By Diana Brement, Jewish Sound Columnist
1 “Incredibly grateful” is how Talya Gillman describes feeling about receiving a Pomegranate Prize from the Covenant Foundation. The foundation, which supports Jewish education across North America and across denominations, gives this prize specifically to emerging leaders in the field. It’s a companion to the esteemed Covenant Award, which honors three exemplary Jewish educators each year.
Talya had just returned from a foundation project directors meeting when we spoke.
“There were a bunch of Seattle people” there, she reported, including Covenant Award winner Beth Huppin, Jewish Family Service fundraiser Galit Ezekiel, and former Jewish Education Council director Carol Starin. The meeting is designed to help newbies “make connections with people who have a wealth of experience” in Jewish education.
Growing up in Bellevue, Talya attended the Jewish Day School, Bellevue High, and University of Washington, where she majored in international studies with a minor in Jewish studies. She’s a full-time employee of the University of Washington’s Carlson Leadership and Public Policy Center and just started Seattle University’s Master’s in Transformational Leadership program. Prior to Carlson, she worked for four years at the non-profit Repair the World and before that lived in India for a year and a half as part of an American Jewish World Service fellowship.
With her background in “program…and curriculum development geared toward social justice,” Talya’s primary interest is in bringing a certain “mensch-ness” to schools, adding to curricula the idea that we can “develop positive character traits” in the school setting.
“The bottom line is that I’m interested in helping the Jewish community to think more about what it means to contribute to social justice,” she says.
She plans to use her $15,000 grant primarily for professional development and is creating “a collection of opportunities” in which she’d like to participate. “I already know that one project…is a facilitation intensive,” put on by the Schusterman Foundation, she reports.
Talya got some more good news recently: She received a scholarship from Seattle U’s School of Theology and the Carpenter Foundation, which supports interreligious work.
“I’ve been pretty impressed… by the university’s interest in creating opportunities for dialogue,” she says, and hopes to participate in those programs, as well.
While she doesn’t have much free times these days, living just a mile from work and a little more than a mile from school, Talya says she’s taken on the challenge of becoming a city biker, “trying to conquer” some fear, and to be healthier and more environmentally friendly.
2 Most of us swim in a pretty small pond in our Jewish lives. Maybe we swim in our synagogue pond or our havurah pond, or an organizational pond. But Ross Kling is more of a puddle jumper. For almost 20 years as funeral director for the Seattle Jewish Chapel and Rosebud Funeral Service, he has had contact with all facets and denominations of the Jewish community.
In this role, he helps families and friends perform the most holy of Jewish acts — burying the dead. (Caring for the dead is considered the ultimate mitzvah, since the favor cannot be returned.)
Ross got interested in directing funerals when a friend passed away and he was asked to assist with the funeral arrangements.
“I immediately discovered that my heart had a natural calling for helping people at this most difficult part of the life cycle,” he recalls.
It’s somber work, but he appreciates it deeply. “At a family’s time of need, I am invited into their storm of grief, and given the opportunity to do something that is necessary and special. And like a thumbprint, every person and every family is unique and special so every call I get is fresh and a new experience.”
His work not only keeps him in touch with families of all Jewish denominations, but he also serves the unaffiliated community. “I find that no matter the level of observance, families really appreciate and embrace the Jewish traditions for death and dying,” he says. “It gives great spiritual comfort and solace.”
An active member of Temple Beth Am in Seattle, Ross is an avid backpacker and has been the umpire-in-chief for the Roosevelt University Greenlake (RUG) little league for the past 15 years. He lives in a net-zero energy home in Seattle’s Wedgwood neighborhood.
If you need Ross’ services, you can contact him anytime at 206-525-7800.
3 Short Takes: Leah Warshawski, one of our Five Women to Watch last year, won this month’s IndieWire project of the month for her film “Big Sonia,” the story of her 89-year-old grandmother Sonia Warshawski, one of Kansas City’s last known Holocaust survivors.
Congrats to Talya!