This is my blog. Here’s who I am:
Professionally, I am the Campus Rabbi and Senior Director for Educational Initiatives at Fiedler Hillel at Northwestern University. I have held this post since June 2005, when I received rabbinic ordination from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT) Rabbinical School in New York. I am a 1998 graduate of Yale University, where I was a music major. I am also a doctoral student in the Northwestern University Department of Religion.
Within Hillel, my work focuses broadly on developing and implementing an educational vision. This applies both locally to Northwestern, but is also done in dialogue and collaboration with the rest of our staff team at Fiedler Hillel, partners at other campuses, and Hillel’s Schusterman International Center.
Like our university partners, we at Hillel envision and aim to cultivate students who are engaged with writing their own life stories, in dialogue with the rest of the world, and specifically with the story of the Jewish People. This is nuanced work, which requires meeting students where they are at and helping them to explore visions of where they might go and what they might become. On the conceptual level, my work in this area involves developing what I have identified as the three major contexts of Hillel work:
1. The field of Emerging Jewish Adulthood, or how Jewish identity formation takes place in 18-30 year-olds.
2. The history, reality, and future of the university, particularly with respect to the relationship of religion and particularism to the story of American higher education.
3. The ongoing story of the Jewish people.
These are the general areas that I write about, and the ones that are reflected in the posts and links on this blog.
My Calendar
You can view my calendar by following this link. Please email me if you’d like to set up a time to talk by phone or in person.
