Blogs

Ben Wizner ’88 has spent more time at Guantanamo Bay than the average Brooklyn resident. As staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for the past 7 years, Ben has focused almost exclusively on national security and human rights cases. A few weeks after Ben took the job at the ACLU, the attacks of September 11th occurred. There were new challenges to confront like discrimination against Arabs, Muslims and South Asians; surveillance of non-violent peace groups; and the torture of prisoners in U.S. custody.
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Tova Serkin '97 spends her days working to strengthen Jewish Peoplehood. As Executive Director of the international not-for-profit organization KolDor, based in Israel, she supports a global network of emerging Jewish leaders who are committed to shifting the existing paradigms in the Jewish world and leading change in Jewish communities worldwide. KolDor's model is innovative, offering a platform for Jewish connections. One flagship project that emerged from KolDor's network is Jewish Social Action Month - a month devoted to tikkun olam (repairing the world) and Jewish unity globally.  READ MORE »

Charlie Buckholtz ‘89 co-authored the biography In Heaven Everything is Fine

Home Front Hearts, a nonprofit founded by Randi Cairns '87, was featured in the The Star-Ledger and New Jersey Jewish News. Find out how you can support Randi's efforts at Home Front Hearts, Inc.

Etan Cohen ‘91 co-wrote summer hit Tropic Thunder with Ben Stiller

Michael L. Frazer '95 has a book forthcoming from Oxford University Press, The Enlightenment of Sympathy: Justice and the Moral Sentiments in the Eighteenth Century and Today

Adina Gerver ’96 selected as American Jewish World Service (AJWS) Lisa Goldberg Memorial Writers' Fellowship and accepted to study at the Advanced Scholars Program of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem

Abigail Heitler Hirsch ‘89 co-authored The Power of Two Workbook

Ben Kapnik '00 joins Center for Law and Democracy's Board of Directors

Dr. Ari Y. Kelman '88 recently published UNCOUPLED: How our Singles are Reshaping Jewish Engagement with Dr. Steven M. Cohen

Liz Kilstein '99 named Root Tilden Kern D'Agostino scholar at NYU Law School

Idit Klein ‘89 profiled in Curve magazine

Deb Dusansky Kornfeld '87 selected as Jewish Programming Director for a Wisconsin camp through Chizuk, a program of the Mandel Center for Jewish Education of the Jewish Community Centers Association of North America

Anya Manning ‘02 awarded prestigious Insight: Schusterman Fellowship for Jewish Community

Jodi Meyerowitz '05 named a 2008 PresenTense Fellow for her project Shomer Achi which was also awarded a BYFI Alumni Venture Fund grant

Yellowjackets, a play by Itamar Moses '94, premiers at the Berkeley Repertory Theater

Rabbi Avi Orlow '91 joins the Foundation for Jewish Camping as Director of Education

Naamah Paley '02 named 2008 Dorot Fellow

Sam Rascoff '90 joins NYU Law School as Assistant Professor of Law

Erin Scharff '99 named Root Tilden Kern scholar at NYU Law School

Dan Smokler '96 joins NYU Bronfman Center as Educational Director

Danny Stolzman '97 was Field Producer for "Sandhogs," an 11-episode series on the History Channel

Beth Zasloff '90 and Edgar Bronfman co-author the book Hope Not Fear

This summer, 7 college-age alumni attended the 2008 American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Conference in Washington, D.C. as guest of the Samuel Bronfman Foundation (SBF). Ben Greene, program officer at the SBF, hosted the BYFI student delegation. Attendees heard from politicians including Senator John McCain & Senator Barack Obama as well as Jewish thinkers like Leon Weiseltier and Michael Oren.

The student delegation included: Mateo Aceves '06 (Brandeis), Nat Gardenswartz '06 (Princeton), David Gruber '06 (Bowdoin), Madeleine Levey '06 (UMich), Deborah Beth Medows '03 (BU Law School), Michael Pomeranz '04 (Yale), and Courtney Yadoo '06 (Harvard). BYFI attendees submitted written reflections after the event. Nat Gardenswartz wrote, "what I found most illuminating at the conference was the perspective it gave me on American politics." And Michael Pomeranz pointed out that a highlight of attending the conference included the company and conversation he shared with the other BYFI alums, "as always, they stimulated my thinking about the Jewish community and about the world."

Nominations are now open for BYFI Alumni Venture Fund for grants. Proposals due October 15th. This is the final round of funding for 2008; funds are limited. Projects that align with the values of BYFI and are led by BYFI alums, either wholly or in part, are eligible for funding. Visit the BYFI Alumni Venture Fund website for more details and complete the online application. The next funding cycle will be in May 2009.

The 2008 BYFI summer was an exceptional one. Staffed by Sharon Cohen Anisfeld (her 12th summer!),Andy Bachman (for his second year running), and Claudia Kreiman (her third in a row), the program experienced a number of firsts: fabulous stand-up comedian Yisrael Campbell (think Catholic-born serial convert), a rock concert in Caesaria during the Mifgash (encounter) with the Israel Amitim (Fellows) with Ehud Banai and the band Mashina (the Fellows and Amitim got back to Goldstein at 3:30 AM!), and exceptional speakers such as author Yossie Klein Halevi, diplomat Ron Dermer, feminist and religious leader Tovah Hartman, author Etgar Keret, political and social thinker Gidi Grinstein, and old standby AB Yehoshua. For our full itinerary and photos from the summer, check out the 2008 BYFI summer blog.

With the security situation fairly stable, we were able to enjoy downtown Jerusalem and the Old City somewhat more freely than during the years of Palestinian terror, and the Fellows really enjoyed that. The Jewish text study with faculty was, as always, a favorite for Fellows. Sessions included:

• Contemporary Hebrew Poems in Dialogue with the Bible, Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld
• Dreams, Rabbi Andy Bachman
• Prayer: a journey or a burden? Thinking, struggling and learning about Tfilah, Rabbi Claudia Kreiman
• Rabbinic Judaism, Rabbi Shimon Felix

All in all, it was a very rich, often challenging summer, and I am sure that the Fellows are still thinking and talking about much of what we learned and discussed. We will continue the discussion in early November when we have our follow-up seminar in New York - I know I'm looking forward to it.

Check out the blog written by 2008 Fellow Aaron Clayton-Dunn for the "Jewish Voice & Herald" of Rhode Island and Southern Mass. Aaron blog posts:

• The Presence of God around me
• From a mikveh in Tsfat to Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv
• Discussing the Diaspora in Israel
  

In July, we gave you the opportunity to vote on which summer speaking engagement you’d like us to document and make available to the community. Your top choices were Etgar Keret and Yossi Klein Halevi. We were pleased to capture Yossi Klein Halevi's engaging session and make it available for our alumni to view. He is a well-known Israeli author and journalist who spoke about Israeli politics and, more importantly, philosophical and theological issues facing the Jewish people in Israel and the Diaspora.

Active in Middle East reconciliation efforts, Halevi serves as Chairman of Open House, an Arab-Jewish educational project in the working class town of Ramle. He is a senior fellow at the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem-based academic research institute. In 2001 he published At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden: A Jew's Search for God with Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land. Halevi has written for the Jerusalem Report, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and Washington Post.