A Badger through and through, Stefanie graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Jewish Studies and recently got her masters in professional Jewish Studies at the Spertus Institute in Chicago. She makes her parents very proud by putting her degrees to good use as the Manager of Digital Communications at JUF and the Associate Editor of JUF News.

Libby Ellis has been writing and editing professionally for about 10 years. Her career highlights include: Interviewing Joan Jett, getting to stand on Wrigley Field and Soldier Field during the same week and visiting a Canadian vineyard owned by a member of Bob Marley’s family. She earned her MA in Writing and Publishing at Emerson College.

After graduating from Skidmore College with a Bachelor’s Degree in political science and history, Cheryl tried to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a bat girl for her beloved Cubs. When that failed to pan out, she decided to chase her second love—writing. She’s the Marketing Communications Manager at JUF.

After studying commercial photography and graduating from Ohio University, Lindsey Bissett threw a dart at a map and ended up in Chicago. She began working at a theatre where she rode horses and danced with fire to make ends meet. With scorched fingers and an aching back, Lindsey left the horse theatre business and now works as the Associate Production Manager for JUF News.

Sydney Bucksbaum has finally decided to stay put for once. After moving around and living in five different places in her twenty years of living, she discovered her passion for the city, and is here to stay in Chicago...that is, until she graduates.

Brought up in bumping Minneapolis, Jacey moved to the big city about a year ago—give or take a few steps in between. She has lived in Uruguay, Argentina, Israel and the ever so exotic Madison, Wisconsin—but not in that order. Although life has taken her in many directions, she is currently working in fundraising for the Jewish United Fund—saving the world one dollar at time.

Stacey Ballis is the author of four novels: INAPPROPRIATE MEN, SLEEPING OVER, ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT and THE SPINSTER SISTERS. She is a contributing author to two non-fiction anthologies; GIRLS WHO LIKE BOYS WHO LIKE BOYS and EVERYTHING I NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT BEING A GIRL I LEARNED FROM JUDY BLUME.

As the assistant regional director of Chicago's Anti-Defamation League, Jenna Benn works to advance the missions of fighting anti-Semitism and bigotry through legislation, monitoring extremist groups, advocating for Israel, responding to acts of discrimination and providing anti-bias training programs for schools.

Esther grew up in the wilds of Appalachia, where the next closest Jewish community was in Parkersburg, West Virginia. She came to the big city and graduated from the University of Chicago in 2006 with a degree in “dead literary boyfriends.” One thing led to another, including figuring out (after several false starts) that nonprofit work made her truly happy, which led her to her current position at the Chicago Center for Jewish Genetic Disorders.

Rachel Bertsche is a journalist in Chicago and the author of the upcoming memoir, MWF Seeking BFF (Ballantine). Before leaving New York for the Midwest, Rachel was an editor at O, The Oprah Magazine. In addition to O, she’s written for publications including Marie Claire, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Teen Vogue, Outside, Fitness, More, Women's Health, Chicago Magazine, San Francisco Magazine, Ocean Drive and Field and Stream.

As a little girl, Jane Charney never dreamt of becoming a professional Jew. She wanted to be one of the three musketeers or, at the very least, Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and war. Story-time was a favorite pastime, can you tell?

It is only fitting that Blair Chavis is an Oy! contributor, as “oy” is one of the most frequently uttered words in her vocabulary, according to her co-workers, friends and family. Blair is a reporter at the Chicago Tribune’s Triblocal.com, a suburban subsidiary (try saying that three times fast), focused on hyper-local community news and making the Web hip for newspapers. She reports on happenings in the North Shore of Chicago—an ironic twist—because that’s where she grew up.

Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, Abby came to Chicago six years ago to attend DePaul University where she majored in Psychology and Journalism. During college, she visited Israel for the first time with Birthright and fell in love! All she wants to do is go back, soon.

Jeremy Fine is currently a Rabbinical Student at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. Even though he is studying Judaism all the time, sports still comes second to none (he hopes his wife doesn't read that). So Jeremy started a blog www.thegreatrabbino.com and then found out about Oy!Chicago and now he’s here.

A native Philadelphian, raised Methodist, with childhood ambitions of becoming President, Karen never dreamed she’d find herself living in Chicago, Jewish and married to a Rabbi, and working for JUF. And that was just the last three years of her life.

In her life outside Oy!Chicago, Sarah Follmer works on the grants team at the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago. Prior to that, she worked for the Chicago Center for Jewish Genetic Disorders, sold and shelved books at a co-op bookstore, and built herself a small pet-sitting empire. Sarah is a proud graduate of both the Chicago Public Schools and the University of Chicago.

Laura Frankel is the former chef and founder of the Shallots restaurants. She has training and extensive experience in both savory and pastry kitchens. After starting a family, she began maintaining a kosher home and found that there was nowhere in Chicago serving the quality of food that she knew she could offer. She opened her first restaurant in 1999 offering kosher fine dining with a produce-driven menu. She opened Shallots NY in 2000 in Mid-town Manhattan. In 2004, she moved her Chicago restaurant to Skokie and created Shallots Bistro.

Kevin Friduss is currently a Licensed Real Estate Consultant at Homescout Realty. He graduated from the University of Denver with a degree in Communications and a minor in Theater. As an extreme outdoor enthusiast, you can find him on a mountain in the winter and on a beach in the summer.

A transplant from Cleveland, Ohio, Rachel has lived in Chicago for five years and is in denial of the fact that she’s essentially a permanent Midwesterner and will never actually escape the perils of winter for a warmer climate.

Karina is the News/Marketing Staff Writer for JUF. In the past, she’s written for Psychology Today, worked with author Bruce Littlefield and mingled with celebrities through her internship at Life & Style. When not working, Karina loves reading, going to concerts and watching reality television. Other guilty pleasures include playing Rock Band and listening to ‘90s pop songs.

Hailing from the land of snow and Purple Rain (Minnesota), Abby Halper moved to Chicago two years ago upon graduating from the University of Kansas. Forever dancing to the beat of her own drum, Abby's interests include humming on the way to work, collecting sunglasses, creating culinary masterpieces, being a "gym rat,” looking for the best deals while shopping, avoiding germs at all costs, and quoting sports movies from the early 1990's (The Sandlot, Little Big League, Rookie of the Year, and of course, the Mighty Ducks Trilogy). Abby's third grade teacher described Abby as "a social butterfly with the most mischievous smile" she had ever seen.

After college, Andy Kirschner moved from Michigan to Chicago in search of deep dish pizza and fell in love with just about everything the city has to offer.  He has had several job titles over the last 10 years, including knife seller, recruiting manager, bagel maker, life coach, tour guide, career counselor, and Birthright Fellow.  Currently he combines all of those skills to develop trade and investment for Israeli companies.

Ron Krit has been personal training clients for over 10 years! His philosophy centers on making fitness fun so you look forward to working out and getting healthy.

Alyssa Latala is a full-time mom and part-time Marketing Communications Manager at a small family foundation. She lives in suburbia with her husband Joe, baby Ben and cockapoo/troublemaker Ruby.

Aaron Levine is the Teen and Campus Programming Coordinator at JUF.  Before working there, Aaron spent six years working for Camp Young Judaea Midwest and graduated from Michigan State University College of Agriculture with a degree in Environmental Economics & Policy.

Sharna Marcus is the Director of Education at Shorashim and frequently travels between Chicago and Israel. Since she was 18, she has been a journalist, teacher and now director at a not-for-profit. Recently, Sharna was a Project Incite fellow and has created a successful learning platform called Classroom to Classroom.

Annice is an Evanston raised, vegetarian grazing, liberal, red mini van driving chick who lives with a(n almost) vegan husband, 4 nutty kids and 2 rescue dogs in the rockin' burbs of Glencoe (where the party never ends!) She has made exactly zero dollars since earning her Masters Degree in Counseling because she popped out a kid right after graduation and then couldn't figure out how to stop doing that. (Which is no doubt just silly since she volunteers at a birth control clinic in Northfield and teaches sex ed and HIV/AIDS prevention in Englewood.)

Marcy grew up in the flat plains of Midwest suburbia, in Jewish Country— Highland Park, Illinois. She currently lives in the artist colony of Nahlaoot, Israel with her husband. Their mission is to fill up on Jewish education and skills in order to bring it back to America and help out the Jewish communities there.

David Reinwald is the cantor of Temple Anshe Sholom in Olympia Fields. He grew up in Buffalo Grove, and has lived in numerous places since, but his heart has never left Chicago. David is an avid fan of music, concerts and theater, books, exploring the city on foot or bike, "This American Life," and ... chocolate! David is a longstanding "community organizer" in the Jewish LGBT community, including the "Chicago LGBT Jews" Facebook community which he created and helps organize. He lives with his two cats in the South Loop.

Dana cringes when instructed to write bios, "short and fun". She has lived in lots of places that start with vowels, including Ann Arbor, Arad (Israel), Evanston, Urbana, Indianapolis, and Iowa City. In fourth grade, she bragged because she was Jewish, left handed and had AB+ blood. In fifth grade, she shut up. Yesterday she did Pilates, drank steamed soy milk, schlepped the girls to Sunday school, and tried to fly a kite. Tomorrow she hopes nobody wakes her up at 4 AM with bad dreams about camels or monkeys. Like Chai and Sarah, Dana is a grants person at the Jewish Federation—planning, allocating, pushing papers and fixing the world.

T.J. Shanoff is a native Chicagoan, and has been a member of The Second City since 1997. Credits there include: The Second City National Touring Company (director), Rod Blagojevich, Superstar (composer/lyricist), Jewsical: The Musical (composer/lyricist/director), Sex & The Second City (composer/lyricist), An Evening with Martin Short (musical director), and Songs of the Second City (musical director).

Abby Sher is a writer and performer living in Brooklyn, New York. Her memoir, Amen, Amen, Amen: Memoir of a Girl Who Couldn’t Stop Praying was published by Scribner in October, 2009. It got a nod from Oprah and won ELLE Readers’ Prize, Chicago Tribune’s Best of 2009, and Moment Magazine’s Emerging Writers Award.

Cindy Sher is managing editor for JUF News, the monthly magazine of the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago. Cindy has been on staff with JUF News for nearly 8 years. Highlights of her time at the magazine have included interviewing such luminaries as Elie Wiesel and Jon Stewart and comparing latkes to hamentaschens (seriously).

Born and raised in Chicago, Ari Moffic Silver is Oy!’s resident expert when it comes to the hottest spots and tastiest treats for the late night metro bar crawlers. He has been in the hospitality business for nearly three years, currently holds several professional certifications in Mixology and Fine Service, and is well-versed in the grand world of spirits and fine dining in Chicago.

Taron is not as old as he looks in this picture. He is much, much older! As a rabbi at Beth Tikvah Congregation in Hoffman Estates, Taron has married about 30 people, but has buried many more. (sad!) To date, none of his couples have divorced. Taron likes to believe that this is on account of the amazing pre-marital sessions he has with each couple, but knows deep-down that it might be for other reasons.

Sam and Erica Weisz were wed in 2009 and haven't looked back. Erica is excited to be teaching elementary school, where her passion is in creative writing and working with English language learners. Apart from practicing dentistry at Libertyville Dental Associates and Dental Salon in Chicago, Sam has tried to stay true to his Jewish roots, studying and attending classes.

Michelle was raised in Highland Park, IL and always one to welcome change, headed down South without missing a beat! She attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, loved every moment of it, added the word “ya’ll” to her daily vocabulary and graduated in May 2006 with a bachelors of arts in communication studies and Spanish and a minor in political science. 

Imagine a man with the charisma of Cary Grant, the audacity of Marlon Brando, and the brilliance of Laurence Olivier. That’s George Clooney. I’m more… Jason Alexander. I was born in Cleveland in 1970, but entered Northwestern in 1988, moving to Chicago permanently (so far) in 1994… so there is some hesitancy as to where I’m “from”. I have three gorgeous, genius children— two of grade-school age, one of each major type, and a brand new baby boy. I have a wife who is prettier, smarter and more athletic than me. And we have a puppy who is just plain ridiculous.

Chai is an artist, writer, cellist, yogi, partner, mother, and person trying to stay balanced, enjoy life, and give back. She is currently painting and writing as much as possible in between play dates and toddler dance parties.