More than 500 Jewish women gathered in Newark, New Jersey on April 27 for The Jewish Woman Entrepreneur “Powered by Her” Conference, a full-day event focused on business growth, leadership skills and making connections.

In choosing a name for the beautiful, new campus in Chicago housing the Lubavitch Girls High School (LGHS), Mrs. Elizabeth (Shira Malka) Walder wished to select a name that would inspire the girls who attend this premier Chabad high school, which attracts students from around the country.

Chicago’s Lubavitch Girls High School held a community-wide Groundbreaking Ceremony celebrating their future home, a vast new building designed to strengthen every area of a student’s academic, social, spiritual, and emotional growth.

A few years ago, Allan B. found himself in a position he'd never imagined. A seasoned nonprofit executive who'd worked for years in the Jewish community, he was struggling after a layoff, borrowing money from family and friends to pay his mortgage, make car payments, and manage daily living expenses-all while seeking gainful employment.

Fifteen exceptional Orthodox Jewish women have been selected to join the inaugural Walder Fellowship cohort of Gratz College’s newest Ph.D. program. The fully funded, leadership-focused executive Ph.D. in Jewish studies will equip a generation of thought-leaders with high-caliber research and writing skills and specialization in core areas of Jewish tradition, history and culture.

(Courtesy of Gratz) Fifteen exceptional Orthodox Jewish women were selected to join the inaugural Walder Fellowship cohort of Gratz College’s newest PhD program. The fully funded, leadership-focused Executive Ph.D in Jewish Studies will equip a generation of thought leaders with high-caliber research and writing skills, and specialization in core areas of Jewish tradition, history and culture.

Joseph Walder was born in 1951 in Philadelphia; his father was a furniture salesman, and a child of immigrants. The family moved to suburban Chicago, where Joe grew up. Joe had a passion for science from the very beginning, and his father built him a basement chemistry lab for homemade experiments. He went on to earn both an MD and a PhD from Northwestern, eventually becoming a professor of biochemistry at the University of Iowa College of Medicine.

Joseph Walder, founder of the leading provider of synthetic RNA and DNA for life-sciences research, who started a private family foundation from the sale of his biotechnology company and was viewed as a “cornerstone” of Jewish education in Chicago and beyond, died on March 26 at his home in Highland Park, Ill. He was 73.

When Elizabeth Walder, President and Executive Director of the Walder Foundation, met with Lonnie Nasatir soon after he became President of JUF in 2019, she was especially impressed with his warmth, and his understanding of the Orthodox community and its role within Chicago's Jewish society.