Thursday, March 28, 2024 -
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Denver’s Debra Tuchman is national chair of CLAL

Debra TuchmanDebra Tuchman of Denver is the new board chair of CLAL: The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership.

She succeeds Larry Gellman.

The director and secretary of the Tuchman Family Foundation, she has focused on the health and well being of communities.

She supports medical research; programs for children, families and the elderly; the arts; and charitable outreach.

A board member at National Jewish Health since 2003, she is also  on the nominating committee.


In 2001, she joined the board of CLAL, where she has served as secretary and promoted a mission of bridge building, pluralism and bringing Jewish insights to a wider American audience.

“Debra Tuchman’s gifts of great spirit and wise discernment will add wonderfully to the ongoing success of CLAL as she assumes her new role as board chair,” said author and philosopher Jay Hughes, an advisor for the Tuchman Family Foundation.

Tuchman has advocated CLAL’s Rabbis Without Borders initiative, which prepares rabbis to be 21st century religious leaders in America.

The initiative focuses on ways of making Jewish wisdom more accessible in the American spiritual marketplace.

Tuchman “represents the millions of spiritual seekers in this country looking for wisdom to create a better life for themselves, their families, their friends and the world,” said Rabbi Irwin Kula, president of CLAL.

“Debra brings incredible sensitivity to the ways Judaism must speak to the real needs of people if we are to revitalize Jewish life. She has great faith that Jewish wisdom can compete in the American marketplace of ideas, and her leadership is optimistic and transformative.”

Tuchman will serve a three-year term.




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