Foundation News —Chip Edelsberg

Foundation News
—Chip Edelsberg, Executive Director

October 2011

In Memory of Jack Slomovic, z”l
A special message from Board President Al Levitt and Executive Director Chip Edelsberg

For whatever success the Jim Joseph Foundation has enjoyed in its brief history, the Board of Directors has been integral to this good work. Over the six years Foundation Directors and professionals have worked together, we have developed deep and caring relationships with one another.

It is thus with a profound sense of loss that we share with you the death of Foundation Director Jack Slomovic, z”l. Our purpose here is not to write an encomium to a great man. (Several extraordinary tributes have already been created - one of which, written by Ben Shapiro, is attached.) We do want you to have an opportunity to watch Jack’s extraordinary Toldot video linked here .

During the past five years, we have endeavored to cultivate a Foundation culture that is fundamentally conversational in character. Jack’s voice in the discourse was always candid, genuine, and to the point. At the core of our learning, problem solving, and grant making we talk incessantly with stake holders in Jewish education and among ourselves as Foundation Directors and professionals. Listening, conjecturing, questioning, and conversing – as we do at the Foundation’s quarterly, two-day board meetings – is the highlight of this conversation. Today, there is a stunning and reverberating silence echoing within the walls of the Jim Joseph Foundation office.

Please find linked here a groundbreaking piece of research entitled “Jewish Virtual Learning Networks: A mapping of online ‘Communities of Practice’ in the North American Jewish institutional world”. This work, led by Bar Ilan University’s Dr. Erik Cohen, is dedicated in the memory of the remarkable Jack Slomovic.

Archived News

Back to