Meet Hillel at Miami’s Newest Board Members!
Hillel at Miami University is pleased to announce that Cydney Topaz, Jeff Lazarus, and Rabbi Josh Brown, Miami University graduates from the class of 1999 and 2002, respectively, have joined the Board of Directors for Hillel at Miami.
Topaz, owner of Golden Ceramics Dental Lab and former Board Chair of KAHAL: Your Jewish Home Abroad states. “Hillel at Miami was an integral part of my undergraduate experience and sustaining a robust Jewish community for current and future Miami students is important for me.”Up until 2018, Cydney was a Jewish communal professional, with her most recent position as Senior Director of Advancement in the Campus Affairs department of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago. Cydney has been engaged with Northwestern Hillel since 2006, having held the professional positions of Associate Director and Acting Executive Director. She currently resides in Chicago with her family.
Lazarus, a Federal Public Attorney residing with his family in Solon, OH, was involved in student government as a Senator for two years while at Miami. Aside from being active in Hillel, Jeff was a member of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity, the Phi Sigma Pi honor fraternity, and was on the ultimate frisbee club team. He states, "I am very excited and honored to be on the board of Miami University's Hillel. I have many fond memories of my time at Miami University as a student and a member of Hillel while there. I am thrilled to be able to give back to those communities and look forward to getting to know the students and other board members."
Rabbi Brown, Rabbi of Temple Israel in Akron, OH, notes that his first stop upon starting Miami University was Hillel and his second stop was to take Hebrew as my foreign language.During his sophomore year he was a participant on the first Birthright Israel trip where he met Carrie, who many years later would eventually agree to marry him. A Family Studies and Social Work graduate, Rabbi Brown became more active in Hillel during his junior and senior years in part due to his desired career path as a Jewish professional. Rabbi Brown states, “Personally, I’m grateful for all that Hillel offered me throughout my time in Oxford. Professionally, I know how increasingly important Hillel is for college students who are not only looking for a Jewish home, but also need Jewish advocates for them on campus. I [am] honored to serve as a board member for any Hillel, but certainly for the one that has personally been such an important part of my life.”
Rabbi Brown currently resides in Akron with his wife Carrie, a native of Cleveland, and their three children—Hannah, Noah and Ezra.
Hillel at Miami University is the central address for Jewish life on the Oxford campus serving 1000 Jewish students. It is part of the rich and diverse Hillel network, on more than 550 colleges and universities worldwide, whose mission is to enrich the lives of Jewish students so that they may enrich the Jewish people and the world.
