Meet the 2008-09 AVODAH New Orleans Corps Members
- Orientation Retreat, August 2008
Eliza Baron, from Millburn, NJ, graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst this past spring with a major in psychology and minor in sociology. Eliza has made multiple volunteering trips to New Orleans, including three weeks at the New Orleans Women’s Shelter this past winter.
Eliza serves as a Client Welfare Specialist at the Orleans Public Defenders. OPD provides legal services to indigent defendants and client-centered representation that respects the humanity and dignity of those accused of crimes. The Defender Services Program - a division within the office of social workers and client welfare specialists - work in teams with staff attorneys and investigators to address an arrestee’s underlying problems as well as his or her criminal charges.
Yaeli Bronstein grew up in Teaneck, NJ and attended Brandeis University where she majored in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies. Yaeli has served as a supervisor for a student-staffed homeless shelter, and spent a summer in Thailand with American Jewish World Service. She was the Campus Relations Coordinator at Brandeis Hillel, the Social Justice Coordinator of the Brandeis Orthodox Organization, and the Program Associate for the Interfaith Leadership Development program.
Yaeli is working at the New Orleans Women’s Shelter, a facility for women and children in the Upper 9th Ward of New Orleans that provides temporary emergency shelter and food. The shelter operates as a family-style transitional women and children’s home with a focus on helping women stabilize, obtain proper medical treatment and other locally available social services to move onto successful independent living.
David Eber grew up in Salem, OR and recently graduated from the University of Oregon with a major in History and a Judaic Studies minor. In school, David was active in the Middle East Club and in Israel activities at Hillel. After graduation, he supervised developmentally disabled adults in work environments and is interested in land use and sustainability issues.
David’s position at the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development (CSED), a project of the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association, allows him to work directly with neighborhood residents on the recovery and development of the Lower 9th Ward with a focus on sustainability.
Meredith Grabek grew up in Paxton, MA and majored in Sociology with a minor in Art History at the University of Delaware. She has participated in two Hillel alternative break service programs in New Orleans and assisted the University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Center with a project on poverty and Katrina’s effects. Meredith is a past-president of her school’s Hillel.
Meredith is currently serving as the Intake Coordinator at Rebuilding Together New Orleans, helping homeowners through the application system so they can receive assistance and finally get their homes rebuilt. Meredith functions as the primary point of contact with homeowners and acts as an advocate on their behalf, both within the organization and with other agencies citywide.
Ariana Kolins grew up in Brooklyn, NY and graduated last spring from Guilford College with a triple-major in Peace and Conflict Studies, Sociology and Anthropology. Ariana has participated in a summer American Jewish World Service trip to Ghana, and has volunteered fixing homes in Greensboro, NC, as well as in Bogalusa, LA after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Ariana is working at the New Orleans Charter Science and Mathematics High School as a School-Based Volunteer Supervisor through New Orleans Outreach. NO Outreach works to improve the quality of public education by linking volunteers and other community resources with staff and students through programs that respond to the particular needs of each school.
Rachel Lee grew up in Oakland, CA and earned her Bachelors in Drama from Vassar College, where she was the manager of a black-box theater and the executive director of the school’s largest student theater group. Rachel has helped implement an art program for at-risk youth in Poughkeepsie, NY and supervised a summer theater camp in Berkeley, CA. Rachel was awarded a grant to spend this past summer in New Orleans creating a community-based theater program with young women and girls.
As a Community Outreach Associate at ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), Rachel has received extensive training in community organizing, and is working with community leaders to develop a neighborhood campaign that promotes civic engagement and fights for improved public services. ACORN is the nation’s largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, working together for social justice and stronger communities.
Ora Nitkin-Kaner grew up in Toronto, ON. She recently received a master’s degree with a focus on Trauma, Memory, and Holocaust Narratives from the University of Toronto, where she also received her B.A. as a Religion Specialist. Ora has tutored students with learning disabilities and volunteered with a Toronto program for homeless individuals. She participated in an American Jewish World Service summer trip to Uganda and a Hillel trip to the Gulf Coast, and has studied in Jerusalem at Aish Hatorah and at the Pardes Institute.
As the Exoneree Advocate at Resurrection After Exoneration, Ora is working closely with project founder John Thompson, himself an exoneree, to help other exonerees with housing needs, health and medical care, education, work training, financial planning, life skills, and legal matters.
Jenna Pollock grew up in Sharon, MA and spent her high school senior year abroad in the Netherlands. She recently graduated from Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA where she minored in Religious Studies and majored in Political Science. Besides fluency in Dutch, Jenna also has proficiency in Thai, Arabic, and French.
Jenna serves as the Community Coordinator at the Tulane University Community Health Center, where she manages outreach efforts to improve the value of the clinic for the community. The Health Center was established in the days following Hurricane Katrina and provides continuous high-quality, holistic, accessible, community-centric care.
Rebecca Waxman grew up in St. Louis, MO and majored in Jewish Studies at Indiana University. While in college, Rebecca mentored a young girl who had suffered from sexual abuse, volunteered at a daycare center for the elderly in Israel, and interned at an agency that arranges care for uninsured women with breast cancer. She was a leader in Hillel, especially with programming on Israel and has organized several large-scale programs on campus.
In her position at the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC), an agency which seeks to eradicate housing discrimination throughout the greater New Orleans area, Rebecca helps identify opportunities to instate fair housing practices in the rebuilding process and is developing outreach activities to educate the greater New Orleans community about GNOFHAC’s services.
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