Welcome to Areyvut

	ADVISORY COMMITTEE
		Rabbi Joshua Elkin: Rabbi Elkin is the Executive Director of the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE), a grant making and advocacy organization for Jewish day schools. Prior to PEJE, he was the Head of the Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Boston for 20 years. Josh was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary and went on to complete a doctorate at Columbia Teachers College in the field of curriculum and teaching. He has also served as Adjunct Lecturer in Jewish Education at the Brandeis Hornstein Program for Jewish Communal Service. Peter A. Geffen: Peter is the Executive Director of the Center for Jewish History and Founder of The Abraham Joshua Heschel School in New York. Peter is also the Founder and Director of Kivunim, the Eugene Weiner Israel Summer Institute for Teachers in Jewish Schools (the largest teacher training program in Israel from North America). He has served as consultant to many day schools across the country in a wide range of areas of their operation, specializing in curricular integration and Israel studies and programming. Rabbi Bradley Hirschfield: Brad is Vice President of CLAL. An ordained Orthodox rabbi, he received his Rabbinic Ordination from the Institute of Traditional Judaism (the Metivta), where he then served as Assistant Dean. He received both an MA and an M.Phil. in ancient Jewish history from the Jewish Theological Seminary where he taught in the department of Talmud and Rabbinics. Brad teaches, lectures, and conducts Shabbatonim for major Jewish organizations throughout the United States, and has been a featured speaker at the Executive Committee of National UJA, Leadership 2000, and the National Campaign Cabinet. He also served as book editor for Tikkun magazine and is a contributing editor for Sh'ma to which he is a regular contributor. He was previously the Wexner Heritage Faculty Fellow at CLAL, has been the Stroock Doctoral Fellow at JTS, and served as Scholar-in-Residence at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin for several years. Rabbi Hirschfield was a founding faculty member and rabbinical student at the Institute of Traditional Judaism and previously served as CLAL's first rabbinic intern from that institute. Brad currently directs the CLAL Rabbinic Interns program, the only ongoing study symposium for emerging rabbinic leaders of all denominations in North America. Chaim Lauer: Chaim is currently the President and CEO of HCL Resources, Inc. in West Orange, NJ. Prior to that he served as the executive director of the Jewish Education Association of Metro West, New Jersey [95-98] and the Board of Jewish Education of Greater Washington [88-95]. For the prior eleven years he was associated with that city's United Jewish Appeal Federation as its Director of Budget and Planning and its assistant executive vice president. He attended Yeshiva University, graduated with honors from the University of Miami, received his Masters from Cornell University, was a doctoral candidate in American Social History at The College of William and Mary, and is a doctoral candidate in higher education administration at The George Washington University. He has received certification as a non-profit executive from the Columbia Business School. Among his national responsibilities, he has served as an officer of the Council for Jewish Education, a member of the executive of the Council of Central Agencies Leadership, a member of the board of the Association of Jewish Communal Service, the International Board of the March of the Living, and has chaired the inter-agency committee of the Association of Directors of Central Agencies. He has taught at all grade levels and is published author of a variety of educational materials. Among his articles is "What We Know About Jewish Communal Planning" in Kelman, What We Know About Jewish Education, 1992. Mr. Lauer has served as project director for grants from such organizations as the Covenant and Jim Joseph Foundations. He also has led travel groups of all ages to Israel, served as the scholar in residence for Israel missions, and developed guide materials for them. His favorite hobby is sukkah decorating. His wife, Phyllis, and he are parents of four brilliant and beautiful daughters, and the grandparents of six even more brilliant and beautiful grandchildren. Stephanie Rotsky: Stephanie has been on the faculty at The Rashi School for 13 years. She has had the joy of teaching the founder's children in her early years and spending several years as a second grade teacher at the school. Drawing upon the integrative philosophy of the school, Stephanie has been able to meaningfully connect secular themes within a Jewish framework thereby helping her students to see the world in the context of both their Jewish and secular lives. Her passion for teaching and living tikkun olam (repairing the world) and tzedek (social justice) have played a prominent role in shaping both the character and content of her work each year. Stephanie has been actively involved in helping develop and lead school-wide community projects and events such as the Chanukah Tamhui Project, The Walk for Hunger, and the Mitzvah Maker Program with the Hebrew Rehabilitation Centre for the Aged. Now in her third year as the Social Justice Coordinator of the school, Stephanie is hard at work writing a book about how The Rashi School is thinking about, teaching, and living social justice/tikkun olam as a school community. Drawing upon the teachers, students, parents, alumni, and founders of the school, Stephanie hopes to share a model of teaching and living social justice that educators can incorporate into their own institutions. In addition, Stephanie has the privilege of working closely with the faculty in helping develop and infuse social justice themes and programming within the curriculum and working directly in the classroom with students from K - 8. Initially launched and funded by Michael and Linda Frieze, staunch supporters of social justice and the Rashi School, Stephanie's position continues to be supported by the Friezes and other inspired individuals. Writing a book about Rashi and tikkun olam and developing the Social Justice Position have been a dream come true! Rabbi Sidney Schwarz: Founded PANIM: The Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values in 1988 as a means to spark greater interest in Jewish values and tikkun olam, repair of the world. He previously served as executive director of the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington, D.C. and was the founding rabbi of Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Rockville, MD, where he is now Rabbi Emeritus. Dr. Schwarz is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) and holds a Ph.D. in Jewish history. He has served on the faculties of the University of Maryland, Temple University and the RRC as well as the Wexner Summer Institute and the Whizin Family Education Institute. He is the co-author of Jewish Civics: A World Repair/Tikkun Olam Manual (1994), Jews, Judaism, and Civic Responsibility (1998), and the author of Finding a Spiritual Home: How a New Generation of American Jews can Transform the American Synagogue (Jossey-Bass, 2000). He has written over 90 articles for various journals, including Judaism, Moment, Sh'ma and Reconstructionist, and is a frequent lecturer on contemporary Jewish affairs. Barry Shrage: Since 1987, Barry Shrage has served as President of Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston (CJP). In his sixteen years at the helm of the oldest federated charity in the United States, Mr. Shrage has earned a reputation as a forthright and visionary leader, revolutionizing a venerable charity with new energy, new ideas and immense optimism. Mr. Shrage led the development of the CJP Strategic Plan for the Boston Jewish community. This unique effort calls on CJP to actively facilitate the development of communities of learning, caring and social justice through innovative partnerships with its traditional agency partners and area synagogues. Sensing the growing interest in study and spirituality, Mr. Shrage pioneered the development of a unique adult learning program that aims to bring universal Jewish literacy to the Boston Jewish community. The program now boasts an enrollment of 1000 individuals in over 25 classes taught across metropolitan Boston. Mr. Shrage has also written a wide range of papers on the subjects of Jewish identity, continuity and education, on social justice and the development of a Jewish renaissance. A graduate of the City College of New York, Mr. Shrage holds a masters degree in social work from Boston University. Dr. Elliot D. Spiegel: Elliot received his Rabbinical Ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1970. That year he began his career as a Headmaster of Solomon Schechter schools; first in Los Angeles, then in Chicago, and finally, in 1980 at the Solomon Schechter School of Westchester. Dr. Spiegel also holds a Doctorate in Education from the University of Southern California. Dr. Spiegel has been in the forefront of the growth of the day schools of the Conservative movement. He was the first Rabbi ordained by the Seminary to head a Solomon Schechter School. He is a past President of the Solomon Schechter Principals' Council and a recipient of the Ushishkin Prize for Jewish Education. In 1995 JTS presented an Honorary Doctorate in Pedagogy to Dr. Spiegel in recognition of his contributions to day school education. It has been under his leadership that the Solomon Schechter School of Westchester has grown to nearly 1000 students in elementary through high school on campuses in White Plains and Hartsdale. A native of Los Angeles, Dr. Spiegel is the proud father of two children; Dr. Yoav Spiegel, of Berkeley, California, and Dina Spiegel, who is currently a doctoral student at NYU in school psychology and was recently married to Elisha Andron. Dr. Spiegel has been married to Phyllis Spiegel for 37 years. Phyllis is a private psychotherapist with a practice in Westchester. Rabbi Joseph Telushkin: Rabbi Telushkin is a spiritual leader and scholar, is the author of the acclaimed The Book of Jewish Values and also Jewish Literacy, the most widely read book on Judaism of the past two decades. Another of his books, Words That Hurt, Words That Heal, was the motivating force behind Senators Joseph Lieberman and Connie Mack's 1996 Senate Resolution 151 to establish a "National Speak No Evil Day" throughout the United States. Rabbi Telushkin is a senior associate of CLAL, the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, and the rabbi of the Los Angeles-based Synagogue for the Performing Arts, and serves on the board of the Jewish Book Council. He lives with his family in New York City, and lectures regularly throughout the United States. Julie Chizewer Weill: Julie is the Director of Education and Organizing at the Jewish Fund for Justice, the only national Jewish organization that is solely committed to fighting the injustice of poverty in America. She trains religious school and Jewish day school teachers to incorporate a poverty and justice unit into their curriculum, and she helps synagogues create community-based social justice partnerships. She earned an MSW and Certificate in Jewish Communal Service from Yeshiva University. Previously, she has held positions at the UAHC and the Jewish Council of Urban Affairs in Chicago. Dr. Jonathan Woocher: Jonathan is President of JESNA, North America's organization for Jewish education advocacy and excellence. JESNA is a program innovator and continental resource in a wide range of areas including day school and congregational education, Jewish youth, recruitment and development of Jewish educators, research and evaluation, and media and technology. Prior to assuming his position at JESNA in 1986, Dr. Woocher was Associate Professor in the Benjamin S. Hornstein Program in Jewish Communal Service at Brandeis University, where he taught courses in Jewish political studies and communal affairs and directed the program in Continuing Education for Jewish Leadership. Dr. Woocher received his B.A. from Yale University, summa cum laude, in Political Science, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Temple University in Religious Studies. He has also studied at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Before going to Brandeis, he served as Assistant Professor of Religion and Director of Jewish Studies at Carleton College in Minnesota. Dr. Woocher is the author of the book Sacred Survival: The Civil Religion of American Jews, published by Indiana University Press. His monographs and articles on Jewish community, education, and religion have appeared in numerous books and journals, including the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Judaism, The Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Agenda: Jewish Education and Avar Ve=Atid: A Journal of Jewish Education, Culture and Discourse. Dr. Woocher is also a co-editor of Perspectives in Jewish Population Research, published by Westview Press. Dr. Woocher serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of Goddard College in Vermont, a Fellow of the Center for Jewish Community Studies in Jerusalem, as chair of the Professional Advisory Committee of the Institute for Informal Jewish Education at Brandeis University, as a member of the Executive Committee of the Wilstein Institute of Jewish Policy Studies, and on many academic and organizational advisory boards. He has also served on the Executive Board of the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry, the Jewish Communal Service Association, and the Council for Jewish Education.