Where are they now?

AVODAH Alumni Making an Impact

The majority of AVODAH’s 265 alumni are pursuing careers or advanced degrees in service, social justice or Jewish communal work. Influenced by their AVODAH experience, alumni continue to apply the lessons they learned in AVODAH to their work. Here are a few examples of alumni working in the fields of education, social justice law/legal advocacy, public health/medicine and as Jewish professionals.

Jewish Community/Social Justice | Education
Public Health/Medicine | Law

Jewish Community/Social Justice

• Rabbi Mark Asher Goodman (NY 99-00) is Director of Community Outreach and a teacher of Talmud and Social Justice at the Jewish Community High School of the Bay Area.
• Elisheva Gould (NY 03-04) teaches 4th grade at Congregation Rodeph Sholom's religious school, a Reform Jewish day school on the Upper West Side, while pursuing her Masters degree in Jewish Education at the Davidson School of the Jewish Theological Seminary.

These are only a couple of our alumni that are making an impact in the Jewish Community/Social Justice field, see the whole list here.

Education

• Michelle Gawerc (NY 98-99) is a PhD Candidate at Boston College. She is currently teaching an undergraduate course on Social Conflict, coordinating the Movement/Media Research Action Project, and working on her dissertation, entitled "Peace-building through People-to-People Initiatives: Israel and Palestine."
• Ayala (Abramovici) Livny (NY 98-99) currently runs Youth on Fire, a drop-in center for homeless and runaway youth in Boston. The center provides services, support, and opportunities for empowering and developing disenfranchised youth.

These are only a couple of our alumni that are making an impact in the Education field, see the whole list here.

Public Health/Medicine

• Yuval Asner (NY 03-04) is a medical student at the University of Illinois. He serves as President of the school's Rural Health and Underserved Medicine Student Interest Group and is the lead organizer for a National Primary Care Week conference titled, "Addressing Health Disparities: Healing the Nation."
• Sophie Kasimow (NY 05-06) is a research assistant at The Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute in Garrison, NY. During AVODAH she worked at The Medicare Rights Center, an organization dedicated to helping older adults and people with disabilities get affordable health care.

These are only a couple of our alumni that are making an impact in the Public Health/Medicine field, see the whole list here.

Law/Legal Advocacy

• Jessica Polansky (NY 99-00) is a staff attorney at Children's Rights, an organization that works to reform foster care systems across the country. Jessica also clerked for a judge in Memphis, TN. During law school, she had the opportunity to work for the Center for Constitutional Rights in NYC and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission in Belfast.
• Nadia Underhill (NY 99-00) is a policy analyst and Polikoff-Gautreaux fellow focusing on public housing policy with Chicago's BPI, a non-profit public interest law and policy center.

These are only a couple of our alumni that are making an impact in the Law/Legal Advocacy field, see the whole list here.

Jewish Community/Social Justice

• Blaire Cirlin (DC 2005-06) was hired by her placement organization, DC Central Kitchen, in the fundraising department. She works with Robert Egger, a leader of the social entrepreneur movement.
• Aaron Dobish (NY 00-01) is currently the Building Director of The Prince George a supportive housing facility for low income and formerly homeless individuals. Aaron recently graduated from Brooklyn Law School and is awaiting admission in New York State after passing the Bar Exam.
• Amy Ravis Furey (NY 99-00) serves as the AVODAH Program Director for New York City. Previously, Amy worked at Columbia/Barnard Hillel where she served as Director of Tzedek Hillel. Amy has an MSW from Hunter College with a concentration in community organizing and group work.
• Darya Mattes (DC 2005-06) teaches religious school at Tifereth Israel and is a key volunteer leader of Jews United for Justice.
• Claire Michaels (NY 05-06) is a graduate student at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. She works part time at Oakland Midrash, teaching Jewish high school students on the topics of Jewish Ethics and Judaism and Social Justice.
• Lani Santo (DC 02-03) works for American Jewish World Service as a Senior Program Officer. She developed and manages a new Fellowship for young adults aspiring to pursue careers as social activists and ensure appropriate selection and placement of fellows with NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in developing countries. Lani has served on the AVODAH board of directors since May 2004.
• Jane-Rachel Schonbrun (NY 99-00) works as the Director of Student Life at Kehillah Jewish High School in Palo Alto, CA. She is responsible for the school's experiential education, community service programming, and informal Jewish education.
• Rebecca Shaloff (NY 03-04) is a Development Associate at Rugmark Foundation, a global nonprofit organization working to end illegal child labor in the carpet industry and offer educational opportunities to children in India, Nepal, and Pakistan. Prior to joining Rugmark, she was an American Jewish World Service Fellow in Mumbai, India. Rebecca joined the AVODAH board of directors in May 2005.
• Meredith Weinberg (DC 04-05) works at her AVODAH placement site, Green Door Clubhouse. Meredith works with adults with serious mental illnesses at the Clubhouse and helps the members prepare to return to work as part of their Transitional Employment program. She is active in the local Jewish community, including being involved in the DC Minyan community and teaching at Machar's Jewish Cultural School for Secular Humanistic Judaism.

Education

• Tina Avellino (DC 04-05) is pursuing a Masters degree in Special Education at George Washington University and teaches a classroom of six third-grade boys and one second-grade boy with emotional/behavioral disabilities.
• Jennifer Bloustine (NY 00-01) works as a librarian at the Susan S. McKinney Secondary School of the Arts, an urban public school, where she also worked as a high school English teacher. She is working towards a master's degree in Library and Information Science.
• Ann Glazer (DC 03-04) is currently teaching EFL (English as a Foreign Language) at an international language school in Boston. She also continues to consult on literacy tutoring and service-learning pedagogy to a variety of non-profit organizations.
• Monica Ischan (NY 04-05) is finishing her second and final year of a Masters in Jewish Education at Hebrew University in Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel.
• Laura Menyuk (DC 05-06) performs reading intervention at the School for Arts In Learning (SAIL) in Washington, DC, an elementary public charter school with an arts-infused curriculum to reach students with varied learning styles and disabilities.
• Eli Pristoop (NY 02-03) works as a Data Analyst for Education with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where he assists state university systems who have committed to reducing their gaps in access and success between low-income and minority students and their peers. Eli is a graduate of the Columbia University School of Social Work, and The Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
• Elana Shever (NYC 99-00) is a PhD candidate in anthropology at UC Berkeley whose research focuses on struggles over the production, consumption and ownership of petroleum in Argentina and across the Americas. As part of her effort to generate more critical discussion about the role of petroleum in the contemporary world, she recently taught the course "Oil Politics in Global Perspectives" for politically engaged non-experts.
• Sara Simons (DC 03-04) is getting her Masters in Theater Education at Emerson College, where she designed a curriculum to teach issues of social justice and privilege through theater to Jewish high school students.

Public Health/Medicine

• Anne Finkelstein (NY 02-03) took a year off from her medical school studies at the University of Southern California to complete a Masters in Public Health. Anne plans to work as a physician for inmates in the California prison system.
• Tami Heisler (‘03-‘04), is a student at the Sackler School of Medicine in Tel Aviv.
• Arash Nafisi (NY 2005-06) is finishing his first year in medical school at George Washington University concentrating in global health.

Law/Legal Advocacy

• Jessica Polansky (NY 99-00) is a staff attorney at Children's Rights, an organization that works to reform foster care systems across the country. Jessica also clerked for a judge in Memphis, TN. During law school, she had the opportunity to work for the Center for Constitutional Rights in NYC and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission in Belfast.
• Nadia Underhill (NY 99-00) is a policy analyst and Polikoff-Gautreaux fellow focusing on public housing policy with Chicago's BPI, a non-profit public interest law and policy center.