Kol Bogrei October 2013 ~ Tishrei-Cheshvan 5774 Rambam Page 1 of 5 Connecting Maimonides Alumni Worldwide

Kol Bogrei Rambam is the Alumni Council’s monthly e-newsletter for and about Maimonides School graduates. Each month we share infor- mation on individual graduates’ ventures and accomplishments, as well as general news notes, all reflecting the school’s mission of preparing educated, observant Jews to be contributing members of society. Your ideas and accomplishments will help sustain and strengthen this key communications tool; please forward to [email protected].

Atara Eis ’99 Directing First U.S.-Based Yoatzot Halacha Program

The inaugural class of five U.S.-trained findinghalachic solutions to problems yoatzot halacha — women who that can mar couples’ lives, assisting provide guidance and information with fertility issues and helping bring on issues of health, family purity and Jewish babies into the world.” other halachic areas — graduated After graduating, Atara and her family earlier this month in Manhattan. For moved to the Philadelphia area, where Atara (Sendor) Eis ’99, the ceremo- she taught at Kohelet High nies were “a wonderful culmination to School and served as a yoetzet halacha a labor of love.” Atara is director of the in her community and at various shuls U.S. Yoatzot Halacha Fellows Program in New York. The situation “was far of , the Center for Women’s from ideal because of the distance, but Advanced Torah Studies in . there were not enough yoatzot halacha “I have spoken to hundreds of to reach Manhattan, so I worked from women, many of whom had never felt two hours away,” Atara explained. She comfortable asking a question in this added that, in their travels, she and her realm before, and many of whom had colleagues heard yearnings in various Raphael and Atara (Sendor) Eis ‘99 and family been erring in silence for years, which communities for yoatzot halacha. has taken a toll on their marriages and Atara said she responded by proposing “At Maimonides I also received an under- sometimes on their fertility,” she said. that Nishmat develop a U.S.-based standing of the beauty of our Mesorah “Being a yoetzet halacha has allowed program. “The few of us who studied and the sanctity of the halachic process, me to do this in a most delicate area in Israel and came to the U.S. mainly and the way in which healthy evolu- of halacha, where it is most natural to had plans to return to Israel. If we really tionary changes within the Mesorah come turn to a fellow .” wanted to have enough yoatzot halacha slowly and only through consensus, and Atara, who made aliyah to Efrat last to serve the community, we needed that the purpose of change is to preserve summer, was certified as a yoetzet a U.S.-based program. That’s how the our core values,” she said. “The natural halacha at Nishmat in 2007. The program was born, and that’s how I was outcome of such an education for me program she directs requires two asked to direct the program.” was the desire to serve our community in academic years of part-time and three a meaningful way, to be able to transmit Atara said Stephanie Samuels was the summers of full-time study. “Fellows our Mesorah and encourage people to live Maimonides teacher “who introduced take periodic written exams, study inspired lives.” us to the way in which the laws of Nishmat’s unique supplementary family life can enrich a marriage, so she Nishmat’s approach toward women’s curriculum of gynecology, fertility, deserves credit for my career choice. learning “dovetails perfectly with what sexuality, family dynamics, and Receiving an unbeatable education my teachers at Maimonides taught me,” psychology, and at the end travel to in Talmud and halacha paved the way Atara emphasized, “as it has created a Israel to be orally tested by four widely for me to be able to study Talmud program which is widely accepted by accepted .” and halacha in and college, mainstream Orthodox rabbis both in “Our graduates are poised to make in Stern College’s Graduate Program Israel and the United States, and which a deep impact upon Jewish life, by in Advanced Talmudic Studies and allows women to be an active and crucial strengthening religious observance, Nishmat.” voice within the halachic system.”

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Barry Lowenkron ’69 reflects that, as scatter them to hundreds of organiza- human rights. We have to be optimists a high school student from Dorchester, tions,” Barry acknowledged. “But there and what we can and then build Maimonides “gave me the best combi- has to be a strategy…Take the issue of from there.” nation. Social studies teacher Bertram maternal health in India and Nigeria. Barry’s career at MacArthur is built on Gerry instilled in me a love for history. What are the interventions we can do a strong base of public service. His And Rabbi Isaiah Wohlgemuth gave to prevent maternal deaths? How do more than 30 years of experience in me chesed, and a real understanding of we get expectant mothers the help that government included assignments in the wider world.” they need? It’s my responsibility to help on the White House National Security see that we recruit the best organiza- “I have carried what I got Council Staff and 10 years from those two with me my at the Department of State, whole life,” said Barry, who including serving under for more than six years has Secretaries of State Colin helped improve countless Powell and Condoleezza lives throughout the world Rice. He was confirmed by as vice president of interna- the Senate in 2005 as Assis- tional programs for the John tant Secretary for Democ- D. and Catherine T. MacAr- racy, Human Rights, and thur Foundation. Labor. You’ve probably heard At State, “I worked very of the foundation, which hard to assist human rights awards millions of dollars in defenders globally, to help grants each year “to build individuals often fighting a more just, verdant and alone or in small numbers peaceful world.” The inter- Barry Lowenkron ‘69 visits a young mother at Pader Girls Academy in just to keep the human national program is one of Uganda. The school was funded by the MacArthur Foundation and others rights light on…Govern- four MacArthur divisions; to care for abused and abandoned women. ments not happy about the in 2012 it sponsored more press for fundamental free- than $76 million in grants. MacArthur tions on the ground, forge the most doms since the end of the Cold War are does not take funding from govern- effective partnerships with others, and pushing back and we need to protect ments. “We work with organizations align our work with government efforts civil society.” He carried other principles like Conservation International, Human for maximum impact. During one of experienced at that level of govern- Rights Watch, and others for the better- my trips to India I found myself sitting ment to his work with the foundation, ment of the human condition,” Barry under a tree in a village in Rajasthan including “Change can start with one explained. engaging in a lively discussion with 40 individual” and “All it takes is a spark, an midwives. Our work has to link directly idea, and a determination never to let Barry oversees five subdivisions: Human to what they are trying to do on the go.” Rights and International Justice; Popula- ground.” tion and Reproductive Health; Conser- “I used to remind my staff at the State vation and Sustainable Development; Inherent in his mission is a glass-half-full Department that after a long hard day International Peace and Security; and attitude, something that also came in we get to go home to loved ones, to Migration. The foundation is based in handy during his years in government. shelter, to food — to fundamental secu- Chicago. In addition, Barry is respon- “The biggest problem I face in the foun- rity. There are people around the globe sible for offices in India, Mexico, Nigeria dation is a sense of what can one orga- who don’t have any of that. So, get your and Russia. nization do in the face of so many global rest and get back tomorrow refreshed challenges; in government it’s how to and ready.” His conversation — not surprisingly contend with crowded agendas and on — is replete with accounts of how the Barry is an alumnus of Northeastern the world stage with indifference, if not foundation can make a difference in the University and earned his graduate outright cynicism. The half-full attitude lives of individuals and communities. is especially important in the area of continued on page 4 “We could take parts of our budget and Kol Bogrei October 2013 ~ Tishrei-Cheshvan 5774 Rambam Page 3 of 5 Connecting Maimonides Alumni Worldwide The Ultimate Goal Is Grass-Roots Economic Justice for 1993 Alumnus

Jeremy Thompson ’93 is a researcher, people around issues of economic analyst and organizer who is spending justice.” These included foreclosures, a career working on behalf of people public transit fare hikes and service cuts, seeking economic justice. He has Medicaid cuts and “justice from the helped advocate for state transporta- banks.” Tactics included not only orga- tion finance reform, organized on behalf nizing and policy proposals but also of laborers near the bottom of the pay “being thrown out of State Street Bank’s scale, and worked to give Boston resi- annual shareholders meetings and dents access to construction careers. protesting in the streets every week.” He acknowledged that “you lose more “Through that I developed relations than you win. But it’s as much about with a number of community groups, winning as about organizing. If you mainly focused on low income people lose, but organize hundreds of people of color,” Jeremy continued. “The issues around an important issue, that gets were different but the class profile was them ready for the next fight.” roughly the same.” Jeremy said he considered journalism Last year he launched the Economic as a career in 1993 while serving as a Justice Research Hub, which conducts Maimonides Project Shalom sports- strategic research, data analysis and writing intern with The Jewish Advocate. policy development for labor and Jeremy Thompson ‘93 and his wife Liliana Ibara During his undergraduate years at community organizations. picking apples with Milo and Iris. Emerson College, “I decided I wanted to “Recently I co-authored a paper that has get on a public policy track.” Also over the past year Jeremy has gotten more attention than anything been working with a coalition of labor His first job was as a data analyst I’ve done,” Jeremy reported. “It looks unions, city councilors, bureaucrats and and client consultant with Associ- at the disproportionate reliance of fast- other organizations to reinvigorate the ates for International Research, which food workers on public aid programs.” Boston Residents Jobs Policy. Originally researches consumer prices around the Working over a five-month period with intended to ensure that public and world so multinational corporations can academics in California and Illinois, private construction projects in Boston pay their expatriate employees accurate Jeremy gathered and analyzed data. employed city residents, people of color cost-of-living adjustments. This work “These massive companies pay their and women, he said targets haven’t sent him to places like Kazakhstan and employees barely above minimum been met or enforced in recent years. Papua New Guinea. He went on to earn wage,” he said, and “the way they a master’s degree in urban planning and survive is by turning to the taxpayer.” Jeremy lives in Jamaica Plain with policy from the University of Illinois at More than half nationally receive some his wife and their two children. He Chicago, returning to Boston in 2007. form of public assistance (the figure in is a visiting scholar at the Labor Massachusetts is 46 percent). “These Resource Center at the University of “For the past several years my main are what we consider to be employer Massachusetts-Boston. focus has been on community and subsidies.” labor,” Jeremy said. That included work “It’s a pretty grim reality that I face every as a senior researcher for the Service Jeremy is now back with SEIU, orga- day,” he said. “But it has been great to Employees International Union (SEIU) nizing adjunct professors at various be able to move into a career where Local 1199, representing hundreds of area campuses. “The next fight is to now I’m doing something to make a thousands of health care workers on the negotiate contracts that move us difference. I’ve always been kind of East Coast. toward benefits.” Universities that pay frustrated about the world; I remember top teachers six-figure salaries and sitting in Saval Auditorium reading “As part of that work, I was research and their part-time instructors near-poverty the Boston Phoenix when they covered policy coordinator for MassUniting, a wages are being inconsistent, he said. “It issues that didn’t get covered elsewhere, coalition of union locals, community comes down to a question of values.” and saying, ‘I wish there was something groups and faith-based organizations I could do’.” that essentially sought to organize Kol Bogrei October 2013 ~ Tishrei-Cheshvan 5774 Rambam Page 4 of 5 Connecting Maimonides Alumni Worldwide A Roundup of Alumni Achievements, and Charitable Causes…

Rabbi Daniel (Tzvi Moshe) Schultz ‘94 as president of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah attorney general in the Insurance and recently completed his first sefer, Mashal in Riverdale, NY. The guests included Financial Services Division of the Massa- Tov, a collection of parables on the classmates (Levisohn) Stan- chusetts Attorney General’s Office. weekly parashah. “When I first started hill and Yonina Siegel, as well as Dr. Ethan Merlin ‘98, a middle school out in my chinuch career, I had the Stephen Bayme ’67, Bill Feld ’84, math teacher at Sidwell Friends School opportunity to observe classes at Yeshiva Rabbi Max Davis ’99, Rabbi Dovid in Washington, DC, wrote an article Tifereth Moshe, in Queens,” Daniel said. Green ’00, Yael (Kletter) Keller ’02 and entitled “Teaching Structure in Algebra” “I met a terrific rebbe named Rabbi Shaya Avishai Gebler ’04. In his remarks, Rabbi in the November issue of Mathematics Greenberger, who composed unique Lopatin, who was Maimonides School’s Teacher magazine. Ethan was a leader of meshalim. The stories were funny, the first Rhodes Scholar, thanked his class- the math team in high school, recording nimshalim were deep ideas, and the mate Rabbi Fred Hyman for originally several perfect scores in league students all loved them. When I started suggesting that he pursue the rabbinate competition. teaching my own class, I repeated his as a career. meshalim, and my students loved them, Fiona Guedalia ’08 has started a small Alex Klibaner ’91 has been named one too.” Five years ago, he said, he decided photography business focusing on small of the first 18 Chai in the Hub honorees, to share them with a general audience, scale events and personal head shots. sponsored by Combined Jewish Philan- “and now the sefer is completed. This is Fiona, who graduated from Stern College thropies of Greater Boston. Alex, father a great sefer to share with your children for Women in January, said she mainly of fifth-grader Ellie and first-grader at the Shabbos table, to keep them enjoys her art photography. She has built Jessica Kllibaner-Schiff, will be among engaged, and to help generate great a photography website (www.fionagpho- those recognized at a CJP event for discussions. I’d love to hear your feed- tography.com) that showcases her work. donors ages 22-45 on Nov. 16 at the back ([email protected]).” The Hyatt Regency Boston. Alex, chair and At Stern Fiona’s photos often were book, published by Feldheim, is available charter member of the Maimonides featured in school exhibits and the at http://www.feldheim.com/mashal-tov. Alumni Steering Committee, is also an literary magazines. She is also working at html. officer of the Jewish Community Rela- the American Jewish Joint Distribution Several alumni were on hand on Oct. 6 as tions Council and chairs its Public Policy Committee as a board relations assistant. Rabbi Asher Lopatin ’82 was installed Committee. He serves as an assistant Building a Better World continued from page 2 degree from the Johns Hopkins Univer- sity’s School of Advanced International Studies. That is where he taught as an adjunct for 25 years and where his fellow Maimonides graduate, former State Department colleague and good friend Elliot Cohen ’73 is a professor and heads the strategic studies program. In 1989 he and Eliot ran into each other at the Pentagon where Barry had gone to a meeting representing his boss, Gen. Powell, and Eliot had gone representing his boss, Undersecretary Paul Wolfowitz. “One of my happy memories from my Washington days was walking down the Barry Lowenkron inspects results of the MacArthur Foundation’s efforts to reserve mountain gorillas hall from my office in the Human Rights during a recent trip to Rwanda. “There are less than 800 left worldwide and they are roam in a little bureau to pop into Eliot’s office.” A long part of Africa where Uganda, Rwanda and Congo intersect,” he said. journey from Philbrick Road! Kol Bogrei October 2013 ~ Tishrei-Cheshvan 5774 Rambam Page 5 of 5 Connecting Maimonides Alumni Worldwide

All Hearts in Boston as Alumni Relish a Baseball Championship

(Clockwise, from top, left): Binyamin ‘00 and Rachel Berkovits hosted a gathering in Riverdale for classmates and others to watch the first game of the World Series: (rear, from left) Noah Liben ‘00, Shai, Rachel and Binyamin; (front, from left) Avi Pultman ‘00 (and baby daughter Jessica), Sol ‘00 and Rachel Redlich, Amy and Dovid Green ‘00 and Chanan Berkovits ‘03. Enjoying the Red Sox success from her seat in Busch Stadium during Game 4 of the World Series is Elizabeth (EB Solomont) Levy ‘97, who resides in St. Louis. Beaming during the post-game celebration after Game 6 on Yawkey Way in Boston are (from left) Elisha Blechner ‘96 of Scarsdale, and his brothers-in-law and father-in-law, Adam Dalezman ‘02 of Manhattan, Allen Dalezman of Newton (a member of the Maimonides Board of Trustees) and Michael Dalezman of Skokie. Inside Fenway Park during Game 6, Mark Levenson ‘74 of West Orange, NJ poses with retired Red Sox catcher Jerry Moses, who was seated in the row behind him.