Aish

This is your Aish Weekly Update brought you by our Global Spokesperson Jamie Geller. Wishing you a Chag Sukkot Sameach and Shabbat Shalom!

Seth went to the Aish Yeshiva. Sharon went to Aish New York on the Upper West Side. Separated by just a few years, they each found their way to the same mission.

Sharon and I also "share" an aunt. She is my real aunt and Sharon loves her so much she adopted her. That tells you everything you need to know about Sharon Damski.

Seth and Sharon are beloved pillars of Aish and Aish Ignite is their passion project. A five day spiritual retreat for women 40 and above, it is a taste of seminary, a chance to reignite passion and elevate wisdom. Sharon serves on the Aish Ignite Steering Committee and has been on multiple retreats herself. She does not just write a check. She shows up, she participates, she champions this program from the inside out.

Because that is what Aish Ignite does. It meets women exactly where they are and walks them home to their Judaism. I know this firsthand.

Seth and Sharon understand that investing in a woman's Jewish journey is one of the highest impact gifts you can give. When a woman is ignited, her whole family catches the flame.

We are so proud to call Seth and Sharon our partners, our pillars, and our family.

- , Aish Global Spokesperson

This is your Aish Weekly Update brought to you by our Global Spokesperson Jamie Geller

Some partnerships begin with a meeting. Ours began over food.

I met Diana first, bonding over our shared passion for all things culinary. Daniel came later. And it turned out he is a bigger foodie than the two of us combined. From that first conversation it was clear these were our kind of people. Warm, fun, laid back, unassuming, and the real deal in every sense of the word. A beautiful family of eight from Bal Harbour, with a daughter and son-in-law living in Israel, and a son who is a proud graduate of EFG@Aish. They are not on the periphery of the Jewish world. They are living inside it with everything they have.

And they are helping us document it.

Daniel and Diana are the Executive Producers of Aish's original Tisha B’Av documentary film series, and they have been our production partners from the very beginning, when we first dared to imagine that Aish could become a home for serious Jewish filmmaking. Together we produced October 7: Voices of Pain, Hope and Heroism in 2024. We followed that with After October in 2025 and the documentary While We Were Celebrating in 2026. The latested film explored the deadliest and most devastating antisemetic attacks over the last year while offering context, and bringing the Jewish and Torah perspective to bear. Empowering, educational, and inspiring. As all our films are.

Three films. Three years. One family who said yes every single time before we even finished asking.

That is Daniel and Diana. That is what it looks like when passion, partnership, and purpose all point in the same direction.

We are so proud to call them our production partners, our pillars, and our family.

- , Aish Global Spokesperson

This is a special Rosh Hashana Edition of your Aish Weekly Update brought to you by our Global Spokesperson Jamie Geller

Shana Tova and Shabbat Shalom!

This is the Aish Weekly Update brought to by our Global Spokesperson Jamie Geller

Shabbat Shalom!!

Some friendships begin on Instagram and become real over dinner.

I met Michelle, known to her devoted following as , through our mutual friend Diana Sragowicz, over a table full of food, naturally.

Michelle is the ultimate foodie and she puts that passion to work. She is the driving force behind Jewlish.com, Aish's food and culture platform, sponsored in memory of Grandma Becky Saka a"h and her sister-in-law Deborah Saka a"h. Through Jewlish, Michelle is advocating for Jewish values and culture one recipe, one story, and one shared table at a time.

And food is only one lane. Michelle is also a fierce advocate for children with special needs and developmental disabilities, including her own children, through her work at the local children's hospital. She shows up for the Jewish world and for the most vulnerable among us with equal fire and equal love.

Behind her is William, holding down the fort and giving Michelle the space to go out and be exactly who she is meant to be. That is its own kind of greatness.

The culmination of a life lived in full service? On March 4, 2026, the city of Miami Beach proclaimed it Michelle Saka Day. We are not surprised. We are just proud to know her.

We have a legend in our midst. And we are so proud to call Michelle and William our partners, our pillars, and our family.

If you schedule breakfast with Fancy Saka, clear your afternoon. Because if it starts at breakfast it will run to lunch, and if it starts at lunch it will run to dinner. That is Fancy. Warm, real, overflowing with stories, wisdom, and love, the kind of person you never want to stop talking to.

Together Jimmy and Fancy are philanthropic pillars of the Jewish community, especially in South Florida, showing up in big and small ways, public and private, to create, support, and sustain Jewish life. Jimmy spearheads intimate, private programming that inspires and elevates the next generation of Jewish leaders, and together they are a force for Jewish continuity in every room they walk into.
And then there are the scholarships.

Jimmy and Fancy fund scholarships for young men and women at Aish Yeshiva and Aish Seminary in Jerusalem. Students who would otherwise never have the opportunity. Young Jews who woke up after October 7, realized they knew nothing about their own heritage, and wanted to be part of the Jewish story. Students raised outside the faith through intermarriage or assimilation. Young people without family support, discovering for the first time what it means to be Jewish, and finding their way to Jerusalem because Jimmy and Fancy made it possible.

That is not a donation. That is a lifeline.

We are so proud to call Jimmy and Fancy our partners, our pillars, and our family.