Elana Weiner-Kaplow

Elana is the coordinator for Chicago’s shinshinim hub, a program that brings young Israelis to North America to volunteer, teach, and enrich our Jewish communities. Growing up, she spent her summers at the URJ OSRUI summer camp, where Israel and Hebrew became a central part of her identity. Elana lived in Israel for a number of years as well, and went on to serve in the Israel Defense Force’s Education Corps. Before joining The iCenter, Elana worked as a Jewish educator with numerous organizations in Israel and the Chicagoland area, as well as in Chicago’s theatre scene as an actor and writer. Elana holds a BFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.