November 5, 2003

Ariel Kotler, Former IDF Officer, Joins OU as Assistant Director of Development

The Orthodox Union today announced the appointment of Ariel Kotler as Assistant Director of Development.

Mr. Kotler will concentrate on fundraising efforts on behalf of some of the OU’s most important programs, including the Jewish Learning Initiative (JLI); the National Jewish Council for Disabilities (NJCD); and the Seymour J. Abrams Orthodox Union Israel Center in Jerusalem. As a youngster, he spent a great deal of time at the Israel Center enjoying its programs for native Israelis and those who made aliya.

Mr. Kotler comes to the OU from the Jewish National Fund.

As a native of Israel and the son of parents from New Jersey who made aliya in 1978, Mr. Kotler served nearly five years in the Israel Defense Forces. Following combat service in Lebanon, Mr. Kotler took an Emergency Medics course in the Israeli Army School of Medicine and then took an intensive Officers Training course. Upon his promotion to the rank of lieutenant, Mr. Kotler returned to Lebanon and was responsible for commanding 50 soldiers in combat missions during Israel’s withdrawal to the international border.

Shortly before his discharge, Mr. Kotler was a member of an IDF educational mission to Poland along with 120 other officers and an accompanying Holocaust survivor. It was during his visit to Auschwitz and other concentration camps that he decided to devote his career to Jewish communal service.

Writing about his moving journey to the land of his ancestors, Mr. Kotler noted the importance of working on behalf of Israel and the Jewish community. “We need Israel. It lets us walk around anywhere in the world feeling safe and knowing that there is always a place that will accept us. But the strength of Israel depends so much on the strength of the American Jewish community. That is why when I thought about working at the OU, I immediately recalled the Israel Center and how much it influenced me while growing up. I then learned about the variety of other OU programs. As a result, I decided I could have greatest impact working for the OU.”

In announcing the appointment, OU Executive Vice President Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb declared, “Ariel Kotler put his life at risk on a daily basis for Israel and the Jewish people. In addition to seeing the horrors of war inflicted upon the Jewish people today, he has seen the horrors of the concentration camps. Surely, he brings with him in his work for the OU a special passion that is certain to produce outstanding results.”

The programs for which Mr. Kotler will be seeking support demonstrate the variety of OU activities. The Jewish Learning Initiative (JLI) places a young rabbi and his wife on major American college campuses to provide a comforting Orthodox environment for students on secular campuses. JLI currently has programs at Brandeis, Brooklyn College, Cornell, Princeton, UCLA, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale.

The NJCD includes the Yachad program, which provides unique social, educational and recreational “mainstreamed” programs for individuals (ages 8-40) with developmental, learning and physical disabilities; and the Our Way program, which provides similar programs for the deaf and hearing impaired.

The Seymour J. Abrams Israel Center in Jerusalem is the OU’s headquarters in Israel. It is the site for a wide variety of religious and education programs for Orthodox and non-observant Jews; a home-away-from-home for Jews who have made aliyah and their children – including the young Ariel Kotler – and a source of counseling for victims of terrorism.

Mr. Kotler is available to address groups and community leaders. He can be reached at 212-613-8140, or akotler@ou.org.

Lt. Ariel Kotler in Lebanon

Lt. Kotler in Poland

The Orthodox Union, now in its second century of service to the Jewish community of North America and beyond, is a world leader in community and synagogue services, adult education, youth work through NCSY, political action through the IPA, and advocacy for persons with disabilities through Yachad and Our Way. Its kosher supervision label, the , is the world’s most recognized kosher symbol and can be found on over 275,000 products manufactured in 68 countries around the globe.

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