Paleyfellows.htm

Meet JFREJ's 2008-09 Grace Paley Organizing Fellows

Ruth Balinsky grew up in an Orthodox household in Evanston, Illinois. She graduated Barnard College in 2007, where she majored in Psychology and Jewish Studies. She currently resides in Washington Heights, and is spending her second year studying at the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education. Always invested in social justice, Ruth believes that one of her roles as a religious Jew is to aid communities in need, regardless of their religious affiliation. She is currently involved with two Jewish social justice organizations, staffing a teen summer program called Or Tzedek, and organizing campaigns with Uri l'Tzedek in Washington Heights. Ruth plans to pursue a career in social justice, and she is thrilled to be joining the JFREJ team!

Katie Barnett grew up in a suburb of Chicago received a B.A. from the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington in 2003. Following her graduation, she worked with the International Rescue Committee's Seattle office to support and strengthen a network of Somali refugee-led community-based organizations. She is currently pursuing a Master of Social Work degree with a focus in Community Organization and Planning at the Hunter College School of Social Work. Hopefully one day she will learn how to make a claymation movie.

Amy Blumsack

Born in 1981 and raised in Oakland, California, Amy received a B.A. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, San Diego. Amy recently spent 10 months in Israel on the Dorot Fellowship in Israel. This August she is beginning her master's degree at Hunter School of Social Work, with a focus on community organizing. Amy worked with Avodah: the Jewish Service Corps, where she has organized program alumni to participate in the Stop Genocide in Darfur Campaign. Previously, as an Avodah Corps member, herself, Amy served and counseled homeless, addicted and mentally ill adults at Project Renewal and Neighbors Together in New York. While at UCSD, Amy helped to coordinate her school's first annual Alternative Break experience, with the American Jewish World Service, in El Salvador.

No photo available

Rob Browne was born and raised in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. After attending the Fair Lawn public school system, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine. He has been a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania, SUNY Stony Brook, and New York University, as well as an attending at Lutheran Medical Center and Long Island Jewish Medical Center. Presently, he is the Chief of Dental Medicine at the Parker Jewish Institute in New Hyde Park, NY. Rob's wife, Leslie, is a proud member of Hadassah, and his 3 children are students in the Solomon Schechter School system.

Alyse Erman graduated from the University of Michigan Residential College in 2004 with a BA in Social Science with an emphasis on Comparative Religion and Culture. After college, she began work as a Community Organizer/ AmeriCorps VISTA at Jewish Community Action in St. Paul, Minnesota where she brought the Jewish community together to build power and address issues of affordable housing and racism. In 2006 Alyse moved to New York to become a Trainer at The Posse Foundation, a college scholarship foundation that sends with New York City public school students to top universities and colleges in groups of 10-12, or "posses." Alyse is also a Trainer for the Wellstone Action! Campus Camp Wellstone initiative, which trains college students how to organize and mobilize their campuses. In her spare time, Alyse is an active member of the JFREJ, enjoys biking around the city, and pretending like it is actually possible to grow tomatoes on her roof in Brooklyn. Currently, Alyse is pursuing a Masters in Urban Planning from NYU's Wagner School of Public Service.

Sarah Margles is an Education Officer at American Jewish World Service where she oversees AJWS' Jewish publications as well as creating and implementing education programs for the American Jewish community. Prior to working at AJWS, she taught Judaic studies at the Solomon Schechter HighSchool of New York and was the Director of Experiential Education and Jewish Student Life. Sarah has over 10 years experience working with Jewish teenagers, including several years working with the Nesiya Institute – a creative study program for Israeli and North American high school students. Sarah earned her B.A. in Judaic studies from York University in Toronto and is a graduate of the Pardes Educators Program in Jerusalem where she earned a Certificate of Advanced Jewish Study from the Pardes Institute and an M.A. in Jewish Education from Hebrew University. Sarah recently joined the revolution that leaves no one behind. She can kick it nicely on the dancefloor and has a knack for fixing things that seem broken.

Vered Meir has been an active member of the Shalom Bayit: Justice for Domestic Workers campaign for three years. This fall she will relocate to Boston but is excited about the opportunity to continue her involvement with JFREJ from a distance through the Grace Paley fellowship. While living in New York, she worked at Jewish Funds for Justice. Vered is currently considering library science school and other social justice jobs. Aside from organizing, she enjoys knitting, baking, fermenting, and biking.

Jenny Overman is a Jewish poet, performer, artist and educator. She resides in the California Bay Area and spends a lot of her time in New York City, where she is from. Jenny's creative work is an intimate lens into themes of wealth, race and class privilege. In performing nationwide, Jenny has had the experience of sharing her work with diverse audiences. A year ago she published her first book of poetry entitled, "I’m So White in Some Ways". More about Jenny and her work can be found on: www.jennyoverman.com. Over the past few years Jenny has spent significant time doing anti-racism work and prison justice work. She is thrilled to be a part of the Grace Paley Fellowship and feels particularly enthusiastic about the Shalom Bayit Campaign.

No photo available

Avi Rosenthalis

Having done most of her growing up in Delaware, about two years ago Avi decided to find that tree she heard was growing in Brooklyn. Once she was satisfied she found that particular tree, she began settling in with Avodah Jewish Service Corps. Avi worked as a legal advocate at the Homelessness Outreach and Prevention Project at the Urban Justice Center where she worked
with homeless and low income New Yorkers in matters of welfare law and eviction prevention. One day, whilst biking aimlessly around the city, she came across a racitious radical marching band and decided that had to be the greatest non-violent direct action schtick she'd ever seen. Since then she has been dancing up a storm and organizing within this collective to work with various local grassroots and community organizing groups around feminism and women's rights, the queer community, labor, the environment, social, economic, and racial justice, peace and community self-determination. After just about 2 years she decided it was time to be thankful for the skills she had gained at the Urban Justice Center and pack it up and gain some more! Having returned from six weeks in Israel/Palestine working with various human rights and direct action anti-occupation groups, Avi returned to the states to become a certified Wilderness First Responder and is now a preventative health care nag. Avi has been organizing for the Rude Mechanical Orchestra and their first ever No More War Tour.

Zachary Wager Scholl is an activist, artist and performer from the DC-area. Prior to moving to New York City he organized and built coalitions of high school gay-straight alliances, participated for three years in a youth-based theatre organization, City at Peace, and received a career certificate in American Sign Language from Northern Virginia Community College. Aside from his work with JFREJ, he is pursing a degree in Deaf Studies and ASL/English Interpreting from LaGuardia Community College, and is working as a sex educator at Babeland, a feminist sex toy shop. He believes in the power of art, community and love.

Beth Slutzky is from Maplewood, New Jersey. She is a visual art and social history student at Sarah Lawrence College. For two years she has been an organizer of FLUX, a feminist organization at Sarah Lawrence, which works against sexual assault on campus. For two years she has been a local organizer of the new Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Outside of School, Beth has mentored preteen girls at the Westhab’s Elm St. Neighborhood Center in Yonkers, NY. This summer she was an intern for the Fellowship of Reconciliation’s (FOR), working for its magazine and its Youth and Militarism program.

Alex Weissman

When not with JFREJ, Alex works in HIV prevention research, asking people detailed questions about their sex lives. When not getting paid to talk about sex, Alex pays to talk about sex as a student in the Liberal Studies program at the CUNY Graduate Center. Before all this sex talk, Alex grew up with his three brothers, mom, and dad outside of Philadelphia and then attended Tufts University outside of Boston, where he majored in American Studies, with a concentration in Comparative Race and Ethnicity. Before moving to New York, Alex worked in the anti-violence field, did children's theater, and was a member of a radical queer group called QueerToday. Mostly, Alex would like to be a trapeze artist.

David Zisser hails from the San Francisco Bay Area. After attending UCLA as an undergraduate, David moved back to the Bay to earn his masters in City Planning at UC Berkeley and a JD at UC Hastings. Although David does not have any professional organizing experience, as an undergraduate, he interned at Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, where he organized rabbis for a workers’ rights seder, and was an active member of the Progressive Jewish Students Association, participating in workers’ rights and Palestine-Israel peace actions. After graduating in 2007, David moved to New York City and works with city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD).

	Alyse Erman graduated from the University of Michigan Residential College in 2004 with a BA in Social Science with an emphasis on Comparative Religion and Culture. After college, she began work as a Community Organizer/ AmeriCorps VISTA at Jewish Community Action in St. Paul, Minnesota where she brought the Jewish community together to build power and address issues of affordable housing and racism. In 2006 Alyse moved to New York to become a Trainer at The Posse Foundation, a college scholarship foundation that sends with New York City public school students to top universities and colleges in groups of 10-12, or "posses." Alyse is also a Trainer for the Wellstone Action! Campus Camp Wellstone initiative, which trains college students how to organize and mobilize their campuses. In her spare time, Alyse is an active member of the JFREJ, enjoys biking around the city, and pretending like it is actually possible to grow tomatoes on her roof in Brooklyn. Currently, Alyse is pursuing a Masters in Urban Planning from NYU's Wagner School of Public Service.
	Sarah Margles is an Education Officer at American Jewish World Service where she oversees AJWS' Jewish publications as well as creating and implementing education programs for the American Jewish community. Prior to working at AJWS, she taught Judaic studies at the Solomon Schechter HighSchool of New York and was the Director of Experiential Education and Jewish Student Life. Sarah has over 10 years experience working with Jewish teenagers, including several years working with the Nesiya Institute – a creative study program for Israeli and North American high school students. Sarah earned her B.A. in Judaic studies from York University in Toronto and is a graduate of the Pardes Educators Program in Jerusalem where she earned a Certificate of Advanced Jewish Study from the Pardes Institute and an M.A. in Jewish Education from Hebrew University. Sarah recently joined the revolution that leaves no one behind. She can kick it nicely on the dancefloor and has a knack for fixing things that seem broken.
	Vered Meir has been an active member of the Shalom Bayit: Justice for Domestic Workers campaign for three years. This fall she will relocate to Boston but is excited about the opportunity to continue her involvement with JFREJ from a distance through the Grace Paley fellowship. While living in New York, she worked at Jewish Funds for Justice. Vered is currently considering library science school and other social justice jobs. Aside from organizing, she enjoys knitting, baking, fermenting, and biking.
	Jenny Overman is a Jewish poet, performer, artist and educator. She resides in the California Bay Area and spends a lot of her time in New York City, where she is from. Jenny's creative work is an intimate lens into themes of wealth, race and class privilege. In performing nationwide, Jenny has had the experience of sharing her work with diverse audiences. A year ago she published her first book of poetry entitled, "I’m So White in Some Ways". More about Jenny and her work can be found on: www.jennyoverman.com. Over the past few years Jenny has spent significant time doing anti-racism work and prison justice work. She is thrilled to be a part of the Grace Paley Fellowship and feels particularly enthusiastic about the Shalom Bayit Campaign.
No photo available	Avi Rosenthalis Having done most of her growing up in Delaware, about two years ago Avi decided to find that tree she heard was growing in Brooklyn. Once she was satisfied she found that particular tree, she began settling in with Avodah Jewish Service Corps. Avi worked as a legal advocate at the Homelessness Outreach and Prevention Project at the Urban Justice Center where she worked with homeless and low income New Yorkers in matters of welfare law and eviction prevention. One day, whilst biking aimlessly around the city, she came across a racitious radical marching band and decided that had to be the greatest non-violent direct action schtick she'd ever seen. Since then she has been dancing up a storm and organizing within this collective to work with various local grassroots and community organizing groups around feminism and women's rights, the queer community, labor, the environment, social, economic, and racial justice, peace and community self-determination. After just about 2 years she decided it was time to be thankful for the skills she had gained at the Urban Justice Center and pack it up and gain some more! Having returned from six weeks in Israel/Palestine working with various human rights and direct action anti-occupation groups, Avi returned to the states to become a certified Wilderness First Responder and is now a preventative health care nag. Avi has been organizing for the Rude Mechanical Orchestra and their first ever No More War Tour.
	Zachary Wager Scholl is an activist, artist and performer from the DC-area. Prior to moving to New York City he organized and built coalitions of high school gay-straight alliances, participated for three years in a youth-based theatre organization, City at Peace, and received a career certificate in American Sign Language from Northern Virginia Community College. Aside from his work with JFREJ, he is pursing a degree in Deaf Studies and ASL/English Interpreting from LaGuardia Community College, and is working as a sex educator at Babeland, a feminist sex toy shop. He believes in the power of art, community and love.
	Beth Slutzky is from Maplewood, New Jersey. She is a visual art and social history student at Sarah Lawrence College. For two years she has been an organizer of FLUX, a feminist organization at Sarah Lawrence, which works against sexual assault on campus. For two years she has been a local organizer of the new Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Outside of School, Beth has mentored preteen girls at the Westhab’s Elm St. Neighborhood Center in Yonkers, NY. This summer she was an intern for the Fellowship of Reconciliation’s (FOR), working for its magazine and its Youth and Militarism program.
	Alex Weissman When not with JFREJ, Alex works in HIV prevention research, asking people detailed questions about their sex lives. When not getting paid to talk about sex, Alex pays to talk about sex as a student in the Liberal Studies program at the CUNY Graduate Center. Before all this sex talk, Alex grew up with his three brothers, mom, and dad outside of Philadelphia and then attended Tufts University outside of Boston, where he majored in American Studies, with a concentration in Comparative Race and Ethnicity. Before moving to New York, Alex worked in the anti-violence field, did children's theater, and was a member of a radical queer group called QueerToday. Mostly, Alex would like to be a trapeze artist.
	David Zisser hails from the San Francisco Bay Area. After attending UCLA as an undergraduate, David moved back to the Bay to earn his masters in City Planning at UC Berkeley and a JD at UC Hastings. Although David does not have any professional organizing experience, as an undergraduate, he interned at Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, where he organized rabbis for a workers’ rights seder, and was an active member of the Progressive Jewish Students Association, participating in workers’ rights and Palestine-Israel peace actions. After graduating in 2007, David moved to New York City and works with city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD).