Your Daily Phil: To live and downsize in L.A.: HUC sells its campus
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent eJewishPhilanthropy and Jewish Insider stories, including: N.Y. federation gifts $2 million to build center for survivors, families of victims of Nova massacre; Sinai Schools to open first Jewish therapeutic school for children with mental health struggles; and Robert Kraft explains Snoop Dogg-Tom Brady Super Bowl ad. Print the latest edition here.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on the sale of the bulk of the Reform movement’s Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion’s Los Angeles campus and its significance. We look at a new fund through the Hadassah Foundation to support female leadership training, and interview author Dara Horn about her new Passover-themed graphic novel. As both Black History Month and Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month come to a close, we feature an opinion piece by Alexandra Corwin about her organization’s approach to supporting Jews of color on a rabbinic career path, and one by Livia Thompson about the importance of mindfulness about accessibility beyond moments of crisis like the Los Angeles wildfires; plus a piece by Rabbi Adina Allen about the benefits of engaging the Divine creativity in each of us.
Shabbat shalom and hodesh tov!
What We’re Watching
Chabad’s youth group CTeens is hosting its international conference in New York City beginning today, with 4,000 Jewish teens from 60 countries expected to attend the Shabbaton.
Hillel International is hosting the Northeast Hillels A Cappella Competition on Saturday night at the University of Maryland.
The Voice of the People — Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s new Jewish peoplehood initiative — is kicking off the first gathering for its 150-person council on Sunday in the northern Israeli city of Haifa. The conference, which runs through next week, will bring together all 150 members of the council for extended discussions and debate on topics related to Israel and the Jewish people.
What You Should Know
In a further sign of the challenges facing the Reform rabbinate — as well as the movement and large, established Jewish institutions more generally — the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion announced yesterday that it was selling off the bulk of its Los Angeles campus. This comes just a few weeks after the seminary sold off its Greenwich Village location for a new, smaller building near Lincoln Center, and almost three years after it decided to shutter its rabbinical program in Cincinnati after 150 years, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross.
What is going on?
The immediate cause for these contractions is twofold: Fewer students enrolling in HUC-JIR’s rabbinic programs, diminishing the need for so large and so many institutions to support them; and the Union for Reform Judaism, which supported HUC-JIR financially, also seeing its congregations (and their membership fees) shrink. Read more about the sale of the Los Angeles campus below.
“With far less income coming to [HUC-JIR] from the URJ as many of its congregations are also experiencing financial and demographic pressures, HUC is seeking to broaden its appeal to both the next generation of potential students and to attract new donors, open to the school’s innovations and viewing the institution as being economically responsible,” Steven Windmueller, a professor emeritus of Jewish communal studies at HUC-JIR’s L.A. campus, told eJP today after the announcement.
“These structural moves are a part of a downsizing economic plan to reposition HUC to be nimbler and more competitive in a shifting marketplace,” Windmueller said.
These issues are not unique to the Reform movement. Non-Orthodox rabbinical schools of all stripes have seen reduced enrollment in recent years, and fewer and fewer young American Jews identify with the Reform movement — currently the country’s largest denomination — or with Conservative Judaism, which had been the largest denomination. The 2020 Pew Research Center survey of American Jews found that among those aged 18-29, the plurality — 41% — identified with “no particular branch,” compared to 29% who identified as Reform and 8% as Conservative; 17% identified as Orthodox — in part a function of that community’s higher birth rate. (Pew’s latest survey, which was released this week, found that the number of Christians who are religiously unaffiliated, also known as “nones,” has leveled off — a potential indicator for the Jewish community’s future as well.)
“Religion in America is in a tailspin, at this moment, and correspondingly, Gen Z’s and Millennials simply don’t see a robust career ahead in this religious space,” Windmueller said. “Now all of this can turn, as America has experienced other cycles of religious revivalism and growth, but in this moment, certainly that is not the case.”
HUC-JIR does see some areas of growth, however. While its American campuses are scaling back, its Jerusalem campus has seen an increased number of students — albeit a modest one; in November, the Israel campus ordained seven graduates. HUC-JIR also hopes to attract new students through an online ordination program.
REAL ESTATE DEALS
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion to sell most of its L.A. campus to USC for $35 million
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion has reached a deal to sell the bulk of its Los Angeles campus to the University of Southern California for $35 million. According to Andrew Rehfeld, president of HUC-JIR, the Reform movement’s rabbinical seminary and college, the institution no longer required the full space in New York City or Los Angeles, and needed to reallocate resources to meet developing needs. “This is just a culmination of that process that asked a question, ‘What’s the best use of our properties that we hold? And most importantly, what are the needs for our facilities, and are we achieving that?’” Rehfeld told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim yesterday. “It allows us to be nimble. It allows us to build flexible space that meets the needs for now and as we head into a new era for Reform Judaism.”
Unrestricted funds: The majority of HUC-JIR’s $250 million endowment is donor-restricted, Rehfeld told eJP. While the institution used to rely on congregational proceeds for discretionary funding, as Reform congregations have contracted over the last couple of decades, funds that used to support HUC have significantly waned. As a result, HUC-JIR has had limited access to unrestricted dollars. With the sale of the Los Angeles campus for $35 million, HUC will have access to 5% of the profits per year, allowing the school to invest in its long-term goals, including training its students in podcasting and video casting, technological improvements and a two-year renovation of the building’s west wing.
FEMALE EMPOWERMENT
Amid federal DEI cuts, Hadassah creates fund giving ‘special consideration’ to underserved groups
As the Trump administration moves to slash federal support for diversity, equity and inclusion programs, the Hadassah Foundation has launched a $500,000 fund to support leadership training and skills for women and girls, giving “special consideration” to initiatives reaching underrepresented populations, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim. The new “Fund for Leadership, Opportunity, and Sisterhood,” also known as the “The Bayley Fund,” was created through a $500,000 grant from Jacquie Bayley, a former regional president of Hadassah’s Pacific Northwest region, and a current board member of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America.
Confidence boost: Each year, the fund will help underwrite one of Hadassah’s $80,000 “core grants,” specifically supporting initiatives that provide leadership training to women and girls, and prioritizing those that cater to women ranging in age from adolescence to young adulthood. “To those people who wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity, belonging to a group or having an organization create a project or an opportunity for them to come together, to learn, to develop skills in an atmosphere that appreciates them, to me, there’s nothing better,” Bayley told eJP. “It creates some confidence that perhaps they could, become an entrepreneur of their own, or a leader in some way, and then go on to be leaders for others who are younger than them who come up through the ranks.”
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
Dara Horn returns to history — and literature — after Oct. 7
The last few years have been strange ones for writer Dara Horn. Used to creating imaginative Jewish worlds as a fiction writer, she published her first nonfiction book in 2021, expecting it to be a “detour.” Instead, the publication of “People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present,” about the very real and often very depressing world that real Jews inhabit, changed the course of her career, reports Gabby Deutch for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider. “The premise of the book is really that Jews are only acceptable in a non-Jewish society when they have no power, whether that means politically impotent or dead,” Horn told JI in an interview this week. “That is just roaring back at us now. That is the only way that it’s acceptable to be Jewish, if you have no agency.”
Never-ending Seder: Now, Horn has published her first new book in more than three years, a departure from both the award-winning literary fiction she is known for and the nonfiction essays about antisemitism she has written for major publications including The Atlantic and The New York Times since Oct. 7. One Little Goat: A Passover Catastrophe is a graphic novel, geared toward middle school readers, about a family that gets stuck at their Seder for six months because their house is so messy that the children are unable to find the afikomen. In order to retrieve it, the protagonist must go on a time-travel journey through thousands of years of Jewish history, visiting Seders down through the ages — guided by a talking goat from the song “Chad Gadya” — until he retrieves the afikomen, finally saving his family from the longest Seder ever.
Read the full report here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here.
JEWISH LEADERSHIP PIPELINE
One way to help solve the rabbi shortage crisis: Invest in untapped JoC talent
“From my vantage point leading Ammud: The Jews of Color Torah Academy, there are clear solutions in recruiting, cultivating and elevating untapped talent” to address the rabbi shortage, writes Alexandra Corwin, Ammud’s executive director, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “Ammud follows in some of the same ideological footsteps that institutions like Teach for America, Posse Foundation and Management Leadership for Tomorrow have figured out long ago: Unique programmatic support systems must be built to ensure top and underrepresented talent reach their full potential.”
The whole community benefits: “As the 2020 Pew Research Center study of American Jewry highlights, 15% of Jewish people under the age of 30 are multiracial. Multiracial Jews, also known as Jews of color (JoCs), are not widely represented in Jewish leadership roles… There are three main levers Ammud uses [to support JoC rabbis, rabbinical students and other aspirants]: high-quality coaching and professional development; affinity-space creation for JoC rabbis rooted in Ammud’s culturally sustaining Torah methodology; and campaigns to elevate the public profiles of JoC rabbis… To be sure, critics who are lambasting anything related to inclusion programs might respond to tailored support for any group as problematic and offensive for not being available to every single person. I would encourage these critics to see the bigger picture: When we as a Jewish community are able to give tailored and unique support for specific groups of people, we are ensuring they get the chance to share their Torah, leadership and wisdom with the whole Jewish community — and everyone can benefit from that.”
JDAIM MESSAGE
From emergency to everyday: Making accessibility a year-round priority
“As we come to the end of February, which is also Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance and Inclusion Month (JDAIM), I reflect on my role as the executive director of JBI Library, an organization that works to ensure that anyone with blindness, low vision or other print disabilities can fully participate in and feel connected to all aspects of Jewish life,” writes Livia Thompson in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
What we owe each other: “It’s true that disasters often build community solidarity and compassion and prompt individuals to be good neighbors and extend themselves. We must find ways to ensure that this impulse is not limited to moments of crisis; rather, it should be a guiding principle of how we live every day… Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month provides a reminder to internalize this truth by intentionally seeking out and removing these stumbling blocks. Whether these obstacles are physical (such as inaccessible buildings or small print materials) or attitudinal (such as misconceptions about the abilities of those with disabilities), our Jewish values remind us that we must work to create a world where every person, regardless of their abilities, can freely access our neighborhoods, our synagogues, our schools and other institutions — as a right.”
JEWISH ARTS
Times of challenge call for creativity
“Torah teaches ‘In the beginning God created,’” writes Rabbi Adina Allen, co-founder and creative director of Jewish Studio Project, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “Describing the conditions that preceded this first creative act, Genesis states: ‘The Earth was chaos and void with darkness on the surface of the deep and God’s breath hovering over the water’ (1:2). There is perhaps no better descriptor for the times we are living in right now: chaos, void, darkness and the depths. Torah teaches that creativity — God’s and our own — is a way to process the chaos and void of our lives and transform it into the world we hope to make possible.”
Tap that potential: “Research has shown that engaging with creativity enhances empathy, resilience and our ability to navigate complexity. These qualities are vital now more than ever, and this is why Jewish Studio Project (JSP) exists: to help build the creative capacity of the Jewish community… JSP’s core methodology, the Jewish Studio Process, blends Jewish learning with art therapy practices, enabling people from all backgrounds to tap into their innate creative capacities. This process not only opens new doors to the richness of Jewish tradition but also helps individuals navigate a rapidly changing world, process difficult emotions and heal our fractured communities.”
Worthy Reads
System Upgrade: In The Times of Israel, Mitchell D. Silber calls for the creation a more systematic, coordinated intelligence-sharing network to protect Jewish communities in the U.S. “While New York’s CSI [Community Security Initiative] has built a world-class intelligence operation, most major Jewish communities in the U.S. do not have the resources to hire and build an intelligence team. Yes, some communities — like Los Angeles and Ohio — have talented multi-person intelligence teams, and federations in Greater Washington DC, Southern New Jersey and Detroit have begun investing in analysts. And yes, the ADL has its fantastic Center on Extremism, which specializes in research and tracking hate groups, and the Secure Communities Network (SCN) has a Duty Desk that serves as a useful information exchange center for security directors. But what about protecting South Florida? New England? The Bay Area? The Pacific Northwest? The Midwest? The American Jewish community cannot afford blind spots. From CSI-NY’s collaborations with Jewish security organizations in the UK, Australia and South Africa, we know that dedicated threat detection efforts are well established. The next frontier of American Jewish security must be the creation [of] a network of regionally focused, horizontally networked, real-time intelligence capabilities, which require significant philanthropic and federation investment.” [TOI]
Messengers Matter: In The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Ben Gose reports on why some public health agencies and nonprofits partner with a “trusted messenger” rather than approach their target audience themselves. “[Donna-Marie] Drucker is a passionate suicide-prevention advocate — she tried to kill herself when she was a teenager — but she also owns a firearm and is married to a combat veteran… Drucker is what nonprofits often like to call a ‘trusted messenger’ — someone from within a community who has the connections and credibility to persuade individuals to embrace an idea or behavior that may seem foreign. She visits gun clubs throughout rural Oregon to talk about gun safety and distribute gun safes and locks… Academics, charities, and health experts seeking to address rural suicide know the value of the trusted messenger all too well. The people most at risk — rural gun owners and their families — are often wary of outsiders brandishing statistics and ideas for behavioral change. Drucker recently volunteered for a charity that operates Oregon’s suicide and crisis lifeline. She reviewed transcripts of a focus group of rural gun owners. ‘What became very clear to me was that gun owners felt that suicide prevention was code for gun control,’ says Drucker, who grew up in England and survived her teenage suicide attempt only because she couldn’t find her father’s guns. ‘The messenger matters,’ she adds. ‘I could say something, and gun owners might say “OK, I get it.” A state employee could use exactly the same words, and it would not be trusted.’” [ChronicleofPhilanthropy]
Word on the Street
Dan Elbaum is leaving his position as the Jewish Agency for Israel‘s Head of North America and president and CEO of Jewish Agency International Development after four years…
Mark Schwartz has been appointed the new chair of the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles…
The Met Council on Jewish Poverty in partnership with UJA-Federation of New York opened its $12.5 million Brooklyn Hub, which will provide support particularly to the Haredi and Russian-speaking Jewish communities across Southern Brooklyn…
The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Supporting Foundation has committed up to $4 million to Cleveland Public Theatre to help redevelop its campus in the Gordon Square Arts District. The pledge will act as a matching grant, contingent upon the theater raising an additional $6 million as part of a $12 million capital campaign to fund renovations, improvements and the expansion of its performing arts complex…
The BBC acknowledged in a statement that there were “some serious flaws” in the making of the program “Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone” and that the independent production company that produced the film knowingly failed to reveal that the child narrator was the son of a Hamas official; the British news outlet also acknowledged that it had paid the Hamas official’s family…
Secure Community Network is partnering with three-time Super Bowl champion Julian Edelman, Hillel International and Foundation to Combat Antisemitism on the SafeU project that will provide safety training to Jewish students…
The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle reports on how partnerships between the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill and organizations for seniors such as Age-Friendly Greater Pittsburgh, which recently moved into its building, and its own senior program, AgeWell, support inclusiveness and respect for senior Pittsburgh residents…
The New York Times profiles the personal and professional journey of TV writer Yehonatan Indursky, creator of “Shitsel,” which portrays a Jerusalem family living within the confines of Haredi society where he grew up. His latest series, “Kugel,” will begin airing on Feb. 28…
AJC Berlin Ramer Institute and the Jewish Student Union of Germany called for clear sanctions and preventive measures against acts of antisemitism at German universities after their survey showed that since Oct. 7 antisemitism has become the norm at many institutions in Germany and Jewish students do not feel safe on campuses.…
The Jewish Independent interviews Australian broadcaster and advocate Julie McCrossin, who links her outspoken stand against rising antisemitism to a childhood friend whose mother was a Holocaust survivor, Western media failures of abandoning “fundamental principles,” and her own experience growing up as a marginalized lesbian…
The Australian Jewish News spotlights conversions to Judaism, which in some cases have doubled following Oct. 7, and which are being looked at in a new light by the Jewish community…
A new survey by the Jewish People Policy Institute found that 59% of American Jews oppose President Donald Trump’s Gaza displacement plan, with only 17% expressing support. In general, American Jews are far less supportive of Trump and his proposals than their Israeli counterparts, according to the report…
AJC Central Europe criticized the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum for removing Israeli flags with hostage ribbons because it was viewed as a political statement. The museum has said it has a long-standing policy prohibiting display of any modified flags on its grounds…
The Associated Press spotlights nonprofit groups such as Unlock Aid, Founders Pledge, The Life You Can Save, Network for Empowered Aid Response and GlobalGiving that are stepping in with fundraising efforts to help organizations struggling with the cuts brought on by the Trump administration’s freeze on foreign assistance…
Miri Nash, a philanthropist and former executive director of the Western Region of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, died in Palm Desert, Calif., on Feb. 16 at 79…
Paul Bronfman, Canadian screen industry entrepreneur and member of the philanthropic Bronfman family, died on Wednesday in Toronto at 67…
Pic of the Day
The Empire State Building was lit up in orange earlier this week to honor the memories of slain Israeli hostages Shiri Bibas, Ariel Bibas and Kfir Bibas.
The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the Chain Bridge in Budapest, the Eiffel Tower in Paris and other world landmarks were similarly illuminated in orange this week in honor of the Israeli mother and her two young sons, whom Israeli authorities determined were murdered in captivity.
Birthdays
Professor of business at Columbia Business School, she is a former board chair at Jewish Theological Seminary, Abby Joseph Cohen, celebrates her birthday on Feb. 29…
FRIDAY: World-renowned architect and designer, born as Frank Owen Goldberg, Frank Owen Gehry… Israeli jurist, she was the first woman to serve as president of the Israeli Supreme Court, Dorit Beinisch… Professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of California, San Diego, Linda Preiss Rothschild… Retired executive director of the Montreal chapter of ORT, Emmanuel Kalles… Actress and singer, Ilene Susan Graff… State Department special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism during the second Obama administration, now a visiting professor at Georgetown, Ira Niles Forman… New York Times op-ed columnist from 1999 until a few months ago, he is a 2008 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, Paul Krugman… Professor of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, Dr. Samuel Klein… Founding engineer and a large shareholder of Facebook, Jeffrey Jackiel Rothschild… Greensboro, N.C., businessman, he is a past chairman of Hillel International, Randall Kaplan… Self-described as “America’s most notorious lobbyist,” Jack Abramoff… President of The New York Public Library since 2011, Anthony W. Marx… Editor-at-large of the New York Jewish Week, Andrew Silow-Carroll… Owner of a commercial lavender farm in New Jersey, she served as a member of the New Jersey State Senate until 2008, Ellen Karcher… Jerusalem-born businessman, he worked as a NYC taxi driver after completing his IDF service, started and sold several companies in the automotive field, Mordechai (Moti) Kahana… President and CEO of The New York Times Company, Meredith Kopit Levien… Political commentator, Peter Beinart… Former member of the Knesset for the Blue and White party, Ruth Wasserman Lande… Mayor of Jersey City, N.J., he is running for governor of New Jersey in this year’s election, Steven Fulop… National political correspondent for The New York Times covering campaigns, elections and political power, Lisa Lerer… Former professional ice hockey goaltender, he played for ten years in North America and Europe, Dov Grumet-Morris… Managing director at Purple Strategies, Erica Goldman… Partner in the Los Angeles office of Davis Wright Tremaine, Adam Sieff… Director of international innovation and partnerships at the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, Andrew H. Gross… Director of digital assurance and transparency at PwC, Li-Dor David… Israeli national fencing champion and fashion model, she represented Israel at Miss Universe 2015, Avigail Alfatov…
FEB. 29: Executive director of AIPAC from 1980 through 1993, Thomas A. Dine… French fashion photographer, Gilles Bensimon… Polish born economist and professor at New York University, Roman Frydman… Former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, Paul D. Rosenthal… Co-founder of Biebelberg & Martin in Millburn, N.J., he was previously the chair of the Golda Och Academy in West Orange, Keith N. Biebelberg… Professor of Bible at Bar-Ilan University, Joshua Berman… Denver-based attorney at Recht Kornfeld, Richard K. Kornfeld… Born in Kyiv, former U.S. Supreme Court law clerk and now a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, known for his eponymous legal blog “The Volokh Conspiracy,” Eugene Volokh… Israeli mountain climber, search and rescue professional, photographer and speaker, Nadav Ben Yehuda… Political operations project manager at AIPAC, Samantha Friedman Fallon…
SATURDAY: President of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in NYC since 2001, he served for thirty years on the Los Angeles City Council, Joel Wachs… Real estate developer, he was part owner of MLB’s Kansas City Royals and three sports franchises in Memphis, Tulane’s basketball arena is named in his honor, Avron B. Fogelman… Professor emeritus of Jewish Studies at Los Angeles Valley College and the former editor of Shofar, a journal of Jewish studies, Zev Garber… CEO of Mandalay Entertainment and a co-owner of both the LA Dodgers and Golden State Warriors, Peter Guber… Former chairman and CEO of IBM until 2002, Lou Gerstner… Former member of the Knesset for the Likud and then the New Hope party, he is a son of former Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Ze’ev Binyamin (“Benny”) Begin… Librarian at the Anti-Defamation League’s NYC HQ, Marianne Benjamin… Israeli historian, author and journalist, he earned a Ph.D. from Boston University in the 1970s, Tom Segev… Israeli journalist, author, television personality and political commentator, Ehud Yaari… Industrialist, magazine publisher, film producer and art collector, Peter M. Brant… Cantor emeritus at the Jewish Community Center of Paramus/Congregation Beth Tikvah, Sam Weiss… U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE)… Former executive of Viacom, Philippe Dauman… President of Emory University, he is the son and grandson of Holocaust survivors, Gregory L. Fenves… Author and former U.S. military intelligence officer, she is now a human rights activist focused on Eastern Europe, Nina Willner… Chairman and president of Berexco in Wichita, Kansas, Adam E. Beren… Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist, Andrey Adamovskiy… Satirist, novelist, short story writer and journalist, he is also a three-time “Jeopardy!” champion, Neal Pollack… Assistant vice president of corporate and community relations at Baltimore’s Kennedy Krieger Institute, Dara Schapiro Schnee… Television writer, director and producer, he is best known for co-creating the comedy-drama “Glee,” Brad Falchuk… Six-time Emmy award-winning television journalist, he now works for CBS News, Dave Malkoff… Founder and principal at narrative/change, a Philadelphia-based media and communications firm, he is also the acting communications director for Working America, Jonathan Lipman… Israeli journalist and the former chairman of the Union of Journalists in Israel, Yair Tarchitsky… Principal at Mosaic Realty Partners and a director of both The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore and the Orthodox Union, Isaac Pretter… CEO of eToro, Yoni Assia… Former member of the U.S. national soccer team, now head of international recruitment and development at Atlanta United FC, Jonathan Spector… Co-founder of Synonym Biotechnologies, Joshua Lachter… Senior political data reporter and the host of the “Margins of Error” podcast (both for CNN), Harry Enten… Litigation associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, Hannah Klain… Shortstop for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, now playing for the New York Boulders of the Frontier League, Assaf Lowengart… Kevin Golden…
SUNDAY: Restaurateur, lawyer, financier and former owner of Braniff International Airlines, Jeffrey Chodorow… Comedian, actress and writer, she was part of the original cast of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” Laraine Newman… Former U.S. Senator from Wisconsin for 18 years, Russ Feingold… Member of the Knesset for the National Unity Party, Alon Natan Schuster… Anesthesiologist in Skokie, Ill., who graduated from Tel Aviv University’s School of Medicine, Samuel M. Parnass, M.D.… Director of Judaism and Israel education at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, Sally G. Abrams… Member of the New York State Assembly, where he served until 2015 and is now serving again, Alec Brook-Krasny… Former global government relations manager for Ford Motor Company, now a senior advisor at Brunswick Group, Mitch Bainwol… Author and reporter for The New York Times, Katherine “Katie” Rosman… Executive director of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, she is a board member of the Washington JCRC, Daphne Lazar-Price… Editor and director of communications at Twin Cities, Minnesota’s TC Jewfolk, Lonny Goldsmith… Israeli hip hop singer and rapper better known as Mooki, Daniel Neyburger… Former culture reporter for The New York Times, he is the author of a biography of Robin Williams, David L. Itzkoff… Former member of the Knesset for the Kadima party, Yuval Zellner… Director of marketing at Window Nation, Eric Goldscher… Chief of staff for Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-FL), Yuri Beckelman… Israeli physician, she is also a television and radio newscaster, Dr. Hila Chaya Korach… Vice president at This Machine Filmworks in Los Angeles, Sally Rosen Phillips… Founding member of CoS Mastermind Network, a vetted community of chiefs of staff, Kaylee Berger Porco… Project manager at Halo Development, Donni Lurman…
