A Jewish leader is someone who tries to encourage others to enhance their respective Jewish identity and involvement. I take great pride that UMD TAMID, a group I helped create at College Park, will be sending five students to Tel Aviv for the summer to work with Israeli companies, allowing these students to enhance their connection to Israel. I take just as much pride in my efforts to set up weekly chevruta (one on one) Jewish learning opportunities for students across the Jewish spectrum on campus.
Oren Charnoff grew up attending Beth Sholom Congregation and Talmud Torah in Potomac and graduated from the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy. He is a senior economics major at UMD, involved in a variety of Jewish activities. He is co-founder of the College Park chapter of TAMID, an organization dedicated to connecting UMD business-minded students with the Israeli economic landscape. Oren organized a group of four students to spend 25 hours this past Yom Kippur leading services for Jewish inmates at the federal prison in Western Maryland and is planning to read the Megillah for the prisoners on Purim later this month. Since returning from a year in Israel in 2010, Oren has led local fundraising for “Hoops for Kids,” a charitable fund affiliated with the professional basketball team in Netanya, Israel, that supports at-risk youth in Netanya.
