Aharon Varady Email & Phone Number

Cincinnati, OH, US

Cincinnati, Ohio, US

Directing an open source software and libré/free culture project to develop a platform for individuals to take creative ownership of the technologies they use to engage in Jewish spiritual practice.

Cincinnati, Ohio, US

Publishing creative and scholarly works on Jewish liturgy and theurgy, myth and magic, fiction and fantasy lore. Book design and consulting for clients publishing Jewish prayerbooks (siddurim), compilations of devotional poetry, and haggadot.

Modeling creativity, compassion, and mindful awareness through innovative teaching, skill sharing, and social entrepreneurship.

Developing children's creative and emotional intelligence through creative and improvisational exercises. Facilitating adventure role-playing activities for developing fluency in Jewish myth and folkloric imagination. Mentoring and grounding camper and counselor experiences in Jewish wisdom and spiritual practice.

New York, NY, US

Creating immersive, transformational experiences for the participants of programs at the Isabella Freedman Retreat Center. Helped organize the Jewish New Year for Animals celebration with the Adamah Fellowship.

My practicum (in partial fulfillment of a Masters of Arts degree) in experiential education was served as an educator and program assistant for the pilot year of the Jewish Journey Project, a supplementary Jewish education program of the JCC of Manhattan. During the school year 2010, I taught beginners Hebrew as a class in beginners midrash, teaching.

Taught basic ecology and Jewish environmental ethics to groups of 9 to 11 year old students (4th-6th grade) through five hour outdoor hikes incorporating educational games and other experiential learning activities. Created and edited curriculum resources for Teva Learning Alliance programs across the country.

Assisted the Director of Programs at the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival. Drafted press releases for film screenings, letters to philanthropists and other funders, assisted with the layout and design of marketing material, processed films for screening.

Chicago, Illinois, US

Worked with the group "Vote Today Ohio" to encourage early voting in southwestern Ohio. Signed up early voters and drive them to polls. Created posters for use on vehicles and stenciled t-shirts for other volunteers to wear.

Directed programs for Louisiana State University's Jewish student organization. Created and led programs, designed promotional material, developed funding, and helped train student leaders. Grant writing, article writing, and team building. Organized the Queerly Jewish Film and Discussion Series with the LSU GLBTQ Alliance.

Assisted the Director of Planning with the production of state, parish, and city plans. Researching historic and existing conditions, preparing presentations and illustrations, writing reports and plans, analyzing census, economic, and environmental data, creating maps with GIS tools (primarily ArcView/GIS), creating websites and listserves for clients.

San Francisco, CA, US

As part of a 12 person field team, authored the FEMA ESF-14 Long Term Community Recovery Community Baseline Study for Vermilion Parish in Louisiana, post-Hurricane Rita. Assisted editing environmental, coastal, and infrastructure projects in the 28 parishes affected by Hurricane Katrina and Rita.

Washington, District Of Columbia, US

processing receipts and field reports

San Francisco, CA, US

Assisted the Director of the Center for City Park Excellence in researching the city parks and urban park systems of the nation's 50 largest cities. Managed Center databases, researched funding opportunities, analyzed data and wrote internal reports and articles for public consumption.

Cincinnati, Ohio, US

Repurposed an unused older Sun computer as a webserver by installing Debian Linux on it and various open source applications. Designed a new website for the School of Planning using Movable Type as a backend content management system (CMS) and a customized navigation schema on the front end. Created and managed listserves for the School of Planning.

Researched the preliminary planning and design of a pedestrian/bicycle path on the Covington, Kentucky levee of the Licking River.

Updated research data on neighborhood planning summaries.

Open source programmer for a webhosting company. Wrote programs using PERL and MySQL for server management (backups, server response), and to connect backend databases. Administered Linux systems, server software, listserves (Mailman), and supported legacy scripts and programs.

Philadelphia, PA, US

Curator of a monthly performing arts and music series at the Foundation, a community arts initiative at the University of Pennsylvania, providing a venue for local and regional avant-garde artists to present their work. The goal of the series was to provide a common space to unify Philadelphia's often fragmented avant-garde music communities -- to connect.

PA, US

Provided desktop (PC/Mac) and networking support to local support providers, and directly to computer users without local support providers. Created and redesigned department webpages, managed databases, participated with teams on vetting desktop software for roll-out to University of Pennsylvania faculty, staff, and students.

M.C.P. (Master Of Community Planning), Planning History, Environmental Planning

Master Of Arts (M.A.), Education

Library And Information Science

Bachelor Of Arts (B.A.), History. Minors In Geology And Judaic Studies