The Wexner Foundation has named Rabba Yaffa Epstein as the next Director of the Wexner Heritage Program. Yaffa will assume the position this summer.

Yaffa has taught in the Wexner Heritage Program for several years and has served as a curriculum advisor. She has long been associated with the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, first in Jerusalem and more recently as the Director of Education, North America. In this role, Yaffa has been instrumental in developing adult Jewish learning programs in communities across North America.

Yaffa’s educational background includes studies at the Pardes Kollel, the Advanced Talmud Institute at Matan and the Talmud Department of Hebrew University. She has taught for the Drisha Institute, The Dorot Fellowship in Israel, The Nahum Goldmann Fellowship, Moishe House, Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, and at Limmud events around the world. Rabba Yaffa received Semicha from Yeshivat Maharat, where she also taught Talmud and Jewish law. She earned an additional private Semicha from Rabbi Daniel Landes and has a law degree from Bar Ilan University.

“I am thrilled and honored to be joining the incredible team at The Wexner Foundation – an organization that is committed to creating Jewish leaders who ‘know their stuff,’ as our Chairman Les Wexner is fond of saying. A hallmark of Wexner participants is that they aspire to exercise leadership from a place of deep Jewish knowledge and are steadfast in their commitment to Jewish pluralism,” Yaffa said. “I am particularly excited to serve as the next Director of the Wexner Heritage Program – a leadership initiative that has transformed the Jewish community. Wexner Heritage members are dedicated to Jewish learning, to one another and to the Jewish people, and I am so looking forward to learning and growing together!”

Yaffa succeeds Rabbi Ben Berger who has joined Hillel International as Vice President for Jewish Education.

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The America-Israel Friendship League has named Wayne L. Firestone its new Executive Director. Wayne has held national and international leadership positions at Hillel International, The Israel on Campus Coalition, The Genesis Prize Foundation, the Anti-Defamation League and the Technion Israel Institute of Technology.