H eadlines
Gratz College Names Zev Eleff President
L OCA L
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
to network and oversee Gratz’s
undergraduate, graduate and
adult learning programs,
while the president works to
engage more with the broader
community and prospective
students, Jewish and not.

Though the search for
Gratz’s new president was
announced right before the
start of the pandemic in March
2020, it didn’t begin until late
summer of last year.

“We were looking for a
president who thoroughly
M LE
OO LAB
DR AI
BE V
2 TS A
I UN
N M OW
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EL EA
S SIN
OP G
EN !
GRATZ COLLEGE WILL
undergo a change and expan-
sion in administration at the
beginning of the 2021-’22
academic year, with Zev Eleff
becoming president on Sept.

1, and Paul Finkelman, the
current president, taking over
the newly created chancellor’s
position. The transition within
and addition to the college’s
administrative team takes
place after Gratz experienced
a 35% increase in enrollment
over the past four years under
Finkelman. “We made the strategic
decision that the college was
in a position where we felt that
we could make goals to expand
our network, our reach,” said
Kathy Elias, chair of the Board
of Governors at Gratz.

The chancellor’s position
allows Finkelman to continue
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understood both the Jewish
history and the critical role
that Jewish thought has played,
in history, and particularly in
American history,” Elias said.

“As well as a person who is an
accomplished administrator of
a college or university, as well
as a person who is innovative
and energetic.”
Eleff fit the bill, Elias said.

Eleff is the chief academic
adviser of the Hebrew
Theological College, the vice
provost of Touro College
Illinois, as well as professor
of Jewish history at Touro’s
Graduate School of Jewish
Studies. As president, Eleff hopes to
synergize the skills from his
previous three roles into “the
ability to convene different
modes of education, to reach
various populations and
to reach them on their own
levels,” he said.

Gratz’s ability to be
“nimble,” is what drew Eleff.

He touted its ability to have not
only a diversity in the degrees
and certifications it offers, but
also its clear goals in Jewish
education and ability to “make
meaning” in the lives of its
students, as well as to build
relationships with outside
organizations. “[Gratz] has the combi-
nation of humility, integrity
and self-confidence to be able
to understand its capacity to
partner,” he said. “I’ve seen
that whether Gratz partners
with donors and stakeholders
or with other organizations,
Gratz understands that it takes
a village. “
During Finkelman’s tenure,
he created four new programs,
including three master’s
programs in interfaith leader-
ship, human rights and camp
management, and a doctoral
program for Holocaust and
genocide studies.

Because Gratz had 90% of
its programs online before the
pandemic, Finkelman was able
to effectively guide the college
Zev Eleff
Co urtesy of Zev Eleff
through its transition to
becoming completely remote
when COVID-19 restrictions
prevented in-person activity.

“We were able to pivot to
being 100% online within two
weeks of closing our building,”
Finkelman said.

Finkelman was grateful for
the opportunities during his
presidency to honor commu-
nity members and guests, who
shaped Gratz’s legacy, with the
Gratz Medal and honorary
degrees. Moreover, Finkelman is
grateful to have learned more
about his community.

“I grew up in a very small
town. We were, what I would
call, a one-synagogue town,”
Finkelman said. “I have gained
a much stronger knowledge of
the incredible diversity of the
American Jewish community.”
As Eleff makes the transi-
tion to succeed Finkelman, he’s
eager to brave the suburban
real estate market and make
new roots in Philadelphia and
Melrose Park and to begin his
time at Gratz.

As Gratz begins its 126th
year, Eleff made it clear the
value he hopes to maintain as
president of Gratz: “the notion
that applied Jewish wisdom can
and should be for everybody.” l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com |
215-832-0741 JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



H eadlines
Workshop Informs on Teaching Kids About Race
L OCA L
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
WHEN A PASSENGER on
an airplane gets ready for
takeoff, they are reminded by
the flight attendant that, in case
of an emergency, they secure
their own oxygen masks before
helping their children.

Imani Chapman and Franny
Silverman, equity educators,
advocates, collaborators (and
Jewish parents), argue that
this same idea can be used for
teaching children about racism.

For children to learn about
race and racism, first the parents
must be interested in learning
about racism themselves.

Chapman and Silverman
spoke about parental respon-
sibility to educate children on
race and racism on June 9 as
the second part of the “Looking
Within for Communal Change:
Racial Justice Workshop Series,”
hosted by the Jewish Federation
of Greater Philadelphia’s Center
City Kehillah and jkidphilly.

The two educators apply
the Jewish principle of Elu
v’elu (both/and) to teaching
their children about racism,
advocating for viewing an issue
from multiple perspectives.

With that foundation, both
understanding and teaching
racism can be done through
the lens of the “Four I’s of
Oppression:” ideological, insti-
tutional, interpersonal and
internalized, from the abstract
ideas society teaches us about
race, to the thoughts we have
about race and racism within.

Though Chapman and
Silverman have 50 years of
educating and consulting
between them, it was clear that
the experiences of raising their
own children guided their work
the most.

One day, Silverman recounted,
her 8-year-old daughter marched
around the house with a
flyswatter in her hands, chanting,
“Black lives matter,” mirroring
the behavior of protesters, though
some would argue she was too
young to understand the nuances
of the movement.

“That’s how ideologies work,”
Chapman said. “We start doing
it before we understand it.”
To Chapman and Silverman,
those instances underscore the
necessity of holding conversa-
tions with children early on.

For white Jewish children,
Silverman said, explaining
antisemitism can be a
jumping-off point for discussing
oppression and discrimination
more broadly.

Silverman explained to her
daughter that just how “some
Franny Silverman (left) and Imani
Chapman at a work retreat
Courtesy of Franny Silverman
people have the idea that Jewish
people run the world” (which,
Silverman clarifies to her
daughter, is “bonkers”), some
individuals feel the same way
about people of color.

“In the world,” Silverman
said to her daughter, “there are
people that think that people
have different skin colors that
actually has to do with like,
what kind of people they are?
If they’re good people; if they’re
bad people; if they’re smart
people; if they’re dangerous
people; if they’re safe people.

That’s bonkers!” Silverman said.

“That’s totally bonkers.”
Chapman, a Caribbean-
American immigrant raising
three Jewish children with her
wife, teaches race-consciousness
differently than Silverman, who,
along with her child, is white.

She’s responsible for not
only instilling a sense of aware-
ness and consciousness of
racism in her children, but also
teaching them to have a positive
self-concept, particularly in her
7-year-old daughter.

“One of the ways I do that is I
really surround her with a lot of
heroes,” she said.

But even children of color
See Race, Page 23
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