question was where I would serve. About thirty years ago the army set up a project whose importance was more social than military – drating delinquent youth with the hope that time in the military would help them become better citizens. I can say with certainty: these are the toughest soldiers in the Israel Deense Forces. That’s That’s where I ended up, a 19-year-old girl rom a middle class Jerusalem amily – as a commander o these recruits. I ound mysel standing opposite a group o 13 men at a base in northern Israel and telling them what to do. Each one o them had his own terrible story, things I had never been exposed to. I spent one Shabbat on the base with a soldier who started having a mental breakdown, crying and hitting himsel. I stuck to him and didn’t let him hurt himsel until it passed.
DaphnaEzrachi(secondfr DaphnaEzrachi(secondfromleft)wit omleft)withfriends hfriends
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Slowly, Slowly, I began to understand that I was the commander. That or these soldiers, I was everything. The responsibility was overwhelming. That goes or every commander in the army, but with these soldiers there could be nearly no margin o error – every mistake you make can have a much greater eect on a soldier who is less stable than a typical recruit.
The amazing thing is that I, the commander, went through a process o learning and change just like the soldiers. As a girl who was given everything I needed to succeed in lie, when I aced a boy my age whose mother died o cancer in his arms, whose ather wouldn’t speak to him, who had been paying his own way since he was 15 and who had a criminal record, I learned something about modesty and about how lucky I am. I learned about being strong. I saw soldiers dealing with the most dicult things, like being ordered to stay at the base when one o their brothers was being threatened because he owed money to some gangster. Their emotional strength stunned me. I saw soldiers undergoing incredible change: soldiers who stopped swearing, who ound they could deal with challenges instead o running away as they had always done beore, soldiers who discovered ater a grueling day in the army that they were actually succeeding at something or the rst time. My soldiers are now scattered throughout the regular army – some are combat soldiers in the Givati Brigade, one is a mechanic, another is a driver, one runs the storeroom at the military radio station. I know that I taught every one o them at least one thing, even i it was something little. And I also know that they taught me a lot. Some o them are doing well in the army, and some aren’t, but they have all changed since being drated. So have I. I love my soldiers and I will always be their commander. Even now, when I call them, they laugh and call me hameakedet – “sir.” I can tell that it is still important or them to tell me how they are doing. I may not be in uniorm anymore, but I will still be here or them when they need me. Daphna Ezrachi,(Amitei Bronman ‘05) was born and raised in Jerusalem. She is a graduate o the Reorm Movement’s pre-army Mechina program in Yao. Ater serving in the IDF, Daphna plans to work in NYC beore travelling to South America in July 2010.
“Becuse o You We’re alive” By Yair Agmon (Amit ‘04) I am now in inantry ocers’ training, on my way to becoming a commander o new recruits. My job will be to educate them – but toward what goal? I’m trying to remember why I signed up or a combat unit. I didn’t have to. I was not supposed to. Children o bereaved amilies and only sons need their parents’ permission to join rontline units. I am the only son o a single mother who or her whole lie eared and anticipated the moment her son would come to her and ask her permission to join a combat unit. When that day arrived, we went together to the local army oce to sign the release orm. Unortunately, and in typical army ashion, they didn’t have the “only son” orm. So they took out a “bereaved amily” orm and erased the title with white-out. Then they lost the orm. So we came again. A ew days ago I got a call rom a soldier who was under my command or eight months, rom the moment he joined the army until he let or commanders’ training. He is now commanding recruits himsel. He told me that he hung up a picture in his own soldiers’ tent – the very same picture I hung up in his tent when I was his commander. commander. It was Hanukkah, and the reezing recruits under my command had received packages o sweets rom kids all over the country. In every package there was a note: “Brave soldier, thank you or protecting us,” “Don’t be araid my soldier, I’m with you and I love you,” “Thank you – because o you we’re alive.” In every letter there was a telephone number written by a child who was waiting or a brave soldier to call. As commander, I made my soldiers call these kids to say thank you, and I put the drawings in a picture rame and hung it up in their tent. “What’s “What’s that picture, hameaked?” they asked, using the Hebrew equivalent o sir. sir.
YairAgmon
It’s It’s so that you remember why you’re here.” It’s It’s not or no reason that those children were thanking my soldiers. This land, which I am learning to protect, is the great love o my lie. I love to touch it, to study it, to taste it, to see it. I love the people in it: the Jews, the Arabs, the rich and the poor, the Yemenites and the Anglos. I love this land because it protects me and people like me. It seems to me that there is no more tangible expression or this love than signicant service in the army. For me, and or the country, a soldier standing with an Israeli weapon, on an Israeli rontline, and ghting the enemy, is someone who loves the country and is doing something about it. But it’s not enough to be there. You must also educate others and get them to dream o being there too. You must give others the opportunity to become addicted to the love o this land, i n the most signicant way, way, in uniorm, with a rife, acing an enemy that must be deeated or acing soldiers who need to be taught. That’s why I’m a commander. Yair Yair Agmon (Amitei Bronman ‘04) was born in Jerusalem. He is serving in the Israeli Deense Forces in Southern Israel and training to be an ocer. This year, he published a book in Hebrew, Hebrew, entitled “Hapash.” The book includes the discussions Yair and his soldiers had about the weekly Torah portion; the second printing is coming out soon. n
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What Do We Need from Our Leaders Leaders?? ByRabbiSharonCohenAn ByRabbiShar onCohenAnisfeld isfeld This essay was written by Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld for The Samuel Bronfman Foundation “Why Be Jewish?” Conference, in May 2009.
L
et me begin by stating the obvious. When we speak o leaders, we are speaking about human beings. This is a sel-evident but elusive act o lie; we know it and yet we consistently expect or imagine our leaders to be superhuman, and we are disappointed when they are not. It is natural, when discussing leadership, to ocus on what makes leaders exceptional. I want to begin our discussion o leadership, instead, by ocusing on the shared humanity o those who assume leadership in a given situation, and those who are looking to others to provide leadership.1 Why is this important as a starting place or our conversation about leadership? Because it reminds us o what leaders can and cannot oer. Leaders cannot oer perect guidance, certainty, or control. As human beings, we must stand humbly beore the mystery o lie and o death. We cannot anticipate the
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uture, o course; but more than that, we cannot even hope to grasp the ull meaning o what has passed, or to understand the innite complexity o the moment in which we live. These are aspects o the human condition that we all share, though we experience and respond to them in dierent ways. To make matters worse, we are each uniquely imperect vessels, limited and fawed in our own particular ways. Our eectiveness as leaders depends, to a great extent, on our capacity to see, understand and respond compassionately to our own limitations and the limitations o others. What, then, can a good leader oer? Leaders can help awaken, respond to and give direction to the basic human need or meaning and connection. There are questions that beckon to each o us throughout our lives. Who am I? To whom am I responsible (or, who do I love?) What is my purpose? At times, we are prepared to ace these questions; at other times, or one reason or another, we may fee rom them. But, or those who wish to engage in authentic and eective leadership – particularly
religious leadership – the willingness to hear and respond to these questions with an open heart is essential. By asking these questions, not just once but repeatedly, repeatedly, at critical junctures in our lives, we enhance our capacity to act with integrity and to eect positive change in the world and in the li ves o those around us. We also invite others – through our example and infuence – to engage in their own process o purposeul refection and action. 2 This is what I have come to understand as the essence o good l eadership. Ultimately, Ultimately, a leader is dened not by the exceptional qualities that she may exhibit, but by the positive qualities and actions that she inspires in others. A brilliant artist may be unappreciated during her lietime, and only later recognized as a creative genius. But the standard by which a leader’s success must be measured is, by denition, relational. What matters most about a leader is what she brings out in others. The greatest leaders are not those who wield the most power, er, or even those who demonstrate the most impressive talents, but those who are able to elicit and inspire the very best in others.
Two models o leadership take shape in the early chapters o the biblical Exodus narrative. Pharaoh represents one model: absolute in its assertion o power, breath-taking in its arrogance, lie-denying in its rejection o all paradox and ambiguity. Moses represents a radically dierent model: a model ounded on humility, humility, interdependence, ambiguity, and an armation o the sanctity o human lie. Moses owed his lie to Pharaoh’s daughter, who – with courage and compassion – saw the Hebrew child and “drew him orth” out o the waters o the Nile River. “She [Pharaoh’s daughter] named him Moshe, explaining, ‘I drew him orth’ rom the water.” [Exodus 2:10] It is this act that constitutes one o the most important elements o true leadership – the act o seeing another and “drawing him orth” so that he can not only live but give new lie. It is this act that gives Moses his name, and it is this act that ultimately denes his lie’s work: to bring the people out o slavery not only in order to survive, but to serve and contribute to a greater purpose.
We are living in a historical moment o increasing scarcity and decreasing communal resources, but our human resources are as abundant as they have ever been – that is, endlessly abundant. The Jewish community can no longer aord to squander the enormous talent, creativity, creativity, and diversity that exists among us. When I think about what it means or a leader to have vision, I think about two things: Can you see beyond what is to what might be, and can you see the person standing right in ront o you? We need leaders with this kind o double vision. We need leaders who can see what each person has to oer and can help “draw them orth”, inspiring them to become creative contributors to the Jewish people and to the world.
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1 I hesitate to use the terms “leaders” and “ollowers” because I suspect that these categories are too static to capture the dynamic nature o these relationships. In one aspect o my lie, I may act as a leader, while in
another aspect, I may be a ollower; we are not only one thing or the other. 2 I am grateul to Dr. Bernard Steinberg, the Director o Harvard Hillel, who helped me appreciate the human value o leadership education by teaching me to think about it in this way. Rabbi Sharon Cohen Aniseld has been Dean o the Rabbinical School at Hebrew College since 2006. Prior to assuming this position, she servedas an adjunct aculty member at the Rabbinical School and then as Dean o Students. She graduated rom the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1990, and subsequently spent 15 years working in pluralistic settings as a Hillel rabbi at Tuts, Tuts, Yale and Harvard. She has been a rotating summer aculty member or the Bronman Youth Youth Fellowships in Israel since 1993. She is the co-editor o two volumes o women’s writings on Passover, The Women’s Women’s Seder Sourcebook and The Women’s Women’s Passover Companion. n
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Amplifying Impact– The BYFI Alumni Venture Fund
Quick Facts: Facts: tol vlue o ll grns: ....................... .......................... ... $92,100 Number o grns: ................ ................ 47 fellowship yers wih les one grn recipien:................... recipien:...................77% 77% Grns under $1000: .......... .......... 60% 2009 undrising ol rised:........................ ........................... ... $22,645 alumni milies who doned in 2009: ............ ................ .... 27%
compiled by Victoria Neiman
The BYFI Alumni Venture Fund enables alumni o the Bronman Youth Youth Fello wships to support their peers’ cuttingedge initiatives with unding and technical assistance. Since launching our undraising campaign in 2005, donations rom alumni and their amilies have enabled us to award grants to 47 innovative alumni-led projects that are helping to shape the Jewish community and the wider world.
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The $92,100 distributed in small grants is only part o the story. story. More exciting is the way the BYFI Alumni Venture Fund brings alumni together to share their technical skills and expertise through inormal mentorship and collaboration. In the coming years, we will continue to create opportunities or grantees to share successul strategies with one another and or alumni working in all disciplines to oer guidance that helps grantees grow their initiatives and organizations. All members o the BYFI alumni community are eligible to appl y. Grants support projects that seek to promote BYFI’s core values o Jewish learning, pluralism, engagement with
Israel, social responsibility or a combination o the above. Here are proiles o our Bronman Fellows who are making an impact.
Victoria Neiman grew up in Buenos Aires and moved to the United States to attend Yale University, where she received a BA in Theater and Art History. She currently lives in Brooklyn and is pursuing a career in Theater and Graphic Design.
set up residence next door to her childhood home, where her parents still live. But this move came with its downsides. “Because the Jewish community in Denver is smaller than those in other American cities, we couldn’t nd every single shade o Jewish lie here,” Julie explains. So Julie and Josh teamed up with another couple to create Minyan Na’aleh, an open and independent Jewish community which meets monthly to pray and provide support to its members. “We decided to start something that had the eel o an Orthodox shul and the openness and egalitarian bend o a Conservative one,” Julie explains.
Julie Geller, (BYfI ’91) Step Into Shabbat & Minyan Na’aleh Julie Geller (BYFI ’91) is a multitalented perormer and religious trailblazer. Though Julie has been singing and writing music since high school, it wasn’t until last summer that she made the dicult decision to leave her job as a public policy researcher at the Colorado Forum and transition to ull-time Jewish olk-singer. This year, with the help o a BYFI Venture Fund grant, Julie collaborated with her BYFI summer counselor and long-time riend Deb Dusansky ‘87 to create a CD entitled Step Into Shabbat. This project is intended to guide listeners o all ages through a unique Shabbat experience that ocuses on music, stories, prayer and a celebration o Jewish traditions old and new. Proceeds rom the CD served as a undraiser or Boulder Stepping Stones, an interaith inclusiveness organization led by Deb. The experience allowed Julie to combine her love o music and commitment to Judaism. “At the time, I elt like I was jumping o a cli, leaving a job with a salary, so it was miraculous to be able to go right into a project - and a un and meaningul one at that,” Julie refects.
Minyan Na’aleh has grown signicantly in its ve years, beginning as a monthly potluck and quickly expanding to oer holiday gatherings and amily retreats to the Rockies that include prayer, singing, hiking and yoga. The nature o the organization is such that it grows in accordance with the needs o the Minyan community. “Because we’re supplemental, we don’t have to ocus on bigger issues like children’s education or having a rabbi or weddings and unerals,” Julie notes. Nonetheless, Julie has worked tirelessly to ensure Na’aleh’s success, including helping the minyan secure support rom the BYFI Alumni Venture Fund during its early years. “We would like to oer more educational and social action programs,” she says, though budgetary restraints have made this dicult to achieve. She and her team o volunteers are currently applying or more grants and soon hope to hire an administrator to manage the increasing workload.
aricle ile In 2004, ater living in Boston, Israel and San Diego, Julie returned to her hometown with her husband Josh and their two children and
Julie remains committed to Na’aleh while working hard to orge her own music career. She perorms in many contexts both in the Jewish community, other religious communities, and olk-oriented venues. “So many people support and help me but it’s ultimately my deal, my path,” Julie adds. “When it comes down to it, i I don’t do it, nobody will.” For more inormation visit http://naaleh. weebly.com & http://www.juliegeller.com
Nom Pinko (BYfI ’90) The Kavana Cooperative Noam Pianko (BYFI ’90) is entering a period o change as he nishes the nal edits on his rst book and he, his wie Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum (BYFI ‘93) and their two year-old daughter, Yona, prepare to welcome a new addition into the amily. Noam and Rachel also served as aculty in 2003 and 2004. On these two occasions, they were able to experience the program as educators and urther appreciate the innovative approach taken. “The Bronman program is unique among high school Israel programs in its willingness to expose Fellows to a wide range o perspectives on the issues acing Israel. Being part o these conversations, as both Fellow and aculty, has been invaluable in pushing me to constantly evaluate my own understanding o the dicult political and social dilemmas the country aces,” Noam refects. Ater serving as a Bronman aculty member in 2003, Noam joined the Jackson School o International Studies at Washington University, as its rst ull-time proessor o Jewish Studies. “This gave me the opportunity to help shape our program and curriculum,” he says. “It was exciting to have that kind o responsibility.”
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While at the University o Washington, Naom has researched and written on issues pertaining to Modern Jewish political thought. His upcoming book, entitled “Zionism and the Roads Not Taken,” will be published this spring by Indiana University Press. The goal o the book is to take a resh look at the diverse expressions o pre-state Zionism, especially those that challenged the centrality o territorial sovereignty in dening Jewish nationhood. “As the global Jewish population settles into two equal centers in the United States and Israel, we will need to reopen dicult questions about the relevance o Zionism or Jews living in the Diaspora. It is my hope that the orgotten paths I explore in the book will help us critically reassess the meaning o Jewish peoplehood past, present, and uture.” In addition to debating this subject in his book, Noam will be leading one o six sessions in a discussion series on modern Jewish identity organized by The Kavana Cooperative, an independent Jewish community based in Seattle that was ounded by his wie Rachel as an alternative to the more traditional synagogue structure. The development o the series was unded, in part, through a BYFI Alumni Venture Fund grant. “With the series, we wanted to provide an environment or Kavana participants to discuss controversial topics about Israel in an open and sae setting,” Noam says. “In a sense, we want to create the type o conversations we were ortunate enough to have on the Bronman Fellowship here in Seattle.” Noam hopes to continue exploring modern Zionism personally and academically through his teaching and collaboration with Kavana. “I eel that addressing these realities o modern Judaism with honesty will ultimately oster a closer relationship with Israel,” Noam concludes.
riends and I wanted to have an institution that could acilitate the learning and teaching o Torah, we’d have to build it ourselves.”
Sr Bmberger (Yozm ‘97-‘98) The Bay Area Learning Initiative (BALI) Sara Bamberger (Yozma ‘97-‘98) is amiliar with the challenges o launching new ideas into the North American Jewish landscape. Ater graduating rom Yale with a degree in Religious Studies, Sara spent two years as a Yozma Fellow, an internship program run by the Bronman Youth Fellowships in the late ‘90s. During that time she helped launch Gann Academy: the New Jewish High School o Greater Boston. She later spent our years serving as the rst ulltime director o The Curriculum Initiative (tcionline.org), an organization that oers proessional development counseling, school presentations and extra-curricular programming to promote appreciation o Jewish culture and identity throughout the nation’s independent high school network. Today, Sara is, once again, at the oreront o pluralistic Jewish education as the lead proessional launching an adult Jewish learning program called the Bay Area Learning Institute (BALI).
For more inormation visit www.kavana.org “I was inspired to create BALI by the realization that there was a dearth o opportunities or serious pluralistic Jewish learning in the Bay Area,” Sara explains. Ater gathering a group o riends to brainstorm, they realized, “i my
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In partnership with the General Theological Union, BALI will provide the resources and training to a select group o dynamic and accomplished adults to study classical Jewish sources. Students will then lead Jewish learning and discussion groups within Jewish communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. The ultimate goal is to provide an intellectually engaging environment where individuals can delve into Jewish texts that may otherwise be inaccessible to them. Sara has gained valuable experience through the many challenges o starting a non-prot organization, particularly in this economic climate. “Fundraising and grant writing take enormous amounts o time and eort, which gives us less time to ocus on building the organization itsel,” Sara explains. Additionally, she recognizes, “it has been very hard to chisel our grand ideas down to a manageable human scale.” Ater nearly two years, Sara’s leadership and her team’s hard work are nally paying o. BALI educators are already teaching some inormal text study sessions or young Bay Area proessionals. In June a group o BYFI alumni and their riends enjoyed an engaging session organized by BALI and several BYFI alumni have oered to continue hosting similar events in the uture. In addition to some nancial support rom the BYFI Alumni Venture Fund, BALI was selected this past spring as one o the ve projects to be supported by Upstart Bay Area, a new incubator or Jewish social entrepreneurship. Upstart seeks to nurture pioneering Jewish groups with the goal o ostering strong Jewish identity in the Bay Area and beyond through innovative religious and cultural engagement activities. “Upstart has been invaluable at giving me an intensive course in social entrepreneurship and nonprot management,” she refects. “It has helped ll in some gaps in my proessional experience.” Sara hopes that BALI will be a center that “builds the uture o text-based Jewish learning in America.”
the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry. However, the actual logistics o nding volunteers, sucient unding or materials and a proper space or baking that complies with the Department o Health’s standards or ood preparation are ar rom simple. “We applied or the AVF grant to help us meet administrative costs, but our main goal is to purchase electric mixers,” Hannah says rankly. rankly. “Kneading 120 loaves-worth o dough can be very time consuming, let alone staying or another ew hours to braid it into challah.” Indeed, with better equipment, the whole process can be aster and more enjoyable, which ultimately translates to more volunteers.
One to Watch Hnnh Rbinowiz (BYfI ’07)
Generating interest rom volunteers does not seem to be a problem or Hannah or her team. “I believe our chapter has the greatest Hillel support o any other nationwide,” she says proudly. “It is very rewarding to have
events on campus this all. The week includes Catholic, Muslim, Atman and Jewish prayer services and educational activities, culminating in a discussion panel where religious leaders o each community are invited to speak. “It is going to be an exciting week and we are trying to have as many dierent religions and denominations represented as we can,” she explains. Hannah plans to continue making Judaism and religious understanding a large part o her lie and attributes her inspiration to organize this event to the academic and open-minded approach that Bronman instilled in her. “I’d go as ar as saying that it was the most ormative religious and social experience o my lie.” For more inormation visit www.challahorhunger.org
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Hannah Rabinowitz (BYFI ’07) is a sophomore at Washington University in St. Louis, where she majors in Earth and Planetary Science. With plans to continue as director o WashU’s chapter o Challah or Hunger, which she ounded in 2008, and organizing a weeklong pluralism activity series on campus this November, Hannah is keeping hersel active on campus and in the Jewish community. Hannah is a St Louis native and though she and her amily currently live in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the choice to return to her hometown to attend WashU was not a dicult one. “It was natural or me to come back to St Louis and I was particularly attracted by the act that I could nd a larger Jewish population here than back home,” she explains. It was both this sense o community and her prior interest in Challah or Hunger that inspired her to open the organization’s 11th 11th chapter at Washington University. The premise is simple: Students gather weekly to bake around 120 loaves o challah and sell them on and o campus in order to raise money that they donate in equal parts to the AJWS Sudan Relie and Advocacy Fund and another charity o their choice - in this case
ChallahforHungerdonatesproceedsfromchallahsalestocharity.
students come together or a cause that is so essential, regardless o religious or social background.” Then she adds with a laugh, “I also just love to bake!” Since her 2007 BYFI summer, Judaism and social action have grown increasingly important to Hannah. “The trip really changed my views on Judaism and as a result I made the decision to become more observant and active with my aith,” she says.
Done to support innovative projects through the BYfI alumni Venure fund: www.byi.org/done
To share her commitment to pluralism, Hannah is organizing a ull week o interaith
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“Judaism allows me to feel history vibrantly and urgently in my body” among he Bronmn lumni communiy’ communiy’ss diverse members re wo proessionl dncers, Jesse Zri (BYfI ‘95) nd asy Zlin (BYfI ’04). Ineresed in how heir r inerplys wih heir Judism, we sked hem o emil one noher nd le us in on heir experiences. Here re some excerps...
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JesseZaritt‘95performing.
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On eeling Jewish hisory in your body
always been happening…) as the North American Jewish world embraces and seeks out a blurring o this mind/body divide. The Jewish world is expanding, and the experience and knowledge o the body have a vital place within an increasingly accessible tradition.”
Asya: “I remember dancing to the theme rom Schindler’s List. I was the only Jew, surrounded by Catholics. In rehearsal, I was crying rom the moment I heard the quivering strings o the violin. I couldn’t stop. There were young kids in the group. I wondered i these kids even knew about the Holocaust. It took about seven or eight replays o the music beore I pulled mysel together. At the competition, we were dressed in rags with smudges on our aces. As the music aded out with the heart-wrenching violin, I ran o the stage crying. Everyone accosted me, wanting to know what had happened. How could I explain to them that the Holocaust had just happened? “‘It’s because I accidentally hit her at the end,’ one girl said.”
J esse: “In reading your writing, I was struck by how powerully your body is connected to the history o the Jewish people. This is a point o connection between us. As a dance artist, Judaism has taught me that through practice – prayer (binding, bowing) and ritual (the Passover Seder, asting) – it is possible to relive historical narratives. Judaism allows me to eel history vibrantly and urgently in my body. body. This embodied relationship to an imagined, but deeply elt past enriches my crat, giving me perormative and creative power. I am not alone when I stand beore an audience, I represent more than just mysel. “As a young adult, a central rustration surrounding my experience o Judaism was what I elt to be a radical and totalizing emphasis on the thinking, verbal mind in opposition to an intuitive, unpredictable body. It is with relie and optimism that I watch (or discover what has
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On Jewish upbringing Asya: “To be rank, Judaism and dancing are truly the two dening parts o me. They both have actually also been in confict with each other at times and have let me torn. It’s odd, to put it mildly, growing up in a modern orthodox/black hat community and still be dancing at age ourteen…in public…in leotards. Shabbos and perormances were also an issue. “And yet no one has ever discouraged me, at least to my ace. Everyone usually marveled at the act that I dance. I will not even consider, at this point, giving up dance. And having come to the wonderul United States as a reugee feeing Soviet antiSemitism, I will never ever relinquish, or even be indierent to my Jewish identity. I ght having to choose between the two. I want it all.”
J esse: “Like you, the history o my engagement with Jewish lie and texts is always present in my body, in my consciousness - orming one lens (among many) through which I view and interact with the world. However, my connection to Judaism is less a daily ritual practice and more o an accumulated context...
“Although I was raised in a traditional Conservative Jewish amily, I am no longer observant. While I grew up acutely aware o the divide between my aspiration to be an artist and the expectations and limitations o my amily’s (and community’s) observance, the nine years I have spent working proessionally as a dancer, choreographer and teacher, two o them in Israel, have calmed this opposition. While not wholly resolved – I like to eel a little bit like an outsider in both my Jewish and dance communities – I am increasingly comortable with the ways in which my dancing inorms my Jewish practices and with how Judaism inorms and shapes my artistic lie. “
On Jewish rdiion Asya: “As or me, Judaism only nds its way into my dancing every day and every time I dance. It seems like orever that I’ve been ghting with mysel about ballet class on Saturday aternoons, attempts to take it easy when asting, and what kosher ood to pack with me on tours. Ater internal battles about those issues, I needed, to the best o my ability, to give directors/teachers/riends a “logical” explanation or my limitations.”
J esse: “In my creative process, it oten eels correct and inevitable to conduct research into the mythic, historic, and spiritual narratives o Jewish texts. Most recently, my interest in identiying situatio ns in which opposite emotional and physical states exist simultaneously in the body led me to study sacrice in the Bible, specically the narrative o the binding o Isaac and the texts surrounding the Yom Kippur scapegoat. The spaces o silence within these texts oer me the possibility to imagine how violence, tenderness, devotion, resistance, ecstatic abandon and ear might meet in a single body.”
Bios Jesse Zaritt ‘95 received an MFA in Dance rom the Hollins University/ American American Dance Festival Festival in August 2008. Jesse is an artist in residence at the 14th Street Y in Manhattan, and was commissioned to create an evening length work or the LABA Festival o the 14th 14 th Street Y in May 2009. He has presented his own solo work in Israel, Mexico and New York City. Jesse has recently taught at Hollins University (VA, Spring Semester 2009) the American Dance Festival (NC, Summer 2008, 2009), and taught/choreographed or the Seminar HaKibbutzim College Theater Department, and the Acco Theater Festival (Israel, 20062007). Jesse was the recipient o a 2006-2007 Dorot Fellowship in Israel, which enabled him to develop a method or teaching movement to individuals with physical disabilities, and to conduct research on the relationship between political confict and choreography. Jesse spent ve years as a dancer with the Shen Wei Dance Arts Company (NYC 2001-2006), and spent a season dancing with the Inbal Pinto Dance Company (Tel Aviv 2008). Jesse graduated Cum Laude in 2000 rom Pomona College (CA).
Anastasiya Zlatina ‘04, of Moscow, Russia, immigrated to the United States in 1992. She trained throughout the DC/Baltimore area and graduated in May 2008 from Goucher College with a BA in Psychology and a BA in Dance. At Goucher, she had the privilege of working with talented coaches, as well as notable guest artists such as Ann Hutchinson Guest, Tiffany Mills, Michael Vernon and Nilas Martins. In spring of 2008, she had the opportunity to perform at the DiCapo in New York City with the Nilas Martins Dance Company. She has also performed at various venues, including the Kennedy Center, with the ClancyWorks Dance Company of Silver Spring, Maryland. She is currently an apprentice with Koresh Dance Company for the 2008-09 season. n
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BYfI Clss Noes YOZMA saRa HEitLER BaMBERGER. I’m living
in Berkeley with my husband, Ken Bamberger, berger, and our our children, Max (6), Isaiah (4), Niva (3) and Ezra (1). I direct the Religion, Politics and Globalization Program at UC Berkeley (rpgp.berkeley. (rpgp.berkeley. edu). I’ve also spent much o the last ew years helping to expand opportunities or pluralistic study o classical Jewish texts in the Bay Area. Our nascent organization, the Bay Area Learning Institute (BALI), was an honored recipient o an AVF grant this year. sHaRon JEdEL (Yozma 1996-1997) has
been living in Chicago since 2006. She is working as a clinical psychologist at Rush University Medical Center and also has a small private practice. 1987 HERsHEL BERMan. Well, this year I be-
came the second alumnus to hit the big 4-0. I celebrated it with my wie Xuan (as o this all we’ve been married 3 years). We now have 2 children. Miriam Rachel Luc Yin Ling Kuper Berman is 2 years and 3 months. Chaim Shaye Isaac Luc Yin Fai Kuper Berman is approaching the 10 month mark, and both are the same size. We marked this milestone o mine by taking 5-month old Chaim to Paris, where we were surprised that the Jewish community commemorates April 19, the anniversary o the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, with a large turnout. In North America, only a ew Bundist / Arbeter Ring diehards still do this, overwhelmed by the modern tendency to Israeliy everything (ie: Yom Hashoa). Old Jewish people still marvel when my mother speaks in Yiddish to her Asian looking grandchildren, and require medical assistance when they hear my granddaughter answer back in her mother (well, ather) tongue. I’m still practicing Internal Medicine at Toronto General Hospital, and Palliative Care (home visits) through Mount Sinai hospital. Having spent 6 years there it’s the longest job I’ve ever held. Despite all the work and the kids, we’ve still managed to take a couple o trips per year, and are living lie to the ullest. And or the rst time since I can remember, remember, Canada’s Canada’s leader is an idiot and the US’s is awesome. Well done, America. Our home is always open to any ellows passing through. dEB dusanskY. Another year here
in Boulder, Colorado. I have now been the director or 5 years o an independent outreach organization. I also have a private practice in counseling. This past summer I was the Judaic director at Camp Interlaken in northern Wisconsin. The kids and I had a blast though I worked a ton. Randi caiRns. Undergoing a minor
midlie crisis as I send my littlest o to kindergarten. Fortunately (or un-) dependent upon the day, our district still has only a hal day program or these guys which means I get to pretend or hal the day that my our year old has still not “let the nest” so to speak. I can’t believe that eight years ago I thought I was sending my last munchkin o to school and that I was so blessed to have my amily grow in the time since then.
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BronFMAn 2009
My husband is saely home rom deployment and working ull-time or the Army. In the time since last year’s year’s update I completed my Masters in Human Services with a specialty i n Nonprot Management. I’m renegotiating my work lie at the moment while also continuing to move orward with Home Front Hearts, the nonprot I started to serve and support military service members and their amilies. I would love to have greater input and involvement rom the Bronman community to this end and very much hope to have you all oer your unique skill sets accordingly! JoEL HoRnstEin. Not sure i I re-
ported our third son, Solomon, born in December. December. We intend that he be the l ast o our brood; meantime, his older brothers are growing up so ast: Jacob is now reading (a bit), and Benjamin just started preschool. Proessionally, I just handed o the CEO reins at the company I started our years ago. Mostly thrilled with the transition, which lets me ocus on the parts o the company I enjoy most, but it’s a urther reminder o how quickly the things we ather (or mother) take on a lie o their own. sHEiLa JELEn. I am on Sabbatical leave
rom my position at the University o Maryland researching a new project on popular ethnography and nostalgic perceptions o pre-Holocaust Jewish lie in Eastern Europe as based on li terature, photographs, and cinema in the US and Israel. I am enjoying w orking at home and spending more time with my three children Malka (11), Nava (8) and Akiva (3), and am expecting another baby in mid-January. mid-January. saRaH LaRson. Aidan (6) and Julia
(3) continue to keep us on our toes while we j uggle careers and Rob’s PhD studies. My consulting practice is weathering the recession and I’m working through January on a merger integration. My principle area o expertise is still leadership development and large scale organizational change. Sadly, most o the change out there these days is driven by cost containment but a ew o my clients are still investing in talent development. Whew. Next summer we’re thinking about taking a break rom our work and renting an apt somewhere abroad or 6 weeks while we add a room onto our house. Europe...Israel...still TBD. Always welcome calls/visits rom BYFI alum. daniEL JacoBson. I’m still living in
Neve Daniel, Gush Etzion, in the Judean Hills, working as a psychologist in private practice rom home and in Jerusalem. Also the Director o Student Services at Yeshivat Shvilei HaTorah, a Modern-Orthodox yeshiva or post high school boys spending a gap year in Israel, housed in the Goldstein Youth Youth Village. Recently spent Shabbat with Dassi and our kids, Tehila (13), Roni (almost 9), Yehuda (7), Tani (4), and Noam (almost 3) in the very same building at Goldstein where we spent much o the summer o ‘87. Recently co-authored a book, Flipping Out: Myth or Fact: the Impact o the Year in Israel (Yashar Books), based on my doctoral dissertation. Would love to host any
Bronmanim passing through these parts on the other side o the Atlantic (contact me at
[email protected]).
a Silicon Valley-based law rm. We’re active in our Jewish community (particularly our local JCC) and local schools.
scott LandsMan. I have developed
dEBY kannER. Claire Alexandra
a new spicy/salty peanut-almond-sunfower seed brittle recipe that will take over the world. Seriously, Seriously, it’s accidentally pareve/vegan and cannot be beat or taste, texture, and universal appeal. Am secretly in talks with the American Dental Association to widely promote it to teens. Still no job, marriage, baby, or academic breakthrough to report. I did get stuck up to my thigh on one leg in a snowbank on an Austrian high plateau in June. That was exciting or about 20 seconds. Broke o one o my trekking poles getting out. From November08 through May09 I was volunteering two days a week or the Alliance or Climate Protection but then they closed the west coast oce to concentrate grassroots and lobbying orces in DC. It was new or an organization to leave me and not the other way round. Do I win a prize or being the oldest Bronmanim legally able to marry who has not?
Ambinder Kanner was born on May 18th, 2009 in New York to me and my husband Evan Ambinder. Ambinder. Her Hebrew names are Genya Nessi.
Missi (RuBEnzik) RosEnFELd. I am
doing great, still practicing anesthesia in downtown Phoenix, raising 2 wonderul kids. Ethan is in 2nd grade at Pardes Jewish Day School and a master o paper airplanes and lego Star Wars. Will start encing next month (I also enced in college)! Elle is in pre-K at the Jcc, a cheerleader, cheerleader, yoga student, and wonderul little girl. My husband is also an anesthesiologist here @ Mayo and in a rock band. We went to Israel this summer and it was incredible! I hadn’t been in 10 years! We traveled to Cesaria, Masada, Ein Gedi, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem. It was so much more modern and tourist- riendly. riendly. Surprisingly my Hebrew wasn’t halbad... Everyone we met made us eel at home. Hope to return very soon. I just turned 39 and got a composter or my birthday - trying to be greener. Read Julie and Julia, that whole vampire series, now reading David Sedaris book. Hello to Sarah, Dan, Hal, Adam, Joel, Reba, Debbie and all the Bronmanim. Wishing you a happy and healthy New Year! 1988 LauRa LiEBMan-aLPERson. I’m lov-
ing my work as the Major Gits Ocer at Albany Law and passed the NY bar last year (hopeully the last one I’ll ever take!) My sons are wonderul -- Yoav just turned three and Matan is 16 months. And I get to see Ava Charne on a pretty regular basis which is an additional plus to my living in the Albany area. MaYa FiscHHoFF. I am still in East
Lansing, working at Michigan State (until the state’s wretched budget hits home!). I am recently engaged, to Ziad Youss, who is a champ. We plan a summer wedding on a arm, appropriate to our deindustrializing State (or state). aaRon HEndELMan. My wie, Chris-
tina and I live in Mercer Island, WA (next to Seattle) with our three kids Tess (age 9), Noah (age 7), and Ella (4). I eel like the only person o our generation to essentially still have my rst proessional job—I continue to be an intellectual property lawyer with Wilson Sonsini,
MicHELLE LYnn-sacHs. LYnn-sacHs. I live in Ft.
Greene, Brooklyn, with my husband, Steve, and our daughter, Phoebe. I’m on the aculty at the Jewish Theological Seminary, in the Jewish education department. JoE MEnasHE. Deborah Musher, my
wie, and I are relishing in the joys and challenges o raising children. Molly is 4 and Gabriel is 2. I am still happily working as a rabbi with a congregation in Dallas, TX. JosH WaLLack. My wie Liz and I had
a son, Hugo, in January, and we are happily spending our weekends pushing his stroller around Park Slope, Brooklyn. Brooklyn. I am still working or Mayor Mike Bloomberg on economic development and aordable housing issues. 1989CollectedbyAmirKarger aMiR BaR-LEv married Jennier Bleyer
in July 2008, and in June 2009 their daughter Yael Zephyr Bar-Lev was born. They live in Brooklyn, where Amir directs documentaries. His latest, on the ootball player turned soldier Pat Tillman, is due to premiere in early 2010. david BERns. My wie Lee-Anne and
I have twin boys, Aaron and Sam, who will be ve in October. Since early 2008, we’ve been in Cairo, Egypt where I’ve been working at the U.S. Embassy covering human rights. Lee-Anne is an attorney and has been working in Cairo or a British law rm. stEvEn BiRnHoLz. Moved to Tampa
to become the Florida Council o 100’s 100’s Research & Issues Director. (The Council is a membership organization o Florida’s Florida’s top CEOs.) Wi e Kristan and I have two kids, Megan 11 and Kelsey 7, who love living near their grandparents and other amily in Tampa. anGELa WaRnick BucHdaHL. I’m
living in New York City with my husband, Jacob and our 3 kids. 2 boys, Gabriel and Eli, who are at the Heschel school. And my daughter, Rose, who is in preschool. I am the Senior Cantor at Central Synagogue, in midtown Manhattan. Because o my close proximity to the Seagrams Building and the beauty o our historic sanctuary, Shimon has asked me to host young Bronmanim every year as they come back or their ollow-up program in New York. Seeing them all brings me back! When I retire rom this lie, I aspire to open a spiritual spa as a rabbi/cantor/yogi/slow ood evangelist/spiritual guide. JoHn dukE. My wie (Susan) and 2
year-old girl (Lila) moved to Indiana last summer or my ellowship in Medical Inormatics at Indiana University. It has been an amazing experience and we have been unexpectedly delighted with the Midwest. I have been having a great time doing research involving electronic health records, visualization
o medical data, and improving patient saety through inormation technology. My wie continues to work in advertising and is due in November with our second baby. We miss our amily back in Atlanta, but it seems a little distance can prove a healthy thing!
me. In other news, I had a mid-lie crisis last month and bought a guitar, so I can write more songs about being a 37 yearold programmer living in an exurb who has a mid-lie crisis and buys and guitar, so I can.....
JEssica GREGG. Zoe is 5 and Sasha is 12
months. We live in Charleston, SC. High end hand-abricated jewelry is slow and I’m looking into new career beginnings. Taking a psychology class at the Citadel-public military school where cadets march around in line and sing.
brated our 10th wedding anniversary. The celebrations included hiking and rating in Idaho o all places and seeing “Hair” on Broadway. We are running ourselves ragged trying to keep up with Eitan (two and a hal), which keeps us busier than our respective jobs.
RacHEL coHEn. News on our end is
sHaWn RuBY. On our side, not much
pretty much the same as last year--the only new piece o ino is that we added another kiddie to the crew. Her name is Natalie Eve and she is 1 and lots o un to dress up in dresses and bows. That makes 3 kids or the Cohen clan. Other than that, we still live in Stamord, CT. Ephraim (who, like Amir K., recently had a “mid lie crisis” and bought a guitar and is now ound in most spare moments with his nose in a music theory book or other) still has his own pr/marketing business. It’s a wonder he has time or the biz given his many hobbies-in addition to guitar, lately he has been planting trees all over our back yard, building a re pit (also in our back yard) and then roasting a turkey on a spit, taking our boys on camping trips, and as always making his world renowned pizza. Yummy. Yummy. Adam, our oldest, is 8 and going into third grade at the local Jewish day school. He loves karate, math, and sometimes the guitar, too. Benjamin is 4 and is going into pre-k at the local Chabad nursery. He loves trains and airplanes and we have spent way too many hours at the local airport watching planes take o and land.
has changed. We are still living in Raanana and I am still working at Cadence Design Systems. I recently started a part-time MBA (mostly because I was bored at work). Tammy is the head o the Math Department at a teacher’s college in Jerusalem. In March we celebrated my oldest daughter, Eliana’s, Bat Mitzvah. Eliana is a math whiz and artist, and soon to be tested or her black belt in Tae Kwon Doe. My 10 year-old Keren is a gymnastics end, like Amir K’s daughter - she spends more time upside down than right side up it seems. She is also a budding author and working on chapter 6 o her rst novel. Noam, our youngest, is 8, and is deying all genetics by being really into sports. At Eliana’s Bat Mitzvah, I dusted o my old guitar skills and led a sing-a-long preshabbat Carlebach Kabbalat Shabbat. I can still play (somewhat!). Tammy, Eliana and I also started singing in a choir, which has been a lot o un. We love living in Israel, although we can’t discuss politics at home anymore, as I get more let-wing by the year, and Tammy gets more rightwing. Recently Jon Bell was in Israel to visit his brother, and we got together or lunch. I would love to see anyone else coming through the holy land or a visit.
aBiGaiL HiRscH. Adam and I cel-
ebrated our 10th anniversary last week and we now have all elementary school aged children-- Harel in Kindergarten, Boaz in 2nd grade and Elazar in 4th. It’s been really un to start to eel like we’re out o the young children haze and doing all sorts o activiti es we haven’t done, well in 9 years-- biking, camping to name a couple. On the proessional ront, I’m running a small interactive media company, company, Torque Interactive Media, that specializes in making web-based activities that bridge the gap between un and education/training/public service. We just completed a series o disaster preparedness activities or the Bay Area Red Cross that was a ton o un. Our company also continues to make marriage and relationship skills education products-- including the rst ever way to take a un relationship skills class in your pajamas--www.po2.com. aMiR kaRGER. We’ve been in Sharon,
MA almost ve years, and hope to stay orever. My daughter, eight, is a gymnastics end (scary to watch!) who sometimes ails to hide her budding math ability. My son turned six last week and built a whole lego set himsel. I’m thinking engineer, but he insists he wants to be a car salesman. The best part o their growing up is that they’re getting a sense o humor. The worst part - sometimes they use it on
dana RaucHER. Yossi and I just cele-
scott savitz. Since earning my Ph.D.
in chemical engineering, I’ve spent much o the last decade roaming the world on behal o the U.S. Navy. Most o my ocus was on counterterrorism issues (particularly o the chemical/biochemical/biological/radiological sort) and deenses against naval mines. I now support the Department o Homeland Security in a similar capacity. Far more importantly, I am now married to a wonderul woman, Natalya. We live in Arlington, just south o Washington, DC. REnEE stEin continues to live in the
Atlanta area with her husband Gregg Shapiro and son Sam, age 2 years. She is Conservator or the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University where she oversees the treatment and preventive care o the collections, including antiquities and ethnographic objects. She also teaches or the University and supervises student interns. MikaEL WoLFE. I nally nished and
graduated with my Ph.D. in history rom the University o Chicago in August 2009. I have a postdoctoral ellowship at the Center or US-Mexican Studies at University o Caliornia-San Diego or the year through June 2010 where I hope to complete a manuscript o my dissertation titled “Water and Revolution: The Politics,
Ecology and Technology o Agrarian Reorm in Mexico.” 1990CollectedbyDianaBloom diana BLooM. Still living in Tampa
Florida and holding out hope that eventually 1990 ellows will give in to the mouse ears and visit. Just celebrated my 12th wedding anniversary to Aaron and our twins Eliana and Gil 5 1/2 just started kindergarten. I am still working or Weight Watchers International as a acilitator, public relations ambassador, ambassador, and mentor and still working or Mike Scott and Associates as an eciency and productivity consultant or companies all over North America. Jon BREsMan. Jonathan Bresman
and his ancée, Nellie Zupancic, are getting married in the spring, so he’s pretty excited about that. On the work ront, he is consulting or Hasbro these days (the toy company, not the hospital), and he’s also still in grad school part time at Teachers College, Columbia University in the Communication and Education program, ocusing on “comics and their potential.” Yossi “JoE” FEndEL. I’m still mar-
ried to Tamar and ather to Shoshana 6 Ari 3 and new born Amir Gershon “Rami” Fendel. Living in Berkeley, CA and work or Barclays Global Investors in SF, which was just bought and will soon become BlackRock Global Investors. So, yeah, I’m in nance. But I think I’m one o the good guys! I’m the current Board Chair o Midrasha in Berkeley, a Jewish teen program that has produced many alumni, including Lisa Inman, Megan Lewis, and mysel rom 1990! I’m also the ounder and captain o the Golden Golems, a team o puzzle hunters in the Bay Area. MicHaH GottLiEB. My daughter Ga-
briella just turned 3 and my daughter Jordanna turned 1. Ilana and I recently bought a house in White Plains and I just nished my book: Faith and Freedom: Moses Mendelssohn’s Theological-Political Thought, which will be published by Oxord next year. avi HELLER - RaBBi avi, Shira, Nadav
(8), Rinat (5) and Uriel (2) - have just moved into the Upper West Side o Manhattan where I will be the Director o Education or the Manhattan Jewish Experience, an organization that helps connect or re-connect young proessionals in their 20’s and 30’s to their Judaism. We’d be happy to hear rom, meet or reconnect with Bronmanim out here. You can reach us at rabbiavi@ jewishexperience.org BREtt kRicHivER. Our daughter Sierra
is now three and clearly running the house. Tami will nish her PsyD next spring, and just completed her dissertation on Positive Psychology and the Jewish Holidays. I’ve started my second year at UCLA Hillel, and the three o us are taking ull advantage o being in LA this summer - the beach, the trac, the theater, the trac, the parks, and o course, the trac kiM van naaRdEn-BRaun. We
moved to Westeld, NJ about a year ago and so ar so good. Josh is work-
ing at Morristown Memorial Hospital as a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and also has a private practice in Summit, NJ. I’m still with the Developmental Developmental Disabilities Branch within CDC (hard to believe it has been been over 11 years). Our work with autism and cerebral palsy, in particular, is keeping me very busy (look or new results by the end o the year, hopeully sooner). The kids are great. Sophie is 4 1/2 starting kindergarten next week and Sam is 2 1/2 and going to preschool. They are both precious (I’m very objective) and keep us on our toes. 1991CollectedbyJulieGeller The 91’s have been up to some great stu! sHiRa REiFMan writes that “eight months ago we were blessed with a beautiul baby girl, girl, Rut(h) Shoshana. She is our th daughter and rst sabra. We made aliyah two years ago and we l ive in Yad Binyamin, a community about 40 minutes West o o Jerusalem. I have just taken over as the Executive Director o Machon Maayan, a gap year seminary or girls rom a wide range o backgrounds, located in Bet Shemesh.” Mazal tov to dana WEinBERG who received tenure this year! REBEcca MiLdER writes that, although she works as a rabbi educator at a central agency or Jewish education in Chicago, “most o my energy and brain-power goes to my amily in general and, in particular, our 3-year-old, Abe, and our 12-month-old, Hannah.” We are pleased to say that Rebecca reports that “Lie is splendid.” Etan coHEn and his wie Emily welcomed a baby boy, Maccabee, 18 months months ago. Maccabee joins his twin sisters, Dani and Beverly, Beverly, now 5 and a hal. He and his amily are still in the Pico-Robertson area o LA where Etan continues to write movies and Emily is working on a graphic memoir about growing up Native American and Jewish. Etan just started a Wexner Heritage Fellowship, which has many echoes o the Bronman summer. Mazal tov to Yaavi oRLoW, wie Adina, and sons Yadid and Yishama who just welcomed a daughter, daughter, Emunah, into the amily! LEaH oPPEnzato is living in Brooklyn with her wie and 20 month old son Jeremy and teaching 7th grade i n New Jersey. aMBER sELiGson writes that her third daughter, daughter, Tamar, Tamar, was born last all, and that she, her husband Gadi, and Tamar’s sisters are enjoying the baby very much. Amber is directing a unit in the New York City Health Department that is working on incarceration and homelessness and is currently a Scholar in the Northeast Regional Public Health Leadership Institute. JuLiE GELLER lives in Denver with her husband Josh and two kids and is enjoying lie as a ull-time musician. Now that she gets to work at home, the only thing she misses rom her years on the payroll is her bike commute. MaRta WEiss and husband Alex are still living in London. Marta is loving her j ob as Curator o Photographs at the Victoria and Albert Museum and they are eagerly awaiting the birth o their rst child this all. daniEL siLvERBERG is still with the oreign aairs committee. His wie, Sarah started a presentation skills training business or nonprots, which is just taking o. He writes that i anyone is looking
BYFI.org
23
BYfI Clss Noes or someone to conduct training on making great presentations, “she’s your person! www.greenroomspeakwww.greenroomspeakers.com.” His son Matan just started at the local jewish community school. 1992CollectedbyElijahDornstreich ELiJaH doRnstREicH. I have been in touch with a number o alumni over the past year, including Warren Braunig, who has recently served on BYFI’s Alumni Advisory Board, and David Ponet, who’s about to start! For my part, I just returned rom a great 2-week vacation in Israel - much needed R&R. I promptly quit my job at the mortgage bank I had been working at or a year (it had been a while coming), and am starting o on my own again, with a start-up marketing company, doing residential mortgages, small business loans, and other consumer nancial products. In addition, I’ve pitched my parents on working together on a business plan or transition o the amily organic vegetable arm, so that they can retire. I am single (looking or Ms. Right) and living as ever in Philly, which is great. aLiza tHoMPson writes that her third daughter, Nora June, was born on August 26, 2009! I also heard rom aRi RotH, who is married (Nanci) with two kids (Savi, 4 and Emma, 1), living in Columbia, MD. He got his PhD in International Relations a ew years back and is currently the Associate Director o the graduate program in Security Studies at Johns Hopkins. I heard rom the wonderully modest MicHaEL BRoWn, who writes “Thanks or helping us all stay connected - I really value the Bronman amily even all these years later. Compared to many o the ‘92 olks my lie seems remarkably “under-accomplished”. I still live in San Francisco and maybe always will. I am single. No girlriend. No babies. No pets. Nothin’. I’m not trying to remain single; then again, I’m not in a rush to get hitched just or the sake o it. I guess I still haven’t quite ound the perect match. I there are two staples o my lie, they would be music and ood. I sing with an a cappella group on a weekly basis that I ounded maybe two years ago. We’re called The Fillmore Slims, named ater a legendary rogue that roamed San Francisco’s streets in the 1970’s.We are a strictly amateur group. I also train weekly with a antastic vocal coach rom the SF Opera. He’s just great and I can’t believe he puts up with my howling. Food has become an increasingly important part o my lie and in the past year I have spent a bunch o vacation time working in the kitchen o an Italian restaurant to hone my skills. I’ve also held many a dinner party and luncheon so as to nd an excuse to experiment with new favors and techniques. I absolutely love ood equipment and gear and can tell you all sorts o useless trivia about antique meat slicers and ches’ knives. All Bronmanim are welcome to come by or a home-cooked meal any time. For work, I run Corporate Development at Facebook. I enjoy the youthul energy and culture at Facebook, but I still long to start a company and have more
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BronFMAn 2009
creative control over my own product. Not sure i I’m brave enough to make the plunge but we’ll see...”david andoRskY writes that “My biggest news is that Joanna and I had our rst child - a daughter, named Dalia Ronit. She is beautiul and precious and we eel incredibly blessed. We are all doing well aside rom sleep deprivation. The whole experience is quite humbling. Proessionally, I have nally completed 10 years (!) o medical training and have joined the aculty at UCLA in the Division o Hematology/Oncology.” naHanni Rous writes to say that
“Ned and Shalvah [their daughter] and I have moved back to New Hampshire or a while, where we are enjoying living with my parents and leading a country lie. I am still working with Just Vision part time, getting my chuppah making business started, and spending as much time as I can with Shalvah, who is two and wonderul. We are only an hour rom Boston, and welcome visitors.” taMaR GoRdon is “still living on the Upper West Side (not completely happily), still married to Rabbi Josh Cahan (very happily), and am still blessed with a wonderul son named Elisha, born 11/26/07. My private practice is going well and keeps me sane when my clinic supervisor job is rather more insane. Josh recently published a bencher that some o you may want to check out at www.yedidneesh.net. It is egalitarian, beautiully laid out, has all new translations and commentary by Josh, and, possibly or the rst time ever in a bencher, has transliteration that can actually be useul to a non Hebrew reader. Hence, it is quite nice or those o us living in amilies with mixed levels o Jewish knowledge and comort. Our hope is to move to Chicago at some point where I would continue to practice psychology and Josh would like to open an egalitarian Yeshiva, similar to the Kollel he started 7 years ago at Camp Ramah in WI. Unortunately, the economy crashing has put a temporary halt on our plans as every hospital and university in the Mid-West has a hiring reeze, making it rather dicult or me to nd work, or, or that matter, or Josh to nd donors!” JEREMY PERLMan writes that he is “still out in LA and just got engaged in April. My ancee is Vietnamese and is planning to convert to Judaism (which may delay our wedding or a while, since I understand the conversion process takes some time). She is a dental student and is having the National Health Service Corps pay or her tuition. This means that in our years we’ll be heading out to the boonies somewhere (as in Northern Exposure) to serve the under-served. Eventually we’d like to do work in international health care. For now, I’m working as a pediatrician at Cedars-Sinai Hospital here in LA. I haven’t seen many Bronmanim lately, but hopeully we can arrange another west-coast get-together soon.” REna (davis) nickERson is “still living in Thornhill, a suburb o Toronto (actually in the “City Above Toronto,” as my New York parents like to jibe) with my
husband Yehuda and my 2 kids, Tieret (10) and Gavriel (5). Last spring, I moved rom Campbell to Krat, and am now Senior Product Manager or Maxwell House coee. At least my product is kosher, this go round, though, ironically, I am not a coee drinker. drinker. And no, I can’t take credit or President Obama using the Maxwell House Haggadah at the White House seder, though my dad likes to believe it was all my doing, and then some. I am still on the board o my synagogue, Ayin L’Tzion, a small modern Orthodox, Zionist shul located in my kids’ school, and my husband & I still maintain our hobby o trying to help riends with career advice or nding jobs -- needed too oten, though the Canadian economy is less hard hit than the US. The really exciting update is actually on my daughter’s summer – she spent 4 weeks with aunts & uncles in Israel, 10 days with my olks in NYC and another 10 days at our riend’s cottage. 7 weeks away rom home and rom her parents. Apparently she missed me more than the car but less than her bed. Her poor brother was alone a lot with his parents this summer, though I think he actually liked all the attention.” david PonEt is working at UNICEF and getting married in February. WaRREn BRauniG. All is well with me. A big trade secrets case I’ve been working or years is in trial and that’s been a lot o un. Intrigue. Deceit. Semiconductors. Sounds thrilling, eh? Living in San Francisco with my wie Lindsay and son Ike, who is now teen months old and a crazy, unny kid. Thinking about buying a house in the city, watching the seasons slip by a little too ast, wondering what we’re really going to do with our lie and careers. “A hello rom saRaH FLickER in Canada. Just got married this summer. We had a very un Jewish Chinese Humanist wedding in Toronto - where Eric & I live. These days, I am a pro in environmental studies at York and am happy being a newlywed.” SaRaH GiLLERs nELson. “I just had baby #2, Naomi Simone, at the end o July. Lie is complicated but good. We are still in Chicago but hoping to move back to Miami to be with our amilies as soon as the economy lets us.” Thanks to all o you!! - Elijah 1993 aLLiE aLPERovicH had a baby girl
this past February -- Hannah (born Feb 3, 2009). Big sister Emma is starting kindergarten at Ramaz this all. She is inishing a two-year term on the BYFI AAB, which she calls “great un,” and allowed her to work with ellow BYFI ’93 ellow Wayne Jones. She is still working as an attorney at Ropes and Gray in NYC. “In my “spare time,” I am working on the upcoming JOFA (Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance) conerence and coordinate youth programming or our shul, Darkhei Noam,” she says. david BELL is living and working in
New York. He and a partner started a company that sells international news ootage to online and broadcast news media. “We’re in the beginning stages, but excited to give viewers an uniltered
look at important global events that would otherwise go unreported or remain hidden rom scrutiny,” he says. He is also working part-time as a corporate attorney and representing Iraqi translators or the U.S. military who are threatened due to their ailiation with the U.S. and are seeking resettlement here or international reugee status with the U.N. JosHua GoodMan is living in Rio
de Janeiro as a reporter covering economics and politics in Latin America or Bloomberg News. WaYnE JonEs will likely take the role
o President o the Alumni Advisory Board or next year and is excited to be part o the agenda o alumni activities. His work continues at Oracle as Senior Director o Business Services, with a scope o responsibility that covers market intelligence, sales enablement, knowledge management, and other enabling services or all revenue generating teams in North America. andY katzMan recently married Sarah
Cowan, BFYI ’97. He also started a new job at Yahoo in Sunnyvale, CA, running operations or business development. YEHuda kuRtzER and his wie
Stephanie are still living in Brookline MA with their two boys, Noah (age 3) and Jesse (1). Stephanie is a real estate attorney with a big Boston-based irm, and Yehuda is beginning his 2nd (and inal) year at Brandeis as a Visiting Proessor under the auspices o the Charles Bronman chair. “The position has given me extraordinary lexibility to think, write and teach, and this past year has been exciting and productive,” he says. He is currently teaching a graduate course on Jewi sh leadership and thinking a lot about memory and the ways in which traditional Jewish theological categories - awe, love, aith - can be selectively reappropriated or contemporary Jewish identity. He is also still involved with The Washington Square Minyan, which has proved to be very ulilling. taLia MiLGRoM-ELcott celebrated
daughter Oren’s second summer (she turned one July 4) with trips to Park City, Utah and the San Juan Islands; with new tastes (blackberries picked on the side o the road in San Juan) and touches (pine needles on hikes in Park City) and lots o playtime with her cousins. Also some early mornings as she transitioned to west-coast time. Talia continues her work in urban-education reorm unding strategies to get great teachers and principals into high-need schools. Husband Aaron Dorman just became the vice president or programs at American Jewish World Service, overseeing its grantmaking, service, advocacy and education work. In December, they took the deservedly well-worn path to Park Slope, Brooklyn, to a lovely duplex with a big backyard near Prospect Park. RacHEL nussBauM is happy to
be living in Seattle and working as the rabbi/executive director o the Kavana Cooperative (www.kavana. org), a dynamic and pluralistic Jewish
community that just celebrated its 3rd anniversary. anniversary. She is married to Noam Pianko (BYFI ‘90) and daughter Yona is 2 years old. Baby #2 i s anticipated later this all. She would love to host any Bronmanim visiting Seattle. JEssica Radin is returning to teach-
ing ater a leave o absence during which I took literature classes and did some writing. “My husband and I continue to be in limbo ater my mother’s passing although we hope to eel more settled by the winter. We will be moving out o my mother’s mother’s apartment ater she lived there or 40+ years. Crazy,” she says. Jessica continues to teach at The Beacon School, a public high school in Manhattan, this year it’s 10th grade Global History and 11th grade English. She also sees Katherine Eckstein on a regular basis and recently had the privilege o hearing Yehuda do a brilliant talk at NYU, where it was wonderul to hear the exciting work he’s doing and catch up. MiRiaM HELLER stERn is Director o
Curriculum and Research at American Jewish University’s Fingerhut School o Education in Los Angeles, where she teaches graduate students in education, leads a project to revise curriculum and develop innovative approaches to train Jewish educators and directs a teaching certiicate program designed or teachers in Orthodox day schools. “I eel ortunate to have the opportunity to work or a transdenominational institution o higher education -- how Bronmanesque.” Her research on Jewish emale settlement workers in the early twentieth century will be published in a book called “The Women Who Reconstructed American Jewish Education” (expected Spring 2010). In her “spare” time, she and husband Jonathan are raising two outrageously cute boys, Elijah, 4, and Judah, 9 months. Max stRassFELd has made his
name change oicial and legal. Max and his partner bought a new house in the Mission neighborhood o San Francisco, 2851 25th Street, SF, CA 94110. He continues a doctoral program in Talmud, working on the categories o the androgynous and tumtum, roughly equivalent to the notion o intersex. LauREn WinnER is living in North Car-
olina, teaching at Duke Divinity School and recently completed her ourth book, an academic monograph she claims no one will read called, A Cheerul and Comortable Faith: Anglican Religious Practice in the Elite Households o Eighteenth-Century Virginia. katHERinE katHERinE EckstEin is living in NYC
and working as the director o public policy or the Children’s Aid Society, a large NGO, where she works on local, state and national issues related to kids and education, health, child welare, and juvenile justice. She is about to make the big move to Brooklyn. daniEL FREEMan lives in London,
where he works as an investor in emerging markets. He was recently spotted in Istanbul, Dubai and Basel.
tatYana tRakHt lives in NYC with
RacHEL FaRBiaRz now lives in
her husband David and son Isaac (3.5 yr). Tatyana and David are both lawyers at large NYC irms.
Washington, D.C., with her husband Alex Laskey. Until about a year and hal ago, she was practicing law in the San Francisco Bay Area, ocusing on the civil rights and humane treatment o prisoners. Rachel’s Rachel’s work brought her to many o Caliornia’s prisons, but none as oten as San Quentin, where she helped to improve the basic living conditions on death row. Rachel is now taking a break rom lawyering and is loving writing and making art.
HEatHER sokoLoFF is living in
Montreal, her hometown where she begins each day by walking daughter Talia (3.5) to preschool at the nearby synagogue and then taking son Jacob (14 months) to play in the park. Jacob and Oren, the daughter o Talia Milgrom-Elcott, were born on the same day, July 4th 2008, and Talia and Heather are in touch supporting each other as mothers. She occasionally writes or the Globe and Mail, a Canadian daily. Her husband Lev Bukhman recently underwent surgery or thyroid cancer and is happily on the mend. She would love to host any Bronmanim visiting Montreal. 1994CollectedbyRachelFarbiarz In May 2009, aRiEL adEsnik married Susanna Chu in a ceremony perormed by his mother, Rabbi Judith Hauptman. “Aterwards, there was wild simcha dancing, as well as a earsome dance o two lions, presented by the Wong People Lion Dancers.” Susanna and Ariel recently bought their rst home, in northwest Washington D.C. Ariel is back at the Institute or Deense Analyses (a ederally-unded research institute that supports the Pentagon) nishing two “sobering, but intellectually exciting” projects on counterinsurgency. The rst is a broad historical look at 40 dierent insurgencies and the second is ocused on current eorts in Aghanistan to exert infuence without using orce. Ariel is “always glad to hear rom other Bronmanim with an interest in the subject.” JudY BataLion. BataLion. On Sept 9, 2001,
I went to London or an 8-month ellowship and somehow ended up staying or 8 years. At rst I worked as an art historian and curator, but slowly moved to working as a reelance writer and perormer (mainly comedy) -- perorming stand-up in the UK ended up being an incredible (and airly traumatic) learning experience about the crat and British culture. In the past couple o years I’ve done a l ot o traveling (mainly Asia and Eastern Europe - my husband is very involved in restoring houses in the ormer Yugoslav). Yugoslav). Indeed, earlier this year, I wedded a sping British Jew. We just moved to NYC a ew weeks ago where I am now re-acculturating and reverseculture-shocking while waiting or work papers. I look orward to catching up with local olk! As or being in my 30s: extreme physiotherapy, physiotherapy, sleep clinics, and like zero tolerance or liquor. daRa HoRn lives with husband Bren-
dan Schulman and their children Maya (4), Ari (2) and Eli (6 months) in Short Hills, NJ. With a Phd rom Harvard in Hebrew and Yiddish literature and three published novels, she is generally “busy with babies and books. Babies are more un, but books are less likely to throw up on one’s pants.” All Other Nights, Dara’s most recent book, is about Jewish spies in the Civil War.
sHiRa (MiLLER-JacoBs) FisHMan
lives in Wynnewood, PA with her husband Michael and daughter Orly (1.5). She recently nished her PhD in psychology and works at the University o Maryland’s National Consortium or the Study o Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, Terrorism, organizing a task orce on radicalization indicators. Her husband is a second year radiology resident. Matti FRiEdMan is a correspondent
with the Associated Press in Jerusalem, where he lives with his wie, Naama, and their twin boys, Michael and Aviv (2.5). RacHEL GoRdan is currently a ellow
at the Center or Jewish History in NY where she’s researching her dissertation on “Post-WWII American Judaism: How Judaism Became An American Religion.” Rache reports: “Dissertating has been more un than I’d expected, and yet, not nearly as interesting as speaking to the real, live ‘Post-WWII Jews’ who are Bronmanim!” EMiL kLEinHaus. Following eight
years in New Haven (college, law school, clerkship), Emil has been practicing law or ve years in New York at Wachtell Lipton, ocusing on bankruptcy matters. In 2006, Emil married Joanna Mazur and in May 2009 they welcomed daughter Sara Georgina. He’d love t o reconnect with Bronman alums! Ater spending three “glorious years at Stanord Law,” ollowed by a ew in her hometown o San Francisco, aLisa MaLL let behind her lie as a real estate lawyer or work at Tishman Speyer in NY. She now works at the Carnegie Corporation o NY overseeing the endowment’s dowment’s real estate portolio. Though she misses her amily and struggles at times with “lie in the big bad city” she loves her job and colleagues—and still manages to do several triathlons a year! Alisa reports that she is: “Very happy in my personal lie, but no signicant ‘lie cycle events’ yet….” itaMaR MosEs has spent the past
ten years in NY, the last ve o which he’s been living in Park Slope. Itamar’s plays have been produced throughout the US—and once in Saskatoon, “which is apparently in Canada.” He doesn’t “know who did the translation,” but is “told the work sounded okay even with all o its vowel sounds changed.” Itamar’s plays are also published, by Faber&Faber and Samuel French, which he mentions “mainly in the hopes o boosting my Amazon ranking.” Itamar urther reports: “Also, sometimes I am orced to fy at a moments notice to Hollywood to have
meetings about a lm or TV project that is coalescing with terriying urgency so I have to get in the room now now now, oh wait, it ell apart, never mind. There was a time when I thought about giving up writing, but that was at 8:30 this morning, and I’m over it now.” Ater completing medical and graduate schools, nadYa RasHkovEtskaYa now works as a medical monitor at a Cincinnati pharmaceutical company. This year, Nadya’s “parents’ dream came true” when she married “a nice Jewish boy” whose parents immigrated rom Ukraine about the same time as her own. They’ll be honeymooning on a cruise in the Mediterranean this all. itia (sHMidMan) RotH is happily
residing in Brookline, MA where she lives with her husband Menachem and their two children Emma (4) and Joshua (2). Itia practices labor and employment law. JacoB sadikMan lives in Toronto
with his wie Samara and their two daughters Yaa Yaa (2.5) and Navah (8 months). He practices energy and inrastructure law at a large rm where he’s been since law school. Jake reports that he’s he’s “very much content in (and grateul or) my amily and proessional lie.” 1995 aLYsHEa austERn. Big news is that
we’re expecting our rst kid to arrive in February! We’re pretty pretty psyched. Otherwise things are pretty much the same -- we’re in Brooklyn, both working or law rms. Lisa ExLER. I recently took on the po-
sition o acting director o education at American Jewish World Service. Elie, Maytal and I moved to Washington Heights (otherwise known as upstate Manhattan) a year ago and are loving our views o the Hudson River. MicHaEL FRazER. I’m an assistant
proessor o government and social studies at Harvard. My rst book, “The Enlightenment o Sympathy: Refective Sentimentalism in the Eighteenth Century and Today” should be out rom Oxord University Press by May or June. More importantly, my son Oren’s rst birthday is October 3. iLana kuRsHan. I spent this past
summer teaching the 2009 ellows -- I taught a class on scenes o seduction in the Talmud, and had the opportunity to relive my Bronman summer ourteen years later. I am living in Jerusalem (or ve years now), where I work in book publishing and study and teach Talmud. JEssica MEEd. I am currently living
in Chapel Hill, NC where I am nishing a Ph.D. in Health Policy. My ocus is on Mental Health Policy or American service members and their amilies. I have also just started work at a program called the Citizen Soldier Support Program (CSSP) which is trying to build supports or members o the Guard and Reserve who live away rom military bases. Over the last year I have made mysel busy trying to keep my proessional skills rom getting rusty while I am “stuck” in school. I spent 4 BYFI.org
25
BYfI Clss Noes months working on disaster relie with the public health service, ollowed by a semester internship with the North Carolina State Senate. I would love to have any Bronman over or Shabbat i you happen to be in Chapel Hill.
help. I would especially love to tutor beginners – adults or children – in Torah and Rabbinics, or to tutor middle or high school students in writing, English, history, social studies, etc.”
sonYa scHnEidER. Sonya lives in
boutique clothing store in Nashville, TN. Until she brings one to your city, visit her at www.twoelle.com.
Seattle, WA, with her husband, Stuart, and their un-loving daughter, Calliope Pearl, born October, October, 2008. She continues her playwriting pursuits; she is currently at work on her new play, Boy Lies, and will begin adapting The Optimist’s Daughter or Book-It Repertory Theatre this all. Sonya and amily just returned rom Alaska, where they spent a week on the Kenai Peninsula, easting their eyes on salmon, bears and majestic bald eagles. MicHELLE stERntHaL. I’m doing a
post-doctorate ellowship at Harvard School o Public Health, ocusing on racial disparities in health. Living in Boston, working with Margie Klein (96) on organizing young Jews or social justice. 1996CollectedbyMatthewRascoff There is joy to report rom the 1996 Bronmanim: an engagement, new babies, new jobs, all the things that make these columns a pleasure to read (and to compile). JonatHan WacHtER “got en-
gaged to a nice lady named Rachel Fleisher rom Wayne, NJ on May 25. We’ll be getting married in October.” adaM MaGnus and his wie Laura
had a daughter, Netta Sage Magnus (born 7/29/09). Yoni EnGELHaRt, his wie Talia, and
two children Yakira (2) and Nadav (6 months) are living in Brookline, MA while he just began the second year o his MBA at Harvard. sHEiLa nazaRian MoBin is “en joying one more year o rom plastic surgery residency residency at USC. She is loving time with Leila, 2-years-old, Arya, 9-months-old, and her husband, Fardad. She is keeping even more busy researching at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and obtaining a Masters in Medical Management at USC Marshall (a wonderul program she recommends to any doctor).” MiRiaM sHEinBEin is “now a second
year resident in amily medicine. Living in SF with husband and 20 month old. Yaron just signed a lease on a commercial property on 24th st in the Mission with plans to open a sandwich shop. Overall we are doing really well.” taLi GRiFFEL wrote that “we moved
back to Jerusalem and I’m a physical therapist (nally).” Ater living, working, and studying in Israel or a year, adina GERvER is now back in New York. Starting in September 2009, she “will be studying in the Drisha Scholars Circle and participating in the Drisha Arts Fellowship, as a creative non-ction writer.... I set up Adina Gerver Consulting beore I went o to Israel a year ago. Please let me know i you know anyone in need o writing (including grant-writing), editing, or tutoring
26
BronFMAn 2009
RacHEL LoWE opened Two Elle, a
MaRGiE kLEin is “entering my sec-
ond-to-last year o rabbinical school, and still running Moishe House Boston: Kavod Jewish Social Justice House, which is a really exciting community to be a part o right now. I’ve been dating a wonderul guy named Shalom or the past couple years – introduced to me by none other than Marissa Harord (96).” MicHaL scHaRLin “recently began
a year-long ellowship in palliative care (read: Death Panel) at the Veterans Health Administration in Los Angeles.” JaMEs davis and Stephanie “have
relocated to Hollywood, FL so that she can be close to her amily. She is now a ully trained orthodontist and gives a whole new meaning to ‘zoke keum’. I’m doing General General Surgery resiresidency at Jackson Memorial Hospital.” MattHEW RascoFF “I graduated
rom Harvard Business School in the spring and have spent the summer interviewing or jobs in education and technology and doing a consulting study or a non-prot, called the Tobin Project, that is chaired by one my proessors. Where I will settle is still TBD: the top candidate cities are New York, Washington DC, and Seattle.” 1997 ELi BataLion is trying to work out
whether he belongs in Montreal or LA. He appears in and helped create a Coke short lm/commercial entitled “Meanwhile...” which won this year’s Coca-Cola Rereshing Filmmaker’s Filmmaker’s Award and which will appear on 21,000 screens across the US this all. People can check it out at www.ccra. com (click on 2009 winner). In May, andY katzMan (‘93) and saRaH coWan (‘97) got married. “Many Bronmanim were there in attendance -- Becky Voorwinde, Warren Braunig, Matthew Rasco, Ruth Kaplan and Avlana Eisenberg -- and many more in spirit. That’s the biggest news on our ront. We continue to live in San Francisco doing our daily thing, having a great time and welcoming guests.” isaac dovERE. I’m living in New York, still running two magazines about New York politics, and managing to cause more trouble or all sorts o people or the people in and around government who have become quite skilled at running this city and state into the ground. Lie is good on other ronts as well--girlriend, apartment on the Upper West Side 7 blocks away rom the one I grew up in, occasional moments when I’m not on deadline. JEFF GoRdon. It’s been a whirlwind o
a summer or me. Most excitingly, I got married on August 23rd to Sara Froikin,
my best riend o the last ten years. In the weeks leading up to the wedding I also managed to nish up my Ph.D. in Plant Breeding at Cornell, which roughly ocused on virus-resistant tomato varieties in West Arica. As o late-September, Sara and I are packing our bags or a move to D.C., where Sara will be a legal ellow at the EPA, and where I will be working with a riend rom grad school on a new project to develop online arm management sotware tools or small to mediumsized arms. I any o you nd yourselves in D.C. please do drop me a line! JonatHan GRiBEtz is a ellow at the University o Pennsylvania’s Pennsylvania’s Center or Advanced Judaic Studies this year. He and his wie Sarit Kattan Gribetz live in Princeton and are the proud parents o Sophie and Daniela, identical twins born this past April. stEvEn ExLER is nervous and ex-
cited to begin his second year as Associate Rabbi at Hebrew Institute o Riverdale. He received Semikhah Semikhah (rabbinic ordination) rom Yeshivat Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in June. JEssica FEcHtoR lives in Cam-
bridge, MA with her husband, Eli Schleier. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Yiddish literature at Harvard University. In January, January, she started a ood-inspired blog called Sweet Amandine (www.sweetamandine.com). donYa kHaLiLi just moved to
Louisville, Kentucky to work as a law clerk or Judge Boyce Martin. She welcomes visitors or mint juleps and visiting horses anytime. taYLoR kRauss. I spent a ew weeks
this September ollowing Olara Otunnu, a Ugandan presidential hopeul, which was an eye opening experience about Uganda’s Uganda’s struggle or ree and air elections. I would love to be in touch with any BYFI Uganda-philes. Our work in Rwanda continues, but on the home ront, I am looking orward to getting married to Moriah Brier next year. zinaida MiLLER. As perhaps anyone
could have predicted, I couldn’t bear to stay away rom school or more than a couple o years, so despite a law degree, I have gone back or a doctorate. I am currently pursuing a PhD in International Relations at the Fletcher School at Tuts, and I’m also still a Visiting Fellow in International Studies at Brown. Yes, those are in dierent cities. Yes, it is as inconvenient as it sounds. However, great un too. I still work primarily on human rights and postconfict justice, and I’ve also spent a air amount o time in Israel/Palestine over the last couple o years, pursuing a project about Israeli occupation and international humanitarian aid. BEckY (PaLEY) vooRWindE. In my
rst year as BYFI Director o Alumni Engagement, I’ve immensely enjoyed working with members o the alumni community and supporting the development o an ongoing strategy. Mick and I did some travelling this year: Visiting his amily in Australia, riends in Israel, and exploring Hong Kong and Vietnam.
In May, we celebrated with lovely Sarah Cowan ‘97 & Andy Katzman ‘93 at their wonderul wedding. david WoLkEnFELd spent the sum-
mer o 2009 as a member o the summer aculty at the Drisha Institute or Jewish Education and as the “summer rabbi” at Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York. In September, he and Sara returned to Princeton to direct the Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus (JLIC) program at Princeton University or a second year. Somewhat recent pictures o their children can be ound at TheWolkeneldKids.blogspot.com. ELisHEva (GLass) Yuan and her
husband, Conan, took a belated honeymoon to South Arica, Victoria Falls, and Mauritius earlier this year, and they highly recommend a similar trip or any adventurous adventurous travelers! They’re hoping to travel to Argentina later this year. Elisheva’s Elisheva’s nieces *adore* their new rabbi, stEvEn ExLER. 1998CollectedbyNickFitch To begin with the most the j oyous event to happen in our circle in the past year, another BYFI ‘98 alumnus has started a amily. sHosHanna LocksHin writes: “Seth and I are delighted to share the news o our daughter’s daughter’s birth. Hadas Brenda Lockshin Winberg was born on October 13, 2008.” I had the pleasure o taking little Hadas to the park with Seth and Shoshie in July, and want to tell everyone that she is the sweetest and best natured baby imaginable. From LaRa kisLinGER I’ve happily learned that another child has entered the (extended) ’98 amily. Lara writes: “Lance and I were married three years ago by beloved rabbi Susan Silverman, and ater spending most o the last 10 years on the East Coast (college, law school - with a year in Israel in between), we’ve been back in LA or the last 2, in a un community called Silverlake. I’m a Public Deender or LA County, currently stationed in Compton, and Lance works or Munger, Munger, Tolles, and Olson, a law rm downtown. No babies or us, however I did have the privilege o traveling to Addis Ababa with Rabbi Susan to adopt her 5th child, Zamir.” Also married and working as a public deender is JEnniFER soBLE. I got to see Jenny and daniEL kuRtz-PHELan in Washington in August. Dan recently moved down to the District to begin a job on the Secretary o State’s policy planning sta and is living in Dupont Ci rcle. I unortunately missed saRaH BELLER on my visit, but in response to my emails, she wrote: “I am getting married this weekend. Looking orward to being in touch!” We’ll have to wait until next year’s year’s magazine or the ull story (I promise it’s a good one—I introduced the bride and groom). But in the meantime, let’s all wish Sarah a collective Mazel Tov! BYFI ’98 in act saw two August weddings. EMMa kiPPLEY-oGMan, now in her th year at Hebrew College in Boston married Benj Kamm on August 23rd 23 rd.. Our year has done Dianne, Jim, Shimon, and
Susan very proud, with several members o the group dedicating themselves to the study o the Jewish tradition and to careers serving the Jewish community. RacHEL koRt writes: “I’m still enjoying lie in Brooklyn with my husband o three years, Dan Steingart. I’m in my 6th 6th and nal year o rabbinic school at Hebrew Union College. I took an extra year at HUC to pursue a master’s degree in Religious Education. Along with school, I work as the rabbinic intern and amily educator at the Reorm Temple o Forest Hills in Queens. My rabbinic studies have taken me all over the world; I have served communities in Arkansas, Central Pennsylvania, Long Island, Ukraine, and India. I was in Senegal this summer under the auspices o the America Jewish World Service doing service learning with 24 other rabbinic students rom across the Jewish spectrum (very Bronmanesque).” On the academic side, ELi sacks reports: “I live on the Upper East Side o Manhattan with my wie Liz, who’s a cantor at a synagogue in midtown (Central Synagogue). I’m currently pursuing a Ph.D. in philosophy o religion and Jewish thought at Princeton, and my dissertation will probably ocus on the relationship between the German and Hebrew writings o Moses Mendelssohn.” Both Yonina RosEnBauM and JudY sERLin are in law school. Judy has started her second year and reports: “Juan Pablo and I had our second anniversary in May. We’re poor but happy.” Yonina (who ran i nto Shoshie in the park this summer and was overwhelmed by the incredible cuteness o baby Hadas) still holds the distinction o being the most athletic member o the group. She writes: “I’m completing my third season as a triathlete, trekked a glacier in Argentina in my continuing pursuit to cover the our corners o the earth, and tomorrow, or my latest trick, will try to get out o jury duty.” (Good luck: I’ve postponed our times now and the State o New York York is still ater me.) I got to see anJuLi LEBoWitz, returned rom Arica, at the Bronman summer event in New York. York. Anjuli is living in Brooklyn and working or the American Federation o Arts, a non-prot that organizes art exhibitions. Another New Yorker, Yorker, JosHua sEGaL writes: “I’m currently working as a Portolio Manager or BlueMountain Capital Management, a hedge und in Manhattan. I’m also working towards a master’s degree in Mathematics part-time. For un, I try to go to as many music concerts as is humanly possible.” Hopeully in the next year some o the more geographically dispersed members o the group will pass through New York. York. From the Georgia, asHER auEL reports that, “Ater 5 year at the University o Pennsylvania, I got my PhD in Mathematics in May 2009! Then I moved to the South, y’all. First to Winston-Salem, NC (where my girlriend has a xed term curatorial/proessor position at Wake Forest University) and nally to Atlanta, GA where I’ll start a National Science Foundation unded
3-year postdoc at Emory University. You’re You’re looking at your tax dollars at work. In the mean time, I’ve volunteered or many years at the West Philadelphia nonprot Neighborhood Bike Works, learned many recipes rom my grandmother (including her holy hammantashen dough), and enjoyed the bounty o a bumper crop rom my garden.” Remarkably, Remarkably, Asher wasn’t the only ‘98’er to nish his PhD this the past year. JosH Wnuk say: “I successully deended my doctorate in Chemistry rom Johns Hopkins University in May and am now a postdoctoral research associate in the Chemistry department at Princeton University. My wie and I recently recently celebrated our one year wedding anniversary and are happily continuing to work on the construction project we call home.” Congratulations Asher and Josh! You are both inspirations to those o us who are still on the road o school. On the West Coast, zEv BaLsEn is at UC Berkeley researching orests and res. Zev luckily will be able to see JERusHaH BRock , who is living in Berkeley. Last but not least, sHELLi FaRHadian and I are both continuing our doctoral studies in New York. York. I am studying art hist ory at Columbia and Shelli is getting her MD/ PhD at Cornell. For the past two years since I moved to New York, Shelli’s parents have kindly included me (and this past year my grandmother as well) at their Seder table. Pesach at the Farhadian house is the occasion that I most look orward to throughout the year and the one that makes New York eel like home or me. Thank you! 1999CollectedbyLizKilstein Soon to-be-Rabbi JosEPH BERMan reports: I’m going in to my th (and nal!) year at Hebrew College rabbinical school in Boston (where I get to see Lev Nelson every day!). As a community organizer, I recently coounded a Jewish-Muslim Leadership Team, am helping create a student government at Hebrew College, and work on a campaign in Jamaica Plain (my neighborhood) or aordable housing. It’ll be a busy year as I’ve also got a number o rabbi gigs: a rabbinic internship at Temple Shalom in Newton, student rabbi at the University o Vermont Hillel, and I’ll continue to work with Interaith Community Boston as a amily educator. educator. I get around the city on my bicycle and when I’m not working like to cook and read antasy (Octavia Butler anyone?).
Hebrew College, second-year rabbinical student LEv nELson is marrying Eliana Meirowitz in November! He lives in Brookline, MA and the couple will be in Israel or the next academic year. Mogul RacHaEL WaGnER has moved and shaken her way back to New York City. She wrote in: “About a year ago, I let my job at Blackstone, a big, conventional nance rm, to help open the New York oce or Lion Capital, a smaller, somewhat less conventional private equity rm headquartered in London. It’s been great to be
in a more entrepreneurial environment, and because the new rm specializes in investments in retail and consumer businesses, I get to count time spent window-shopping at my avorite stores as “research.” The highlight so ar was spending our months this spring in the London oce, getting to know the team there. London was a blast but it’s nice to be back in NYC, where I’ve just moved in with Sam Abrams, my boyriend o ve and a hal years. In a very happy surprise, he asked me to marry him just ater Rosh Hashanah. A very sweet New Year indeed!” Meanwhile, aaRon oRkin is headed to the UK: he graduated rom a amily medicine residency program at the Northern Ontario School o Medicine (Thunder Bay, Ontario) just a ew months ago. He spent the summer in the wilderness, traveling or 42 days over 1000 km by canoe with one other person. They saw 11 people the whole summer, with a stretch o 21 days without seeing a soul (or rather without seeing a human soul). He is now practicing amily and emergency medicine in Fergus, Ontario. This all, Aaron will begin MSc studies at Oxord in the History and Philosophy o Medicine, Science, and Technology. His partner, Julia, a pediatrics resident, will also be studying at Oxord. He would love to connect with any BYFI olks romping around Oxord! Closer to (my) home, susan PuLtPuLtMan is starting her second ull year at Widener University studying towards a Masters in Social Work and Masters in Education in Human Sexuality. Her eldwork this year will be at University City High School in Philadelphia, working at the Health Resource Center. She’ll be doing pregnancy and STD testing and all o the counseling and education that goes with it. Susan is also the Director o Marketing and Programming or The Collaborative, a social organization or Jewish 20- and 30- somethings in Philadelphia. Over the summer, Susan trained or her rst triathlon. An intense thunderstorm sadly shut down the race ater she completed 2 out o 3 pieces, but we know that she would have nished strong. Congratulations to ELizaBEtH catE, Esquire on her graduation rom NYU Law. Elizabeth writes: ater graduating rom NYU Law School in May 2008 (has it really been over a year??), I received a ellowship rom a New York law rm, Dewey & LeBoeu, to work at the Legal A id Society’s Juvenile Rights Practice in Brooklyn, New York. I’ve been working at Legal Aid since November 2008 as a juvenile public deender, deender, and absolutely love my job - I’m in court every day, and I’m a complete sucker or all my clients (especially the guilty guilty ones!). My ellowship is nished in January 2010, ater which my whereabouts are tbd. Though I work in Brooklyn, I live i n Manhattan, so enjoy a reverse commute and the ability to pretend to be a hipster at ater-work happy happy hours. I any o you Bronmanim are in NYC anytime soon, drop a line i you’d like to grab a
beverage and/or stay at my place (my couch is very comortable -- ask Joe Fishman or Erin Schar!) Another lawyer in our ranks is tERRi GinsBERG. Ater two years teaching in Edison, NJ, Terri went back to law school at Georgetown. She’s just begun work as a 1st year associate at Sutherland, Asbill and Brennan in DC. Editor’s note: Terri manages to balance an associate’s lie with being ull-time awesome. david PLunkEtt is working on his
PhD in Philosophy at the University o Michigan, Ann Arbor. He lived in a cabin in Jackson Hole, Wyoming last winter and will be returning there again in January. Sometimes he goes to Finnegan’s Wake reading groups with Brett Lockspeiser in San Francisco, plays with David Mahouda’s giant American fag in Brooklyn, or sends Shira Simon text messages in Cambridge. He aspires to learn how to run long distances bareoot and eat more ood in Queens with Matt Goldberg. JosH FoER recently moved to New
Haven with his wie Dinah, who is a rst-year at Yale Medical School. HannaH saRvasY’s work on a dying
language documentation project in remote villages o Sierra Leone has been picked up by the NY Times and the Village Voice! The July 28, 2009 New York Times article was accompanied by a video o Hannah’s role in the project. Links to the video, the article, and the VOA video blog are available at: http:// video.nytimes.com/video/2009/06/05/ multimedia/1194840735933/saving-alanguage-in-sierra-leone.html http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/ science/28pro.html?_r=1 http://www.voanews.com/english/lostvoices.cm Liz kiLstEin. I am a second-year law
student at NYU, where I oten see Erin Schar, Moses Sternstein (‘00), and Stephanie Kantor (‘02). I sometime even catch glimpses o Proessor Sam Rasco ’90 in the hallways. I’m CoChair o the Jewish Law Students this year, so i any other Bronman alumni are lurking among NYU Law’s ranks, please be in touch! 2000CollectedbyDannyGreene Liba and Micah are engaged! davE coHEn. I just started medical
school at Penn and am drowning, or the most part enjoyably, enjoyably, in science. I live in Philadelphia. HannaH FaRBER. I am in my second
year o a PhD program in American history at UC Berkeley and will be marrying Derek Miller next summer. Derek is also getting a PhD, in perormance studies, at Stanord. We live i n Berkeley. JEssE FinkELstEin. FinkELstEin. My company
opened a store. jandson.com. Stop by. Yay! 19 Kenmare, in NYC. It’s good. That’s That’s all I got. MicaH FitzERMan-BLuE is in LA,
running a new media production company (www.5432lms.com). When he’s he’s not writing or waiti ng patiently or Liba to come home rom London, he’s BYFI.org
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BYfI Clss Noes procrastinating via gardening, gourmet cooking, and pining or a puppy. Yakov FRYdMan-koHL. I just
got married to a lovely lady named Sarah Nemzer (rst cousin o Sarah Brodbar-Nemzer, BYFI 2001), we are living in Jerusalem, and I will be in my nal year o law school at Hebrew U this year. MicHaEL GEnsHEiMER. I’m in my last
year o medical school at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee, and do research on using medical imaging to assess response to cancer therapy. I’m applying this year or radiation oncology residency programs. dannY GREEnE. For two years, I’ve
been living in beautiul San Francisco, working at Current TV, Al Gore’s TV network and web media company, company, which got our journalists back rom North Korea earlier this summer. summer. (Yay!) aLLison LautERBacH. I’ve em-
braced a lie o academic masochism in my third year o a PhD program in history at USC. I’ll be writing my dissertation on the history o American oreign policy pertaining to amily planning and population control, rom the Marshalll Plan to the Global Gag Rule. In my ree time, I am applying to law school to do a joint degree. ELan LiPson. Last year I moved rom
Manhattan to West LA to begin a 3year master o architecture program at UCLA. This summer I spent recovering and recuperating, designing and modeling an unusual Japanese ski resort with a riend rom my oce in NY, NY, and discovering the world o LA minus UC. anat MaYtaL graduated rom
ERic “sHaPPY” sHaPiRo. I live in
Raleigh, NC where I work as an enrollment counselor at the University o Phoenix. Last December I nished my MBA rom Phoenix and I was recently promoted, so work is good. cEE stRauss. I am in Montreal and just started an MA in communications at McGill. The philosophy o technology is just about the only t hing I ever think about anyway, so why not just admit it ormally, you know? ERic tRaGER. I’m a Ph.D. student in
political science at UPenn, where I’m ocusing on Egyptian opposition politics. I’m happily married to the same woman I dated or most o college (Alyssa, a lawyer); living in Philadelphia; and I am currently running or inspector o election within my 2-by-3 block district. aLicE PHiLLiPs WaLdEn. I recently
got married and moved to Cambridge, MA. The rest o my lie is a main dish o ancient philosophy, with heaping sides o ormal poetry, poetry, ancy pastry, lm, and perhaps the occasional piece o fimsy, pointless alliteration. 2001CollectedbyBenMagarik ELi BRaun. Eli Braun is working or the Ohio Justice & Policy Center in Cincinnati or evidence-based reorm o the criminal justice system. He enjoys taking ormerly incarcerated homeless clients out to expensive lunches
Boston University School o Law and inally moved back to NYC (ater eight long years away). I took the NY Bar Exam in July. Otherwise, I’m enjoying being back in the city, starting to work at a small trials/investigations trials/investigations irm, cooking/baking, running, and dating a Jewish republican.
I have just moved to College Park, MD. He’s working in DC or the government, and I’m continuing to work on my Near East Studies dissertation or Princeton. My dissertation concerns the lie, poetry, and literary theory o `Abd Allah ibn al-Mu`tazz.
REBEcca (RuBins) noEckER. I’m in
MELissa koRn. I just moved to
ELisaBEtH coHEn. My husband and
largely in Brooklyn, where I have resided or several years. When I’m not singing songs about the southland, I enjoy amassing large student loans and, on occasion, studying the law. I nish ater this year.
Chelsea, shacking up with my boyriend o almost two years. Loving the new apartment and neighborhood, a whopping 10 blocks north o my old place. I’m still working or Dow Jones Newswires, writing articles or the wire and Wall Street Journal about personal nance and corporate aairs related to student lenders and the or-prot education sector and loving every minute o it. I went to Istanbul this spring and did a bit more local travel this summer (Curacao or a Bat Mitzvah, DC and San Fran this summer). Figuring out where to take my next adventure. Any suggestions are welcome!
GisELLE REvaH. I am still living in
aRiELLa kuRsHan. I’m happily living in
Pune, India working as a recruiter with Teach For India (based on the Teach For America model). I spend my time traveling around the country making presentations at various colleges and corporations to recruit outstanding young people to join the movement. Got married to Shane Noecker a year ago (hence the name change). JosEPH nussBauM. I spend my days
Toronto (probably will never move) and I’m in my third year o my Radiology residency at U o T. T. As or music, I am still playing the violin, mostly now or weddings and other simchas, but will most likely rejoin the University Orchestra this all. LiBa WEniG RuBEnstEin. Ater
the Inauguration, I let MySpace
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and moved to London to establish a Corporate Social Responsibility and energy/ environment strategy or News Corporation’s newspaper company in the UK. As o October I’ll take on the responsibility o leading sustainability initiatives across the whole company globally.
BronFMAn 2009
Washington, D.C., where I work as an antitrust/economic consultant at NERA. I’m a member and volunteer at DC Minyan, along with a number o BYFI alumni. RacHEL LautER. Just started my 2nd
year at Harvard Law School. I began work at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau (Michelle Obama is an alum), where I primarily represent low-income clients
in eviction proceedings. This means more real lawyering, less class. Still very active in local Brooklyn politics when not in school (or, remotely when in school). Would love to hear rom people involved in progressive politics on local or ederal level, particularly people involved in good government, urban aairs, voting rights, and economic justice issues. I am i n need o career advice, seriously. zacH Luck is very excited to announce
that he will be getting married to Sara Igdalo in May. May. Zach lives in Chicago where he is a second year law student. Any alums in Chicago, either permanently or passing through, should say hi. Yonina MuRciano-GoRoFF. I’m in
the nal year o my doctorate at Oxord, ater which I’ll be heading back to Harvard to complete my M.D. My dissertation is on the history o international collaboration in the ght against cancer. BEn MaGaRik. Ater two years com-
muting to Southeast Asia rom the East Village, Ben let Digital Divide Data in June. He spent most o the summer in Central/Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean, with an extended stop in Israel to participate in ROI120 and visit Bethlehem with Encounter. Since getting back to the states, he’s been working on a business plan or a non-prot intern placement agency and planning to move to Washington, D.C. ELizaBEtH ocHs is living in Provi-
dence, RI, serving as the Editor o Street Sights newspaper about homelessness in Rhode Island, and coordinating the homeless legal clinic at the Rhode Island Coalition or the Homeless. EzRa RaPoPoRt. Personal: Last
year my wie, Sondra Renee Rapoport, and I were married. We have a beautiul baby boy, Julian Ezra Rapoport, now one year old. We are all very happy. happy. Proessional: I let the world o Industrial Automation early this year and accepted a position developing Automated Trading strategies or a well established - and highly infuential - market-making rm dealing mostly in currencies/commodities. RaPHaEL RosEn. Helping build a
solar power start-up company in Manhattan. No babies. Loves dogs. Still writing ction. Liz sHRiER. Liz graduated rom Johns
Hopkins in 2008 with a Masters in Arts and Teaching, lives in Baltimore with her husband, Donni Engelhart. She currently teaches 7th grade at Aya Public Charter School, a Baltimore City public school committed to physical tness, nutrition and academic excellence. cHana soLoMon-scHWa soLoMon-scHWaRtz. Rtz. Ater
three years in Washington, DC, Chana Solomon-Schwartz has decided that it’s time or ve more! This all she started a PhD in political science at George Washington University and is nding out just what grad school is all about. She has spent the past ew years at the Saban Center or Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. Chana has recently become a soccer an, where she is a
proud supporter o Manchester City, and took a driving tour this summer through West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio or a pre-grad school hurrah. RaYsH WEiss is nally back in Minneapolis (ater a three-month itinerary: Krakow-Lviv-Berlin-Amsterdam-DallasLA-Chicago-Minneapolis-Rindge-West Orange-too many places to list in Israel), entering into her third year o the PhD program in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies at the University o Minnesota. Aside rom her studies and teaching at the university, university, this year she looks orward to playing lots o Klezmer and Batucada and starting a havurah in Minnesota. Give her a holler i you know o anyone who might be interested in participating! Raysh especially enjoyed seeing so many Bronmanim at the National Havurah Community institute this summer during her time as an Everett Fellow.
2002CollectedbyNaamahPaley david “GatEs” Back goes to law school in Boston. sandRa di caPua is living in New York York where she continues to pursue her passion (also reerred to as “obsession”) or ood, cooking, and hospitality. She works at Eleven Madison Park restaurant and spends her ree time, well, you can probably guess. aaRon cHaRLoP-PoWERs recently
returned rom Thailand where he was working or the United Nations World Food Programme. He lives in New York, works at the UN Oice o the Special Envoy to Haiti and enjoys building and riding bikes. aBBY FRiEdMan. Ater two years
as an economic research assistant in Cambridge, MA., Abby returned to school this all as a doctoral student in the economics track o Harvard’s Health Policy PhD program. She plans to ocus on the intersection o demography, development, and health, with a particular interest in low-cost, high-yield interventions geared towards improving maternal, child, and adolescent health in developing regions.” BinnY kaGEdan is currently pursuing
an M.A. in Jewish Thought at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and living on the Upper West Side o Manhattan. taLYa kaGEdan is living in New York,
in her second year o a doctoral program in School Psychology. YonaH kRakoWskY is living in
Toronto, where he began his third year as a medical student at the University o Toronto. anYa ManninG writes, “Soo....big
news irst...I got engaged to Elie Lehmann! Long time b o 4 years. In more boring news, I am in my 2nd year o the Schusterman Insight Fellowship where I work at 3 Jewish non-proits in NYC or 7 months each. I am currently working or the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee developing curriculum.” saRaH MaRcus is currently a poetry
MFA candidate at George Mason University where she was awarded a Teaching Assistantship. She currently resides
in Bethesda, MD. She spent the past two years working or The Israel Project and The American Jewish Committee’s Committee’s Project Interchange. HannaH MaYnE writes, “I’m currently
on the go, but working hard to be mindul in each moment. Hopeully spending the upcoming ew months in Nepal, working with the Israeli NGO Tevel B’Tzedek (and apparently not the irst Bronman to be joining that team!).” naaMaH PaLEY recently returned to
her proud home town o New York ater many years away, primarily in Michigan and in Israel. For a change o pace, she made the exodus rom Manhattan down to Brooklyn, and is now looking or work somewhere in the ield o education policy. Yoni PoMERanz is spending a sec-
ond year in Israel, this time at Yeshivat Ma’ale Gilboa. nick REnnER lives in Philadelphia
where he’s in his second year at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. He’s also the Jewish Students Adviser or UArts, an arts school in downtown Philly. katE RosEnBERG lives in Washing-
ton, DC. She works or Deenders o Wildlie in the Climate Change and Natural Resource Adaptation and Conservation Law programs. JacLYn RuBin is also in New York,
working or Mechon Hadar. She is transitioning rom an administrative role to more ull-time learning at Hadar, and really enjoying it BEn saLtzMan is currently in his sec-
ond year at Harvard Law School. Ben spends most o his time working at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau providing legal assistance to low income members o the Boston community. Ben is especially proud o his mother, who was one o the rabbis on this year’s Bronman Youth Fellowship Program.
starting a ve-month program called Eco-Israel on an ecological arm near Modi’in, Israel, where we work on arming and sustainable building and study applied ecological design. ELisHa FREdMan. I have begun my
nal year o Brandeis with majors in Neuroscience and Psychology. Applications to medical school were sent o this past summer and I am currently receiving responses regarding interviews. In addition to my coursework, I serve as an undergraduate advisor, tutor, department representative, and teach a couple o evening Bible-study classes, so even though the pre-med track has (nally!) come to a close, I have yet managed to stay productively busy. anna Hutt FREdMan. Elisha and
I are living in Boston, and I have one year let o my Masters in speechlanguage pathology at the MGH Institute o Health Proessions. I’m loving my coursework and especially my eldwork, which has allowed me to do therapy with a variety o groups and individuals including children with language delays, dyslexia, and autism. This year I will also have the opportunity to work with adults who have survived strokes or traumatic brain injuries. PEtER GanonG. I just graduated
school and moved down to Washington, D.C. I’m working at the Council o Economic Advisers, which is a part o the White House. It’s long hours and very exciting - I haven’t had time or much else yet. I you’re ever in town, shoot me an email in advance and I can take you on a tour o the West Wing. kEEGan Haid. Ater my college grad-
away at a history Ph.D. at Hah-vard, and split my time between Boston and Delhi. Hannah paid me a wonderul visit a ew months back, and David Back skipped my big garden party / kegger this past weekend.”
uation in 2008 rom Marietta College, I was sponsored to hike or our and a hal months on the Appalachian Trail. Ater that priceless summer, I worked at Enertia Trail Foods, LLC, the company that sponsored my entire trip. I eventually realized that I wanted to pursue surng more than anything else in my entire lie, so I moved to the small town o Hale’iwa on the North Shore o O’ahu, Hawaii. I currently live with a surboard shaper and am substitute teaching a ew days a week, doing odd-job carpentry, surboard repair and hitting the waves as oten as I possibly can.
ELi tERRY is doing well, living in NYC,
LEaH JoRdan. Ater my rst year o
BEn siEGEL writes, “I’m is plowing
and generally enjoying himsel. He just started his third year as an elementary school teacher in the Tremont area o the Bronx. aLana WEiss lives in San Francisco
and works on the Learning & Leadership Development team at Google. 2003CollectedbyAnnaHuttFredman saRaH BaREnBauM. I just moved back to Philadelphia to begin the Bryn Mawr post-baccalaureate pre-medical program. It’s going going to be an intense year o pre-med classes, but the entire process is extremely exciting. I am looking orward to connecting with the Philly Bronmanim! BEn BoksER. I just graduated rom Yale Yale in May - my major was called Ethics, Politics, and Economics. Now I’m
study in Jerusalem last year, I’ve just moved out to Los Angeles and started my second year o rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College-LA. I have a monthly student pulpit in Arizona and will be leading High Holiday services there. taLia kaRas ov. ov. I recently moved
back to the Midwest rom my beloved Caliornia and will be starting a PhD in genetics at the University o Chicago in the beginning o October. October. RYdER kEssLER. I graduated summa
cum laude rom Harvard in 2008. I am currently back in New York and working as the Director o Strategy o Border Stylo, a Los-Angeles-based internet startup, while also applying to English PhD programs and still hoping to be a writer someday. I will soon be moving to the West Village, at which time you will nd
me succumbing to the siren song o the cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery. Bakery.
also enjoying the adjustment to lie in Beer Sheva, and to lie post-undergrad!
aLana kinaRskY. Ater ve years o
dannY coHEn. At the moment I’m en joying my senior year at Penn, and along with our growing contingent o Bronman alumni, am actively involved in social justice work and educational initiatives in and beyond the Jewish community. I spent an amazing semester last all learning at Yeshivat Maale Gilboa and being back in Israel, and also enjoyed learning this summer at Yeshivat Hadar and living in the Columbia Bayit, a pluralistic Jewish co-op. I’m hoping to spend some time next year pursuing graduate studies in Positive Psychology, perhaps also education, and whatever else calls me. In general I want to learn more and be active in living, implementing, and teaching about spiritual growth, critical pedagogy, contemplative practice, service learning, and other Jewish stu. I also hope to spend some time traveling and working in the developing world beore I make aliyah and work towards realizing my dream o becoming a teacher and building an ideal school. Be in touch i you’re interested, and also i you’re not.
studying, working, and biking in Chicago, I am leaving this wonderul city. Come October, you can nd me in Gu jarat, India working as an American Jewish World Service World Partners Fellow with Drishti’s presence and lending a hand in completing a book and updating their website. I am thrilled to have this opportunity and look orward to sharing my experience with all o you. noaH kiPPLEY-oGMan. I am living
in Chicago and working as a Development proessional with a local non-proit serving children and amilies on the city’s city’s chronically underserved southwest side. I am currently in the middle o several ambitious amateur construction projects including a Buckminster Fuller designed bookshel and a bicycle that I use or transportation. I look orward to an as-yet-undetermined adventure in the coming years - graduate study in Education Policy and a move to Shenzhen are possibilities. I was also very excited to celebrate the wedding o my sister Emma (BYFI ‘98) this summer. dEBoRaH BEtH MEdoWs. I am in
my second year at Boston University School o Law. Hanna suFRin. Ater a summer o arming in India, I am beginning my second year as a Yale-China TeachTeaching Fellow in Guangzhou, where I am teaching about American history, politics, and culture to Sun Yat-Sen University students.
In Memoriam…JEFF EisEnBERG (Composed by Alana Kinarsky, Sey Muller, and Noah Kippley-Ogman) In February 2009, the Bronman community mourned the passing o Jeery E. Eisenberg (Z”L). The 2003 Bronman ellows and aculty will orever remember Je as a thoughtul and inquisitive riend. He took seriously the questions o Jewish identity and aith that he rst encountered on Bronman, and he reused to sacrice intellectual honesty or thoroughness while nding his own answers. Je was a Chicago native - he attended Francis W. Parker High School and then the University o Chicago, and he ultimately graduated with a degree in Philosophy rom Loyola University o Chicago in 2008. He was preparing applications or graduate school to urther his studies in philosophy and working as an oce manager at a Chicago valet company. Beore his untimely death, other Chicago ellows enjoyed Je’s company at punk bars and upscale diners and have continued to enjoy the company o his ather (HaMakom yenachem – May Gd bring him comort). Je is a dear riend and will orever be missed. 2004CollectedbyHannahKapnik nicki BRodY. I started medical school
in Israel this year. I’m at the Medical School or International Health at Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva. I l ove the school because it is the only medical school in the world dedicated exclusively to the study o global health and I love the perspective it oers and the people it attracts! I’m learning a lot and
BEnJaMin EPstEin. I am going into
my senior year at MIT studying biological engineering, and I am planning on applying to graduate programs in the general eld. I just nished a summer at the Weizmann Institute o Science in Israel doing research in a cancer biology research lab. david zvi EPstEin. David Zvi is en-
gaged to Yael Richardson. They are both currently working on adashot.com. HannaH kaPnik. I’m nishing up at Wellesley College where I’m studying Jewish Studies and Art History. I am planning to attend nursing-midwiery graduate school ater a year or two o adventuring post-college. I just spent an amazing summer at Yeshivat Yeshivat Hadar in New York and camping and hiking in the Colorado Rockies. aRiEL PoLLock. I spent the summer
doing thesis research in South Arica and Israel. In Israel, I worked at Al-Qasemi College, an Israeli Arab college with a progressive vision and a strong belie in interaith relations, in Baqa elGharbia. Both were incredibly rewarding and ormative experiences. MicHaEL PoMERanz. I am about to
move to New York to begin a New York City Urban Fellowship, in which I will work 4.5 days a week in a to-be-determined oce and once a week will learn in seminars with other Fellows and city commissioners, etc. I’ve already been in touch with some Bronmanim involved in city government and politics and would love to hear rom more! I’m also moving to the Upper West Side (o course), with some thanks to the Bronman housing list. HannaH RicHMan. I’m beginning my senior year at Brandeis University, double majoring in Sociology and Studio Art with a ocus in painting. For the past two summers, I have been involved with BIMA and Genesis, working rst as an Intern and then as a researcher. researcher. In the coming year I hope to continue living
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BYfI Clss Noes and working in the Boston area, despite the terrible cold weather! noa siLvER. I have just begun my senior
year at Harvard and will graduate in May 2010 with a BA in English. Last year I studied photography as well as working as a dramaturg or a student production o The History Boys. I spent the past ew summers traveling, and hope to spend some time abroad in the coming years ater graduation 2005CollectedbySarahRapoport aRiELLa RotHstEin is about to start her nal year at Yale, and just completed a teaching job in the Children’s Deense Fund’s Freedom School Program at the Maya Angelou School in Washington, DC. She spent her previous summer in Spain and is looking orward (anxiously?!) to graduating rom Yale, and getting a job teaching high school somewhere in the United States. ELisHEva GoLdBERG is currently
studying (and enjoying her time) abroad in Rabat, Morocco or the rst semester o her Junior year at the University o Pennsylvania. She spent this past summer in Egypt on a Critical Language Scholarship rom the State Department and will be spending her next semester (ater Morocco) in Israel at The Israeli Academy or Leadership at Ein Prat where she will be participating in t heir post-army/college program while simultaneously researching Israeli theological discourse unded by UPenn’s Center or Undergraduate Research and Fellowships’ Gantz grant. Yitz LandEs is currently a platoon
studying political science, Near Eastern and Judaic studies, and Hebrew and currently preparing or the LSATs. He is also interning with Barney Frank and spent last summer researching the pedagogic problems with pro-Israel advocacy training programs or college students. isaac aRns doRF, doRF, a junior history
major at Yale, plays trumpet in the band and writes or the Yale Daily News; he will become an editor this all. He spent the summers newspapering across America, interning at The Seattle Times and St. Petersburg Times and is a Jewish Lie Fellow or his residential college. GidEon Finck is studying archi-
tecture and religion at Wesleyan. His studio’s design or a new campus Sukkah won an international competition or religious architecture co-sponsored by Faith and Form magazine and the IFRAA, a knowledge community o the American Institute o Architects. He is also working on a documentary lm with two other ‘06 Bronmanim about woodworkers in New England. PRisciLLa FRank, a junior at Berkeley,
is studying Rhetoric, which a proessor recently described as a “critique on the western philosophical notion o an unchanging Truth.” She is the editor-inchie o the Berkeley Poetry Review and working at the Johansson Projects art gallery in Oakland. Most importantly, she recently got two baby ducklings. natHaniEL GaRdEnsWaRtz. Ater
studying German, Nat completed an internship at the Neue Synagogue in Berlin this summer. Currently a Sophomore studying economics at Princeton, Nat will begin studying Mandarin and hopes to make it to China in 2010.
sergeant in the 7th brigade o Israel’s Armored Corps. His current assignment assignment is working with recruits in what is called “advanced training”. He spends most o his days perorming numerous tank maneuvers with his soldiers and, when he can, gives them lessons on everything rom combat ethics to diesel powered tank engines. When he nishes his service in the IDF in October, Yitz will return to Yeshiva to study until the end o the school year. year. This summer he has been lucky enough to host Ariel Fisher and Andrew Kibert (BYFI ’05) in his home in Jerusalem.
in philosophy and receive a certicate in neuroscience at Princeton. This summer, he spent a month in upstate New York at Zen Mountain, working and meditating and appreciating the color green. He will soon direct a play called “Proo,” to be staged at Princeton’s Theatre Intime, which will open Sept. 24.
RacHEL coHEn currently attends the
WiLLiaM HERLands, pursuing a
GaBE GREEnWood will concentrate
University o Pennsylvania with other ‘05 ellows Ariel Fisher, Elisheva Goldberg and Andrew Kibert and is very excited or Penn to host the collegiate reunion! She just returned rom a semester abroad at Cambridge University and is lucky enough to have spent the past summer serving as madricha or the ‘09 ellows.
double major in Gender and Religious studies, is exploring the possibilities o an amalgamated religious identity while struggling to reconcile his post-structuralist inclinations with Marxist surrealism. He hopes to write his thesis on the masculinization o early eminist aggadata in the Palestinian Talmud.
JuLiana sPEctoR is in her 4th year at
MadELEinE LEvEY-LaMBERt LEvEY-LaMBERt is study-
UC Berkeley, pursuing an undergraduate degree in geology. She spent this past summer working on a research project in Southern Idaho, mapping volcanic ash beds at Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument and is currently working on a research project at her university on the mechanics o volcanic pyroclastic fows. She is an active member o Berkeley’s club ultimate risbee team and the Berkeley Student Cooperative, where she is serving as theme coordinator or the LGBT themed co-op on campus.
30
2006CollectedbyInnaAlecksandrovich MatEo acEvEs, a junior at Brandeis, is
BronFMAn 2009
ing Near Eastern Studies and Political Science at Michigan University. She has accepted a two year ellowship that will take her to Alexandria, Egypt next year or ten months (Any Bronmanim that have travelled, lived in, or will visit Egypt- please be in touch!). 2007CollectedbyYaelZinkow Bronman 2007 will begin the year o 5770 settled in to colleges and universities across the country. Many will be continuing their educational journeys as Sophomores and Juniors at some
o the world’s best learning institutions including Yale University, Brown University, Washington University, Swarthmore College, Stanord University and others. They are studying a wide range o topics rom economics and political science to theater and religious studies. Some are working hard at internships and jobs. JoRdan Yadoo, a sophomore at Cornell University, participated in the NYU Bronman Center Collegiate Internship Program where he acilitated ongoing group therapy and implemented a career development workshop or mentally ill and substance abusing adults. ELiot aBRaMs, a Sophomore at The University o Chicago will be working as a Campus Entrepreneur Intern or the Newberger Hillel. Other ellows are making transitions rom lie in Israel to campus lie. JuLiE MEYER, aRiELLE LEWis, Eitan LEFkoWitz, noaH LindEnFELd, and HodY nEMEs all studied at Yeshivot last year. RoBERta GoLdMan participated in
a mechinah program with Israeli youths taking a year break between school and the army. aLi FitcH also spent her year in Israel volunteering through Young Judea Year Course. In addition, ELiana GoLdinG and ELYssa kaPLan spent last year in the Bronman Bayit. All o these ellows have begun their years at their respective universities as members o the class o 2013. 2008CollectedbyTobahAukland
Ater a year ull o fights around the country, country, long phone calls, debates about religion, politics, and lie, and the insanity o senior year, ‘08 has let our lives in LA, Kansas, or New York, to new people and places rom Berkeley, to Israel, to Connecticut, to New York. Some o us are now over 7500 miles away rom each other, but in the words o sHiRa tELusHkin, who spent the summer as a ellow at Yeshivat Yeshivat Hadar, is now taking a gap year to study at Mi gdal Oz, and next year will be going to Yale Yale with a prospective major in cultural anthropology, pology, “our best riends in the world are the people that, despite a lack o requent visits or phone calls, you can still talk about anything with.” Though zacH BLEEMER would argue with most things, ater organizing a reunion at his house and driving to Cape Cod and Westchester or two more, we can saely say this is a concept with which he would agree. He is headed to Amherst College, looking orward to his rst real studying since his 5th grade project on ecosystems, and is hoping to major in Philosophy and Economics. As ar as majors go, sEREna covkin, who is spending the year at Midreshet Lindenbaum in Jerusalem, is still changing her mind daily, but luckily she has some time beore she starts at University o Pennsylvania next year. In the meantime she has been wandering around Jerusalem, going back to Goldstein, and seeing all the many Bronman ellows and Amitim (and Shimon) there. Far rom the streets o Jerusalem. ELiE PELtz is at Yeshivat Ma’ale Gilboa in Northern Israel or the year ater graduating rom Lower Merion High School and completing a senior project ocused on Yiddish language and
culture in t oday’s oday’s Jewish Community. Ater spending the year immersed in Israeli society and Torah study, Elie will be attending the University o Pennsylvania. Only slightly surpassing Elie’s fuency rom his senior project, danEEL scHaEcHtER spent a week this summer at Yiddish Vokh ater coming back rom Camp Ramah Nyack where he was a counselor. He is now in the old city o Jerusalem at Yeshiva Orayta, and will (very uniquely) be attending University o Pennsylvania next year. year. We can say, however, that aLi kRiEGsMan and JakE sPinoWitz certainly stand out, as they have already started school at UPenn. Ali spent her summer working as a counselor at a UCLA acting camp and collecting poetry or a local Holocaust museum, ater being awarded a Milken Scholarship. At Penn she is hoping to study criminology and sing with the Shabbatons. taMaR BLancHaRd is also making music a part o her lie and studying at Emunah v’Ornanut u’Manginah in Jerusalem, a program that incorporates music, art, and Jewish learning. Next all, she will be attending McGill University. But, as ar as international experience goes, nothing can compare to aaRon WEinBERG’s. He is spending the year on Kivunim, a confict resolution program that ocuses on Diaspora Jewish Communities, and will visit India, Morocco, Greece, Bulgaria, Spain, Turkey, Turkey, and Germany. Next all he will come back into exile to attend Brandeis University. Near Brandeis, JacoB Hutt and REBEcca MaRGoLiEs are at Harvard University. Rebecca is currently over committing hersel to every perorming arts and journalism related club. In t he state o Connecticut, which andREas RotEnBERG, who is attending Princeton University in order to work on his croquet skills, highly disapproves o, saM tELzak is at Yale University ater spending (some) o the summer working at a law oce instead o going down south. Ater spending the summer as a research intern at the Anti- Deamation league, toBaH aukLand is currently at Wesleyan University, spending a lot o time sitting on the beautiul hill reading, talking, or stargazing, and hoping to major in the College o Social Studies. 2009 FELLoWs: Shira Atkins, Michelle
Bayesky-Anand, Kenny Cohen, Justin Herzig Cuperain, Shira Engel, Susannah Feinstein, Brooke Freeman, Aliza Gans, David Getman, Kyle Hardgrave, Philip Homan, Mattie Kahn, Jerey Kessler, Kessler, Louisa Kornblatt, Allison Lazarus, Bina Peltz, Daniel Penner, Ari Prescott, Joshua Rubin, Stephen Rutman, Jonathan Schwartz, Adam Shapiro, Naomi Sharp, Rebecca Stein, Jacob Sunshine, Sophie Wiepking-Brown
aMItIM CLaSS NOtES 1998 anniE BaR-nov (ormerly Tsionit)
I’ve been married or our years and we have a daughter, Ayala, who is one year and three months old. I received my BA rom Haia University in economics and accounting and work as a CPA at KPMG, and live in Naharia. MatiLda dias Last year I nished a
double B.A in Psychology and general studies at the Hebrew University. I plan to to continue my studies when I decide what I want to study. For the past ve months I’ve been doing a shlichut (1 year o volunteering) with the Jewish Agency in the Jewish community in Santa Fe, Argentina. sHLoMi HaR-LEv I am now complet-
ing an MA in Business Management, and have spent the last 6 months as a civilian, ater 8 years in the army, with the rank o major. I’ve moved to Moshav Givat Yearim next to Mevasseret Zion, just outside o Jerusalem. I am currently working or a company called Eec-tiv, working on organizational consulting and executive training. tsacHi MadGaR Last February I n-
ished a degree in law and economics at Tel Aviv University. I am now doing my articling, and have survived swine fu. Zohar Nevo (ormerly Neuman)– I am married to Lior, and we combined our names to a new last name – Nevo. Ater completing a law degree, I am now working as a legal intern at a rm in Jerusalem and nishing an MBA. Maxim Suhodrev– Suhodrev – I am currently starting my 6th and last year o medical studies and planning to apply or Cardiology residency. This summer I got engaged and we are planning to get married next year. 1999 nERiaH coHEn I’m married to
tion called One Family; I work with amilies who have been victims o terror attacks. I also work with Olim rom Ethiopia and prisoners in rehab. I am starting my second year o work on my MA in social work and psychotherapy.
iLana nixon (ormerly Reichman)
Aviv or the last our years and nished studying Theater Directing at the Kibbutz Seminar College. I write, direct, and act.
I’m not Reichman anymore; my new last name is Nixon ater marrying Itai last May. I will get my BA rom Hebrew University in Jerusalem ater I give in my two last papers. I hope to start my masters in the USnext year, studying political science.
noa MaRoM I graduated rom
LEon sHoFatinski Ater a year o
Haia University with a BA in English and General History, then achieved a certicate in text editing and worked as a reelance translator and editor. I’m now on a ellowship at Bard College in upstate New York, teaching a Hebrew course or two semesters.
volunteer service as a guide with the Society or the Protection o Nature, I was drated into an anti-terror unit in the army. Ater the army, I worked or two and a hal years as the national sales manager or Gravity-Israel, a camping supply rm. I am now learning to fy in the US.
sHanit kadosH I’ve lived in Tel
noaH QuaRtatz avRaHaM I mar-
ried Ori two years ago and we live in Givatayim. I am now nishing my law training in the Knesset’s Law Oce. Yoav RotEM Ater Bronman, I did
a year o service as a guide at the Field School in Mizpeh Ramón. Ater the army, I guided in Israel and toured South Arica. I am now nishing my BA in International Studies and Israel Studies at Hebrew U, working as a tour guide in Jerusalem and or youth and students groups rom abroad all over Israel. LioR soRRoca I’ve completed my
studies at the Nissan Nativ acting studio in Jerusalem. I work as an Arabic translator in the Prime Minister’s Oice, and as a waiter, while I go to auditions.
LioR zaLManson I’m serving in the
Air Force’s programming unit, I was made a rst lieutenant two years ago, and am now a project manager; one o my projects was to set up a unit o Charedi soldiers working as programmers. I am nishing my master’s thesis on the topic o social networks in Tel Aviv University’s Department o Management Studies, and am considering going right into work on a doctorate. I’m a member o the board o the Reorm Movement in Israel, and recently got back rom a mission to reorm communities in Australia and the Far East. This year I wrote a short play called “Yingele”, which was chosen or the Act 2 Festival which will take place in November in Haia. 2001
2000
EYaL aviv I got out o the army a
sHakEd aPPLEBauM I am now in
year and a hal ago and, ater traveling in South America or six months, began studying civil engineering at the Technion, in Haia, where I am starting my second year.
China with my boyriend Raphael. For the last our years, I’ve been living in Bucharest, Romania. I am studying general medicine there, and will soon start my th year.
Hodaya, and we have a son, Eitan Shalom, and are expecting another one soon. I completed my BA in Jewish Studies and Bible at Hebrew U., in its Revivim Program, and am now completing my MA at the Institute or Contemporary Judaism, which deals with issues o Jewish Identity among American Jews. I am also teaching Jewish Studies and Civics at Tichon Chadash High School in Tel Aviv, and am about to start my second year o law school at Bar Ilan University, where I am also the assistant editor o Bar Ilan’s Law Review.
BA in political science at Hebrew U. two years ago. I am married to Gabi and we have a daughter, Yael, who will soon be one. We’re now living in Be’er Sheva, where I am a student. I teach a class o 9th grade girls in Yerucham, where I also teach history and civics. I’m loving every minute.
dikLa coHEn Ater completing my
aMitEi HandLER Ater the army, I
army service, I nished my BA in criminology at Bar Ilan University. I work at Hyundai Motors as a sales manager. I am also studying coaching.
crossed Mexico by bike and am now working on climbing as a hobby. I am starting my third year in Visual Communications in Holon and working at a sales company.
idit BEn OR I’m starting the third iGaL avRaHaMi I’m in Thailand,
coming back in October. ELia GoPEs dadosH I nished my
LaRa GaMLiELi a couple o months
ago I got married, and now live in Haia with my husband, Uri. I am a social worker, working or an organiza-
Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to study Political Science and East Asia studies at Hebrew University.
RoY Hasson Ater 6.5 years serving
as an intelligence ocer in the IDF, I’m leaving the army and moving rom
year o my BA in history and political science at Ben Gurion U. YaEL EFRati I’m nishing my BA in
Behavioral science at Ben Gurion U., and starting my MA in health psychology at Tel Aviv-Yao College. In between, I will travel to Spain and Portugal. MicHaL GEisER I served in the army
as an education ocer, and am now completing a BA at Tel Aviv U. which combines medicine and Lie Sciences. I plan to travel and work this year, and then start work on my MA. aRiEL Gino Ater three years o
surgeries in Israel and abroad and rehabilitation rom a serious wound I received in the second Lebanon War, I married my dear wie Maya. I now live in Jerusalem, and spend my days
studying Talmud in a Yeshiva. Roni kRauss I married Eitan two
years ago. We have a wonderul son named Re’em. We live in Nir Etzion on Mt. Carmel. I completed my BA in Jewish History at Hebrew U. and am now working on a teacher’s degree at Michlelet Oranim. EstHER MEiR Ater the Amitim
program, I was in the rst Garin Amit (year o voluntary social action) with Amitim o my year in the Kiryat Menachem neighborhood o Jerusalem. I served in the army as a kind o social worker or soldiers. I am currently studying in Hebrew U.’s Revivim program, in which I completed a BA in Bible and Jewish studies, and got a teacher’s degree. I am now in my nal year o a Masters program in the Hebrew Literature department. I teach Bible and Jewish Thought in the Givat Gonen High School, and acilitate groups or the organization Mi’mizrach Shemesh. aLEx PaRusHin I’m studying or a
B.Ed and teacher’s certicate at The David Yellin College or Education. I am also a coordinator o a Russianspeaking project at the Women’s Coalition or a Just Peace, and an activist or ending the occupation o Palestinian people. I also work in the Jerusalem LGBT community. Yonatan REinER Two years ago
I nished my military service in the Golani inantry brigade, which I did along with studying in Yeshiva (Ma’aleh Gilboa). Since then I’ve been studying physics and math at Hebrew University and am happy with the courses. I just got back rom a short trip to Georgia – I recommend it! MaYa WiLdBERG (Shapiro) Three
and a hal years ago I married Nir Yitzchak. God has blessed us with two sweet boys, Yaakov, two and a hal, and Natali Tzvi, 1. I nished my BA in computers and cognition at Hebrew U., and I work as a programmer in the eld o medical equipment, and live in Bayit Vegan, in Jerusalem. 2002 REut BaREL I am in the middle o
studying or my BA at Ben Gurion University in Be’er Sheva, and am taking a break to do a community shlichut in Cleveland, Ohio. zvi BEnninGa Ater nishing a year
o community service with the Amitei Bronman Garin (group), three years o military service, and a short stint o travelling, I am now back in my home town o Jerusalem, where I am studying Medicine and Liberal Arts at the Hebrew University. RotEM BLau I just got my B.A in
theater rom Tel Aviv University and
BYFI.org
31
aMItIM CLaSS NOtES am now living in a small apartment in Jerusalem with my boy riend, trying to make it in the theater world.
nity “Shlicha” (emissary) o the Jewish Agency in New Orleans. In October, I will start studying communication communication and history at the Hebrew University.
nati cHaLiWa Ater almost two years
o hard work at Intel in Kiryat Gat, I will be moving to Jerusalem in November, in order to share an apartment with my girlriend, and study communication disorders at Hadassah College. EddiE FREiMan Ater the army, I
went to Florida as a shaliach (emissary) o the Jewish Agency, where I met my ancée at Hillel. She’s made Aliyah and we are planning to get married later this year. I am nishing my third year o international relations and political science at Hebrew U. uRi RosEn At the end o my military
service I few to the States as a ropes & hiking guide at a summer camp. Later I took some SATs, SATs, traveled in South America or too short a ti me, and am now starting Medical school at Ben-Gurion University in Be’er-Sheva.
niR saBBato Ater years o hard
work in the Israeli military, I am starting to study law at Hebrew U. in Jerusalem. RacHELi sHukRun Ater the Amitim
program I did a year o voluntary community service with Garin Amit, and then served in the Intelligence Corps. I am now starting my second year o medicine at Tel Aviv University. 2004 YaiR aGMoM I am in Army Training
Base #1 right now, working on becoming an ocer or new recruits. A ew months ago, I published a book o discussions on the portion o the week which I’ve had with my soldiers; the second printing is coming out soon.
ical school at Ben Gurion U. in Be’er Sheva, and am thereore moving to the Negev. I am tutoring students or the SAT’s in the south. iREna sHucHMan I completed
my army service in the Intelligence Corps, and have started work on a BA in physiotherapy at Tel Aviv U. I am studying Arabic, knitting Kippot, and trying to set up a volunteer project in my hometown, Sderot.
ater serving the country or our years. This coming year will be all about un, having a rest, and recharging the batteries.
Hadass WoLF I’m starting my third
MaaYan MaaYan caRLE BacH aMitai I am
year o the Revivim teachers training program at Hebrew U., and teaching Bible at the Ziv High School in Jerusalem. I’m also doing a little famenco dancing. 2003 Yonatan daniEL Since the Amitim
prigram I did Garin Amit with other Amitim rom ‘03, then studied at the Midrasha in Elon. I was then drated into the army, have done an ocers’ training course, and just signed up or another two years. david FRiscH I live in Ma’aleh Adu-
mim. I nished a BA in economics at Ben Gurion U. I am now in the army, where I intend to stay or a while. YaRdEn GaL I’m starting my third year o study or a BA in psychobiology at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, working as a guide in the Science Museum and as an academic coordinator with the Student Union, and getting married in three weeks to my one and only. savion MEdaLLion Ater my army
service as an intelligence ocer, I spent a meaningul year as a commu-
32
tary service with the Amitim’s Garin, and my army service, I traveled or six months in South America. When I got back, I started working at Hadassah College, and am moving to Be’er Sheva, where I will start studying psychology and cognition.
BronFMAn 2009
GaL aRad I just got out o the army
army - but not or much longer, I hope - ater my year o community service with Bronman’s Bronman ’s Garin Amit IV. IV. 2005
dan duBin At the start o July
YossiE YEsHaYa I am still in the
Amit #5 (the Amitim’s year o voluntary service beore the army), and then went with a ew other members o the Garin to a Garin in the army, which does education in dicult neighborhoods. In another two months I will nish my role as sergeant in a combat unit o men and women who serve together on the border. I will then do eight months o educational work back with my Garin, in Tel Aviv. daPHna EzRacHi I nished the
Army almost two months ago. Right now I’m working, getting ready or a trip to the States and South America, and also studying to be a Bartender. cHana kuPEtz I nished my two
year service in the IDF teaching Hebrew to immigrants, and am now in NYC studying at Yeshivat Hadar starting in September. RotEM RosEntHaL I got out o the
army our months ago; I was a teacher in a course or high school equivalency and conversion. I’m about to start studying at Midreshet Migdal Oz (a women’s Yeshiva). YaEL sHiR suissa I will nish my
married, living in Tekoah, ghting or my right to live in the Land o Israel. In my spare time I’m a tour guide, I ride in the desert, paint, and practice the fute. I miss cutting computer classes in high school, and I keep smiling. tiLi FisHER Since Bronman, I’ve stud-
ied at the women’s Yeshiva at Ein Hanatziv and at Midreshet Lindenbaum. In the army, I served as an ocer in the Intelligence Corp, and met my husband - we were married just under a week ago. I started medical school at Tel Aviv University. Ron MiLun Ater I nished high
school, I started learning in a yeshiva in Otniel (between Hebron and BeerSheva). On March 2007, I began my army service in the Intelligence orce. A year ago, I nished the army and came back to yeshiva where I’m intending to be or another year. Lisa scHEFFER (Rogo) I got mar-
ried almost a year ago, and am now Lisa Scheer. I still live in Jerusalem, and work as a youth coordinator or the Progressive Jewish Movement at
2007 YaRin aBudRaHaM I inished 12th
grade, and in a ew days I will start a shnat sherut (year o community service) beore the army with the organization Acharai (Follow Me), living in a commune in Jerusalem.
naaMaH donEvitcH I was in Garin
LiMoR aLon Ater a year o volunELdad RacHaMiM I’m staring med-
Kehillat Kol Haneshama. I am putting o university or now.
army service in our months. I serve as an educator in a course or company commanders in the combat engineering corps. Beore the army, I did a year o community service in Garin A mit V, V, and then studied community l eadership at Midreshet Elon. 2006 iRit FEinGoLd I am in the army,
working with soldiers who have not nished high school, helping them get their high school diploma. I coordinate classes in Jewish history and Basic English. I am serving with Michal Shendar (‘06) who was in the Amitim garin with me, how great is that?! YuLia FuRscHik In November I will
nish my army service; I have been an educational instructor with the Border Patrol. I will then start studying or my psychometric exams (like SATs). toMER YEcHEzkEL A week ago, I
nished an ocer’s training course in the Navy. I am in Ashdod, responsible or the coast o o the center o the country. I am considering getting involved in an educational project next year, and plan to study communications and international relations.
2009, I completed a year at the prearmy Mechina o the Movement or Progressive Judaism in Yao. At the end o the month, I was drated as a military correspondent to the army’s radio station – Galei Zahal, and am now taking a basic journalism course, at the end o which I hope to be made a correspondent at the station. LEaH GEsundHEit I am now
inishing my irst year o national service, and going into another year with the same job - a Bnei Akiva youth group coordinator in Aderet, a moshav in Emek Ha’ela. PLiaH GiLLEs I completed a year o
study at the women’s Yeshiva Migdal Oz, and am now returning there or another two months o study beore I am drated into the intelligence corps. I am now in London, working at an oncology lab. 2008 LioR dEkEL I nished high school,
and will be drated in February, 2010. oMER EvEn Paz I live in Carmei Yose, Yose, near Rechovot. This year I’m delaying my army service to study in the secular yeshiva in Tel Aviv. MaxiM FuMin I began my army service
in June ‘09, in the “Talpiot” unit o the ministry o deense. This is a special intelligence unit, aimed at training leadership in the area o technology, research, and weapons systems. doR tsRuYa I worked on my Kibbutz
this past summer, and also worked with “One Family Fund”, an organization which helps amilies o victims o terror attacks. In a ew days I will start the year at Yeshivat Yeshivat Ma’aleh Gilboa, along with Eli Peltz (Fellows, ‘08). oRit YavniELi I just graduated the
religious girls’ high school “Amana” in Kar Saba. I am now doing National Service as a madricha (counselor) o groups rom overseas or the organization “Yeladim” (children). 2009 FELLoWs: Noam Abraham
Gershon Awadish, Itai Braude, Zohar Daniel, Elizabeth Claire Gilis, Yael Yael Rina Holzberg, Evgeni Khripunov, Naomi Judith Meshi, Yarden Paz, Daniel Rosenak, Noy Bonilla Sabag, Alissa Schramm, Lihi Sherwin, Eitan Siani, Elazar Symon, Michal Veig, Nadav Wachs, Tamar Weissblueth, Oer Yitzhaki, Yuval Natan Yose, Or Yosey
B Y F I
A l u m n i n t s E v e
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December 2009
LoS ANgELES, Sun. Dec 6 – faml f endl Event W ASHiN iNg gToN, D.C., W ed. Dec 9 – Dn nnne & & Ds sccuss s n w/ / A Amt tee b nn man ✔ JErUSALEM, Tues. D ec 29 – Annual W nt nte E Event ✔
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F ebruarY 2 Y 2010
boSToN, Sun. fe. 21 - faml f eendl Event ToroNTo, Tues. fe. 23 – Dn nnne & & Dscuss ssn ✔ MoNTrEAL, W ed. f e. 24 – Dn nnne & & Dscussn ✔
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March 2010 ✔
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SAN frANCiS iSC Co, Tues. Ma ch 9 – Dn nnne & & Dscuss ssn NEW W y y orK, Sun. Mac chh 14 – Sp n fu um m
S eptember 2010 ✔
JErUSALEM – Mn. Sept 27 – Sukkt A lumn Event
November 2010 ✔
Nv 12-1 -144 – Clllleea atte W eekend
December 2010 ✔
Venture Fund MaY 15, 2010 Deadlne or byfi Alumn Venture Venture fund applcatons
October 15, 2010 Deadlne or byfi Alumn Venture Venture fund applcatons
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