Rabbi Marc Wolf Appointed Vice-Chancellor and Chief Development Officer of JTS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Nina Jacobson
Office: (212) 678-8950
Email: nijacobson@jtsa.edu

December 11, 2008, New York, NY

Rabbi Marc Wolf has been appointed vice-chancellor and chief development officer of The Jewish Theological Seminary effective immediately. The announcement was made today by Professor Arnold Eisen, chancellor of JTS.

“Over the past six months, as interim director of our development efforts, Rabbi Wolf has demonstrated the creativity, insight, management skills, technological savvy, fund-raising expertise, and total menshlikhkayt that we were looking for in the new head of development for The Jewish Theological Seminary,” said Chancellor Eisen.

“The search to fill the position was both broad and intensive. Over and over, we found ourselves measuring those potential appointees against the standard set by Rabbi Wolf. As a longtime member of the development team, Marc knows JTS well, and appreciates the ability and potential of each member of the department. His passion for JTS is matched only by his love of Judaism and his commitment to ensuring a vibrant future for the Conservative Movement,” he continued.

Rabbi Wolf is a product of the Conservative Movement, and credits United Synagogue Youth for his passion for Conservative Judaism. He began his professional career at JTS and, while still a student in The Rabbinical School, he coordinated the Isidore and Rose Wagner Institute, a lay leadership, adult education program. Since his ordination in 2001, he has served JTS with distinction as director of community resources and director and senior director of community development. His many accomplishments include directing the continuing rabbinic education agenda of JTS, which includes the Rabbinic Training Institute and the Legacy Heritage Rabbinic Enrichment Initiative. He has authored numerous Torah commentaries and is the lead curriculum writer of the Mitzvah Initiative.

Recognizing Rabbi Wolf’s abilities, Chancellor Eisen promoted him last July 1 to assistant vice-chancellor. In that role, his many responsibilities included serving as JTS’s primary liaison to Conservative rabbis and the Conservative Movement, and supervising the dissemination of JTS resources to the larger community through public lectures, virtual educational programs, podcasts, and Torah From JTS, weekly Jewish learning distributed via email to more than 30,000 people around the world. This was in addition to taking on the task of directing and transforming JTS’s development efforts.

Rabbi Wolf will now devote all of his considerable energy, expertise, and passion to setting and implementing the overall strategic direction of JTS’s fund-raising efforts and providing motivational guidance to the development staff in order to propel JTS to new levels of attainment.

“This is a time of challenge for JTS, as for every other nonprofit institution. We will need more than ever to remind our supporters and potential supporters of why JTS matters so much to American Jewry now and in the future. Imagination, energy, and resourcefulness will be required. I am confident that Rabbi Wolf has these and other requisite qualifications to meet our lofty goals,” concluded Chancellor Eisen.

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