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Aaron Dorfman

Aaron Dorfman

Aaron Dorfman is President of the Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah. He is a lifelong educator, problem-solver, and social justice activist. Most recently, he worked with Encore.org to develop a campaign to mobilize older adults to help children, and, immediately before that, with a consortium of education-reform organizations to re-invent high school as part of XQ: The Super School Challenge. Aaron spent 10 years as part of the leadership team at American Jewish World Service (AJWS). Aaron holds a BA from the University of Wisconsin and an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School and lives in Brooklyn with his wife Talia and his daughters Oren, Sela, and Dami. Aaron can be reached at aaron@lippmankanfer.org.

|  5776

Ki Tetze

Parashat Ki Tetze offers one of the first instances of building code in human history—the precursor to restrictions on asbestos insulation and circuit breaker requirements. At a moment in time when houses had flat roofs, the Torah tells us, “When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone should fall from it.”’ It’s a simple principle—a flat roof, where family and friends might hang out and barbecue, is an inherently dangerous place. We should anticipate that danger and build a railing so no one falls.

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|  5775

Bereshit

On the subway the other day, my four-year-old daughter piped up with the observation, “There are more white people than brown people on the train today.” I was immediately discomfited, looking around to see if anyone had heard and then probing to see if her comment had any valence beyond the simple truth that there were, in fact, more white people than people of color in our car. It was unsettling to recognize the deep human urge to separate and draw distinctions—and to note my own reaction of anxiety.

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