Published Articles

Original Article Published On The Jerusalem Post

Nearly 30 participants in a recent Taglit-Birthright Israel trip for people with Autism Spectrum Disorder received insight into what Israel can offer to employees on the autism spectrum.

One of their stops was at Mobileye, the Jerusalem-based company that develops autonomous driving technologies and advanced driver-assistance systems.

Thanks to a meaningful partnership between the Jerusalem-based Shekel: Inclusion for People with Disabilities, Mobileye and the hard work and support of Shekel-turned-Mobileye employee and team lead, Mollie Goldstein, 13 people on the autism spectrum work in data annotation at the hi-tech company. The autistic employees review, tag and label video clips of traffic signs, animals and other things on the road which drivers might encounter.

“I was impressed with Mobileye for a variety of reasons,” said Jared Ramis, a 30-year-old Taglit participant from Chicago notes. “For starters, I’m fascinated with companies that develop technologies and systems that help keep drivers safe. We can never have enough of those. But, I also respect their hiring process. I am a firm believer in equal opportunities for employment and it filled me with joy to see them hire people on the (autism) spectrum. I firmly believe that people on the spectrum are as capable of being great employees as anyone else and I feel that the people they hired are a great asset to their company.”

The 20 Birthright participants from across North America enjoyed their small group meetings with workers who, like themselves, are on the autism spectrum. They also had a great time touring the garage filled with cars and learning about how Mobileye’s technology works.

MEMBERS OF the Taglit-Birthright group visit the Mobileye offices, earlier this month. (credit: HOWARD BLAS)

Success through Mobileye
Eli Schreiber, 29, has been working at Mobileye for six years. “I live in an apartment run by Shekel and heard about the program at Mobileye through my roommate, who worked at Mobileye. When I heard they had this program, I literally begged for a job,” reports the Jerusalem resident who made aliyah from Teaneck, New Jersey, in 2002. “I wanted a job where I could be on a computer all day. I applied and got the job.” At the time, the program was housed in Shekel’s building in Jerusalem.

Shekel offers a wide range of services for people with disabilities, including vocational rehabilitation, therapeutic services, community living, enrichment and leisure. Shekel participants are trained and employed in various jobs around Jerusalem, the Knesset, candle making, toy assembly, graphic design and retail at Ha Metzion vintage and secondhand stores.


Mollie Goldstein recounted that Shekel’s partnership with Mobileye started small and gradual when Mobileye was a startup. “It began with an initial conversation and a connection and resulted in a small-scale project with four or five Shekel participants with computer skills working at Shekel’s campus on a computer project set up by Mobileye. Over time, as Mobileye grew, six to eight Shekel participants were on board, working at Shekel.” In 2018, as Mobileye grew and acquired new office space, the Shekel workers relocated to the Mobileye campus.

Schreiber enthusiastically described his work and experience at Mobileye. “I have always worked in data annotation – I look at images and videos and look for images like a speed limit sign and tag it. We input the info into an algorithm and it does its machine learning.” Schreiber’s work has evolved over time. “Now, it is a little different. We tag animals and do something for facial recognition. We look at the faces of people driving cars and make sure they are paying attention to the road.”

SCHREIBER ENJOYS his work and his role on the Mobileye team. “I love the fact I am helping to build a machine that will be able to drive us without us having to touch the wheel. I’d love to stay forever,” though he expresses some concerns about his future. “My job will probably become obsolete. As machine learning gets better, they will have to cut down on the number of teams.” Schreiber currently works five days a week for six and a half hours a day.

Schreiber likes coming to work each day and appreciates the work culture and attitudes he has experienced at Mobileye. “I love the fact that I can go in to work with a shirt that says Marvel (Comics) or (the heavy metal band) Slipnot. It is a very live-and-let-live culture. Everyone just does their job.” He acknowledges that he and his fellow workers on the autism spectrum are not a homogenous group. “Some people are friendly with everybody. Some don’t make eye contact, though this doesn’t mean they are not listening. I can talk to those around me but I am not so comfortable talking to those outside of the group. I have social anxiety to the extreme.”

In addition to learning job skills, employees develop social and interpersonal skills needed to succeed in the workplace. For example, they learn to arrive on time and to notify their managers of any absences in advance. They also have many opportunities to socialize in a welcoming, supportive environment.

Goldstein, 31, the Mobileye team leader, made aliyah 10 years ago, served in the army, worked in event planning and has experience working in the mental health field. She started working at Shekel in November 2020 and admits, “I hit the ground running.”

Goldstein does a lot behind the scenes to support her workers and to assure that the workplace is functioning smoothly. She writes articles about her program on the company’s internal website, runs events like panel discussions within the department so people see who they are and she makes sure her employees are held accountable for their work. “I pushed for the team to be considered like everyone else and helped managers do annual evaluations, which were both sensitive and effective.”

Goldstein’s love and care for her employees and for creating an inclusive workplace are evident. There are also challengers. She adds, “I believe in inclusion in the workplace. I want people to know who we are but I don’t want this to be a big PR stunt.”


For the visiting Birthright group, Goldstein’s autistic employees are a true success story and a source of inspiration and hope. In their lives at home, they face a daunting employment market for people with autism and other disabilities. In 2021, the unemployment rate for people with autism, even those with a college education, was approximately 85%. The current unemployment rate in the United States is 3.5%.

Lihi Lapid, the president of Shekel, praised the partnership with Mobileye.

“For Shekel, integrating people on the autism spectrum into employment that is both meaningful and appropriate to their ability and skills has always been a priority. Partnering with Mobileye, Shekel developed a unique training and support model that has been groundbreaking, allowing a group of 13 people with ASD to successfully integrate into Israel’s private sector hi-tech community for the first time. This is unprecedented in Israel, as is Mobileye’s wonderful partnership and enthusiasm for including people with ASD in the company,” she said.

LAPID AND her husband, former prime minister and current Opposition leader Yair Lapid, have an adult daughter with autism.

“As a mother of a young woman with autism, I know just how important work and other forms of being occupied daily are for young people with special needs. Like every adult, they also have a need and desire to do things that fulfill and interest them,” said Lapid.

Samuel J. Levine, professor of Law and director of the Jewish Law Institute at Touro Law Center in New York has also been similarly impressed with the project. He first made contact with Goldstein through a webinar he organized at Touro on the topic of autism and employment, before meeting her in person on a trip to Israel.

“I was particularly impressed with their approach toward autism employment, which is premised on finding a match between the skills of employees and the needs of the employer,” he said.

“It was clear to me that Mollie and the autistic employees have a mutual respect for each other and that others at Mobileye value the contributions of the participants in the program and view them as an integral part of the company. I was so impressed with this model and the attitude it represents that I organized another Touro webinar exploring the autism employment program at Mobileye, featuring presentations by Mollie and one of the participants in the program. The webinar attracted audiences around the world and drew very positive feedback, expressing the hope that the model implemented at Mobileye can be replicated in other autism employment programs.”

Inclusion, when done right, is financially beneficial for the company by identifying and matching company needs to employee abilities, explained Goldstein.

“A much wider range of tasks can be accomplished when employees bring different strengths and abilities. Examples of successful people with disabilities just go to show the brilliant minds we may miss if we overlook this segment of the population,” she said.

Goldstein added that there’s an additional benefit for Mobileye’s neurotypical employees. “They see the hurdles people have overcome to be given equal opportunities and see how important their job is to them.”

She pointed out that the participation of employees with disabilities in the workplace can raise morale and motivation for everyone.
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Original Article Published On the Jewish Times

The Baltimore Jewish community and people across the world are seeing the work of Judaic artist Jeanette Kuvin Oren everywhere they look. Her artistic creations appear in many different media — from Torah and ark covers to paintings and wall art, and now, even postage stamps. In fact, the “Hanukkah Forever 2022” stamp, based on a piece of Kuvin Oren’s art discovered by the United States Postal Service (USPS), became available at local post offices this past fall and adorned Chanukah-card envelopes throughout the “Festival of Lights.” In fact, many people are still using them and plan to do so all year long.

(Photo by Amy Gibbs)

The Connecticut- and Jerusalem-based artist designs unique Torah mantles, ark curtains, chuppahs (wedding canopies), ketubahs (marriage contracts), paper cuts, stained glass and nearly any ritual object or decoration a synagogue, Jewish home or family would ever need. Several of her original works are prominently featured in Baltimore-area synagogues.

Beth Israel Congregation in Owings Mills dedicated 14 Torah covers in 2006 and one in 2010. Congregation Chizuk Amuno in Pikesville dedicated an ark curtain in 2013. Beth El Congregation’s own Torah cover, commissioned in 2021 by congregant Corinne Janet in memory of her late husband, Adam Janet, is a piece of art with a truly unique story.

When Corinne’s husband died in 2019 at the age of 30, she wanted to donate a Torah in his memory to Beth El, which has been important to the family for generations. The synagogue was seeking a lighter-weight Torah to be used for b’nai mitzvah and weekday services.

Janet was connected to architect Jay Brown, who designed the special Torah display case currently exhibited in the synagogue lobby. The family had previously dedicated a display in memory of Janet’s late mother-in-law.

Brown connected Corinne to Kuvin Oren, who was both honored and excited to collaborate with her on the Torah-cover project. Kuvin Oren learned of Janet’s needlepointing skills and painted pomegranates on needlepoint mesh. Janet stitched the pomegranates, and they were ultimately incorporated into the final cover, which also featured such Hebrew phrases as “Dor L’Dor” (“From Generation to Generation”) and her late husband’s Hebrew name.

The Torah cover designed by Corinne Janet for her late husband, Adam Janet

“I was looking for something that would enhance the meaning of the Torah, and it would be beautiful for people walking by,” says Janet.

“The piece of art is stunning,” she reports proudly.

Janet says she is moved each time she sees the Torah cover: “It is very meaningful. I was there [recently] with my daughter and mom. It is meaningful to a lot of people in our family, and to extended family and the community in Pikesville. It is nice to see that it is meaningful and in use.”

Kuvin Oren and Janet ultimately designed two covers so that there is always something in the display case, even when the Torah is being used.

Kuvin Oren relished the collaboration and the experience of getting to know Janet, saying, “I was incredibly moved by Corinne and her father-in-law, Howard, both of whom had suffered unbelievable loss. Weaving elements of Adam’s life — and incorporating Corinne’s needlepoint — into the Torah cover was so very meaningful.”

Kuvin Oren, a graduate of Princeton and Yale universities, is widely known for her talents and areas of expertise. She completed a master’s degree in public health and most of her Ph.D. in epidemiology. Since deciding to work on commissioned art and graphic design full-time in 1984, she has created installation pieces for more than 400 houses of worship, schools, summer camps and community centers worldwide. She specializes in large installations of glass, mosaic, metal, fiber art, calligraphy, paper-cutting and painting.

Her Torah covers, ark covers and curtains, wall-hangings and more may be seen in homes and Jewish institutions, including three Baltimore Conservative synagogues.

She has enjoyed getting to know the Baltimore Jewish community, noting that its members are “incredibly active and involved. I’ve loved working with several shuls in the area.”

‘Culmination of lifelong dream’

Now, Kuvin Oren’s work is further being seen internationally through its inclusion on a U.S. postage stamp.

Ethel Kessler, art director for stamps for the U.S. Postal Service, reports: “Jeanette’s art came to my attention several years ago, and I am very happy to be able to bring her work to a wide audience. Her work has a glowing and joyful spirit, and that’s what I wanted to add to our U.S. Chanukah series.”

“Hanukkah Forever 2022” U.S. postage stamp, designed by Jeanette Kuvin Oren

An official announcement by the USPS — titled “USPS Celebrates Hanukkah With a New Stamp” — invited collectors to a first-day-of-issue dedication ceremony at Temple Emanu-El in Orange Village in Ohio on Oct. 20. Later, a Dec. 14 meet-and-greet with coffee, doughnuts and speeches by several postal officials took place at the Amity Post Office in Kuvin Oren’s home town of Woodbridge, Conn.

There, postal officials presented the artist with a framed picture of the postage stamp.

The October press release described how Kuvin Oren’s artwork turned into a stamp: “The stamp art features an original wall-hanging. The fiber art was hand-dyed, appliqued and quilted to form an abstract image of a chanukiah, the nine-branch candelabra used only at Chanukah.”

The stamp, issued in panes of 20, is one of the Forever types that will always be equal in value to the current first-class-mail one-ounce price.

Kessler acknowledges that such mail “may have dropped off in the past decade, but we still print over 10 million Chanukah celebration stamps.”

At the Woodbridge ceremony, Kuvin Oren told the moving story of her grandfather’s love of America and freedom. His parents arrived in the United States from Germany in 1939. She also mentioned his very impressive collection of U.S. postage stamps, lamenting that “I was supposed to get them, but they were stolen during his move to Florida.”

Still, she is more than pleased to have her work featured on a special stamp, an appropriate happenstance after such a loss.

In another coincidence relating the process of being discovered by the USPS, she reports: “I sent a piece 30 years ago to the USPS and always had a dream of being on a stamp; this is the culmination of a lifelong dream. I am very honored, and it is very emotional to see my artwork there. It is something so historical.”

Kuvin Oren added that a small wall-hanging of her postage stamp will also be displayed in the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum adjacent to Union Station in Washington, D.C.
In light of that, she adds playfully: “It will be Chanukah forever!”

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Original Article Published On the JNS

For 11 senior educators from TALI schools, the educational track within Israel’s state secular school system that offers non-Orthodox religious education and programming, it was an exhausting, exhilarating week in the Big Apple.

The teachers and principals from elementary, junior and high schools from throughout Israel visited pluralistic Jewish day schools in Manhattan and Brooklyn and met with teachers, administrators and communal professionals. For most, used to being surrounded by Hanukkah menorahs in Israel each December, walking on Fifth Avenue to see Christmas in full display offered an additional eye-opening experience.

The participants, from such cities as Beersheva, Modi’in, Haifa and Jerusalem, have been taking part in a two-year program known as Halleli, a Hebrew acronym for “Introduction to Jewish and Israeli Identity Education.” In year one, the educators focused on text study and cultural literacy to develop a sense of their own Jewish identity and values. In year two, the program focused on Jewish peoplehood and the connection of participants to the world around them.

“Coming here is a chance to be inspired by the creative vitality of the North American Jewish community,” said Dr. Peri Sinclair, the TALI Education Fund’s director.

The trip offered a firsthand look at the similarities and differences between Jewish education at TALI schools and American Jewish schools.

The Halleli educators meet with New York City Criminal Court Judge Rachel Freier (in black robes), the first Hasidic woman to hold public office in the United States. Courtesy of TALI.

Enhanced Jewish studies

TALI, a Hebrew acronym for “Enhanced Jewish Studies,” opened its first school in 1976 to provide Jewish content and a Jewish studies curriculum to children in Israeli state secular schools. Today TALI provides educational programs and resources to 65,000 children in 200 preschools and nearly 100 elementary schools in diverse communities throughout the country.

The delegation visited such pluralist schools as the Abraham Joshua Heschel School (AJHS) on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, the Hebrew Language Academy Charter School in Brooklyn’s Mill Basin neighborhood, and such movement-affiliated schools as the Hebrew school of the Reform Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn’s Park Slope and the Conservative movement-affiliated Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan, also on the Upper West Side.

The educators visit Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan. Courtesy of TALI.

They also visited and met with leaders from Orthodox. Conservative and Reform synagogues and other organizations, including the UJA-Federation of New York, which provided funding for the trip, Lincoln Square Synagogue, Sephardic Bikur Holim and Romemu Center.

At a dinner at the JCC Manhattan on the first night of the trip, participants shared initial impressions (“the staff and children were so chill and quiet!”) and discussed such topics as antisemitism and their understanding of the role of Israel in the lives of the North American Jewish community. Such processing and sharing continued throughout the week.

“This journey expanded and inspired my thinking about Jewish Identity both of Israelis and Americans and made me think about what each side brings to the other,” said Osnat Kor Chen, the vice principal of K’ramim School in Modi’n-Maccabim-Reut.

Avigail Ben Hamu, regional supervisor of early childhood education at the Ministry of Education in Jerusalem, was struck by the diversity she saw in the pluralistic schools. “The beautiful diversity and the communal organization bring different colors and dynamics to Judaism and varied expressions which update, renew and sustain.”

Galia Netzer, TALI coordinator and teacher at Ha’Chita School in Zichron Ya’akov, returned home with a lot to think about. “It stimulates my curiosity and thinking.” She is left struggling with ways to incorporate what she experienced into her work in Israel. “I only wish that we could bring this type of pluralism and tolerance to Israel.”

Meirav Dahan, a pedagogic consultant for TALI, added, “In every meeting I felt that I was meeting and seeing myself.” She began thinking about “how Israeli society is too traditional and conservative.”

“The freedom to self-define oneself is a value that we need to fight for,” she said.

Sinclair was pleased with the informative albeit exhausting trip.

“I wanted everyone to see what else is out there and go home and ask, ‘How do we provide for as broad of a perspective as possible.”

Sinclair has extensive experience in the Conservative and Masorti movements in both Israel and the U.S. She is a graduate of the TALI School in Hod Hasharon and a proud alumna of the Israeli Conservative movement’s Noam Masorti Youth group. She has spent 15 summers in senior staff positions at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires and received her M.A. in Jewish Education from JTS’s Davidson School of Education and her doctorate in Midrash from the Jewish Theological Seminary.

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Original Article Published On The Jewish Times

Marc Irwin (Courtesy)

The Classic Theatre of Maryland is celebrating a full decade of professional theater in Annapolis. And local Jewish musician Marc Irwin has been along for the journey nearly from the start.

Irwin, a pianist and composer for the theater company, formerly known as the Annapolis Shakespeare Company, also serves as the musical director for the renowned Baltimore Hebrew Congregation. The multi-talented Irwin is a composer, arranger, rehearsal and pit musician for Broadway shows; he has a jazz group; and he performs and records professionally in New York City and locally.

The Classic Theatre of Maryland, or CTM, was founded by Sally Boyett in 2013 as a professional theater company with a commitment to promoting the highest level of artistic excellence. The current season will feature more than 170 shows planned in celebration of their exciting milestone — 10 years of performances. Performances include interpretations of Shakespeare classics, two family-friendly holiday favorites, a Pulitzer Prize-winning drama and comedies.

The season kicked off with Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” set in the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1920s.

“I am so excited for this 10th anniversary season,” said founder and producing artistic director Boyett. “CTM is Anne Arundel County’s only year-round professional regional theater company. Our creative team, along with resident and guest artists, bring Broadway, Broadway National and International Tour, as well as London’s West End credentials, to CTM. This is reflected in the outstanding quality of the work at CTM and is unparalleled in the region.”

In addition to Boyett, prominent actors and directors who have contributed their award-winning skill and talent at CTM over the last 10 years include Donald Hicken, Mario Ramos, Angie Schworer, Mike Noonan, Ian Knauer, Marc Irwin and William D’Eugenio. They have received such awards as Helen Hayes Awards and Emmy Awards, and have been Tony Award finalists.

“The theater strives to bring the best quality art to its audience,” reports Boyett. Along those lines, she speaks highly of local Jewish talent Irwin.

“To do this, we need the most talented, disciplined and dedicated artists we can engage. Experience at the highest levels of professional theatre is essential, and Marc Irwin is a valued artist at CTM because he brings his gifts as a composer and musician, as well as years of experience working on Broadway shows. He knows the rigorous process required to make great theater and welcomes the opportunity to practice the art he loves. His original compositions adorn our stage with beauty, sensitivity and insight, and he works diligently with the artistic team to mold and nuance every aspect of each production.”

From “The Glass Menagerie,” directed by Donald Hicken and composed by Marc Irwin (Photo by Joshua McKerrow)

‘We do an ensemble on the bimah’

Irwin, who lives in Baltimore, is a pianist, composer, arranger and recording artist with a lengthy list of accomplishments locally and nationally. He has served as assistant conductor for the Kennedy Center’s production of Words and Music, participated in area performances at the Hippodrome, and the Lyric Opera House and worked as a sound designer and keyboardist as part of Harry Belafonte’s global tour.

The native of Brooklyn, N.Y., started playing piano at age 5 and attended the Manhattan School of Music.

But, he reports, “I leaned my craft — conducting, performing, leading groups and composing — in the Catskills!” After graduating music school in 1974, Irwin played “lots of gigs,” including accompanying famous cantor and Jewish musician, Paul Zim. “I went with him on the road to a few cities.”

Irwin moved to Baltimore to attend the Peabody School in 1988. He and wife, Adele, who runs the music program at Baltimore’s Park School, raised their two children in the city. He has served as musical director at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation since November 2021.

There, he praises his colleagues, Cantor Ben Ellerin, Cantor Ann Sacks and Rabbi Andrew Busch, noting that “we do an ensemble on the bimah with the cantor and rabbi each Shabbat service.”

Irwin also directors the Kol Rinnah, a choir formed in 1982 that consists of both community members and hired singers; they perform at several worship services each year.

He recounts a somewhat serendipitous route to Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, saying “it all started when Cantor Sack’s son studied with my wife at school and studied piano with me. She said they needed a pianist for the High Holidays.”

Irwin makes it more than clear that he enjoys his work at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation and at the Classical Theater Company, where he has been involved since 2017.

“For me, it was appealing,” he says.

And as for CMT, he made it a point to praise founder Boyett: “Sally was very determined to try to lift up the level of the art form. She is a tireless worker. I was glad to get on board to assist in the process. They have done some good work. They are true to what they believe artistically.”

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