listen to music, bargain hunt, 
exercise and work her many 
side hustles. 

RACHEL 
WALL
Rachel is the 
communica-
tions and devel-
opment manag-
er at the Jewish 
Federation of 
Greater Ann Arbor. In this role, 
Rachel is proud to facilitate 
the philanthropic efforts that 
enrich Jewish life in greater Ann 
Arbor, strengthen civil society 
in Israel and support the most 
vulnerable Jews around the 
world.
Rachel has long been 
passionate about Jewish 
communal life, with nearly 20 
years of involvement in Jewish 
volunteer and professional 
activities. The vast majority 
of Rachel’s post-college career 
has been spent in the Jewish 
nonprofit world: She previously 
worked at JARC, where she was 
manager of the Independent 
Living Services program. Before 
that, she did her graduate 
school internship at the Jewish 
Federation of Metro Detroit and 
worked in the office at Hebrew 
Day School of Ann Arbor. 
In addition to Jewish 
communal work, Rachel’s 
professional passion is 
supporting adults with 
developmental disabilities.
Rachel holds a BS in 
education and social policy 
from Northwestern University 
and a master’s of social work 
from University of Michigan, 
where she also earned a 
certificate in Jewish communal 
leadership. 
Originally from California’s 
Bay Area, Rachel has lived in 
Ann Arbor for over a decade 
with her husband and their two 
young daughters, where they 
are members of the Ann Arbor 
Orthodox Minyan.

AARON 
MARKOVITZ
Aaron 
Markovitz is 
working at 
Temple Israel 
as the Burton 
A. and Sandra 
D. Zipser foundation artist 
in residence. He frequently 
works with clergy to create new 
musical pieces for the Jewish 
community. They are often 
debuted at Shabbat services, 
Sunday school assemblies or 
recorded in the studio to be 
released as projects, such as 
the temple’s “Come on Home” 
video that encouraged people 
to come back to services for the 
High Holidays after being used 
to staying away from gatherings 
for so long. 
Aaron also spends time 
working with teens at temple, 
getting them more involved 
with music programs 
and leading songs for the 
congregation at services and for 
the religious school on Sunday 
mornings. Aaron teaches a song 
leading class along with Cantor 
Michael Smolash with hopes of 
encouraging future generations 
of singers and spiritual leaders 
in the community. 
Plans have also been made 
for an upcoming album release, 
in partnership with Temple 
Israel, that will include many 
of the songs that Markovitz 
has composed during his 
time at temple. He sees this as 
a wonderful opportunity to 
strengthen his Jewish roots and 
hopes to become an important 
voice in contemporary Jewish 
music. He sends out a big 
thanks to the Burton A. and 
Sandra D. Zipser Foundation 
for making this possible. 
When he isn’t busy writing 
and recording music, you will 
likely find Aaron attending a 
show with his lovely fiancée, 
Ashley, at venues like Otus 
Supply in Ferndale, Wiltsie’s 

in Clarkston or Berkley 
Coffee in Oak Park. You may 
be surprised to know that 
among everything else, Aaron 
spends some time doing string 
instrument repairs at Pursell 
Lutherie in Ferndale. 

ANDREW 
LAPIN
Andrew Lapin 
is a reporter 
and editor 
for the Jewish 
Telegraphic 
Agency, a 
leading, historic global news 
source covering the Jewish 
world. His stories about 
antisemitism, Israel, and Jewish 
arts and culture are syndicated 
to dozens of Jewish news 
services across the globe and 
translated into Hebrew and 
other languages. 
In 2021 Andrew completed 
his first podcast, “Radioactive: 
The Father Coughlin Story,
” 
an immersive history of the 
antisemitic “Radio Priest” 
who founded the Shrine of 
the Little Flower in Royal 
Oak. Co-produced with Tablet 
Studios and Exploring Hate, 
the critically acclaimed podcast 
has been downloaded more 
than 50,000 times, received 
major media coverage and 
helped prompt Shrine’s recent 
re-examination of its own 
founding history.
Andrew was raised in 
Huntington Woods, became a 
bar mitzvah at Temple Emanu-
El, was an active member of 
NFTY and the Kidz Klez Band 
of Michigan, and attended the 
University of Michigan and 
Northwestern University. He 
was previously the editor of the 
Detroit Jewish News and was 
named “The Future of Jewish 
News” by Jewish Currents 
magazine. He has also worked 
as a film critic for NPR, The 
Economist, Vulture and other 
outlets, covering the Cannes, 

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