User:ArielZusya

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Ariel Benjamin

Born May 4, 1978
Boston, Massachusetts

Ariel Zusya Benjamin (May 4, 1978 Boston, Massachusetts) is an American lawyer. He is notable for his wit, compassion, and Judaism.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Upbringing

Ariel Benjamin was the son of Jerome (Jerry) William Benjamin and Cynthia (Cindy) Beth Pearlman Benjamin. Ariel's father is an entrepeneur and leader in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin Jewish communities. Cindy Benjamin is an artist specializing in Hebrew caligraphy. Ariel was born in Boston while his father was in graduate school at Harvard University. At the age of two and a half, Ariel and his parents mvoed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Not long after, Jerry and Cindy gave Ariel a brother--Nadav Noah Nachum.

[edit] Marriage

Ariel’s friend Jordan Levin realized the Ariel and Dana Brynn, Jordan's sister, were destined to be together and made a fateful introduction. On their fourth date Ariel was upset and exclaimed, “This quiche I prepared for you is too runny - you deserve better!” and Dana knew he was the one.

Ariel had always planned to go to law school but wanted to learn to speak Hebrew first. Before Ariel met Dana he had planed to return to Israel to take up his pursuit of the language. When it finally came time for him to go, he suddenly found all sorts of reasons (actually - mostly just one reason) to postpone. At the beginning of 2003 it became clear there would be no more postponing and Ariel got on a plane for Israel to study Hebrew at the renowned Ulpan Etzion. From the moment he arrived, he was glued to his phone wracking up an exorbitant bank-breaking phone bill but it was the only method of surviving, without Dana by his side, which he could manage.

A sea and an ocean’s distance apart, Dana was also struggling with the absence. Having never visited Israel let alone traveled out of the United States, Dana realized it was time. She found herself a ticket and got on a plane. Nearly a full day later, they were reunited in Ben-Gurion Airport somewhere between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Ariel took the next month to show Dana all of his favorite haunts all over the country, though being certain to leave a few things out to assure motivation to return (as if that was necessary - Dana became as much a lover of Israel as her love, Ariel).

After spending months apart, Dana and Ariel knew they could never do that again. In the summer of 2003 Dana and Ariel moved to Denver, Colorado where Ariel started law school at The University of Denver Sturm College of Law. In their first year in Denver, Dana took a position as a full-time nanny. While she loved her employers and their little girl, this served to remind her just how much she missed the classroom. Dana made arrangements to return to teaching the following year as well as returning to school as a student to pursue a master’s degree.

Unfortunately life wasn’t all happy moments that year: Both Dana and Ariel each lost a grandfather. Through the intense sadness that accompanied this loss, Dana and Ariel learned that even in sadness they loved one another.

Starting their second year in Denver, Dana began teaching first grade at Adams County District Twelve Five Star Schools in Thornton, Colorado (just north of Denver). TES is a Title One school which means a large portion of their students are on federally reduced or free lunch. In other words, the population in this school is generally deeply troubled with financial woe. Dana was able to overcome the powerful neglect this population has so long suffered and managed to reach her students like only TES teachers can. In fact, TES posted the most significant academic gains in the district in 2005. At the same time, Dana also began classes for her master’s degree at The University of Colorado at Boulder.

Just past the middle of this second year, Ariel decided it was time to take the next step with the woman he loves. On January 23, 2005, Ariel drove Dana to a secluded restaurant, Flagstaff House, in the mountains, perched on a cliff overlooking the Boulder valley below. Just before dessert Ariel arranged for the wait staff to bring out a crystal swan swimming on a silver tray with an open ring box ridding on its back. Dana said yes and the planning for the coming wedding began.

The two were married in Fox Point, Wisconsin at Congregation Shalom on July 2, 2006, 6th of Tammuz, 5766 (ו' תמוז, תשס"ו).

They were married by Dana's childhood rabbi, Rabbi Ronald Shapiro, D.D., and Ariel's rabbi, Rabbi Cherie Koller-Fox.

[edit] Education

At the age of three, Ariel began attending Lubavitch Nursery School. Ariel continued his education at Hillel Academy where he remained until just after his Bar Mitzvah. He then moved to Hartford Avenue Elementary School, a Milwaukee Public School, for his eighth grade year. For high school Ariel attended Shorewood High School, Wisconsin, a public school located in a suburb just north of Ariel's home town Milwaukee.

Just after high school, Ariel attended Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. While at Hampshire College Ariel did a lot of work with the Jerome H. Lemelson#The Lemelson Foundation including work both in computers as well as alternative fuel systems and sustainable design. Ariel worked with Gregg Koeler, a fellow student and a talented artist, to co-invent a tractor that ran on vegetable oil for use in sustainable agriculture. The two worked under the academic guidance and support of John Fabel, a member of the faculty at Hampshire College and a fellow inventor. After nearly three years on the project, the team received a grant from Lemelson and purchased Allis Chalmer's G Series Tractors, which they converted with the assistance of two new arrivals at Hampshire College, Justin Carven and Lief Forer, and the staff at the Lemelson Fabrication Lab. The team presented the tractor at the National Conference of the Inventors' and Innovators' Alliance (NCIIA) at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. in 1999.

After graduating from Hampshire College in May of 2000, Ariel Moved to Israel. In the summer of 2000 Ariel attended Ulpan at the Hebrew University, Mount Scopus campus. He then continued his studies at Yakar in Jerusalem where he studied Ethics and Jewish Law. Ariel returned to the United States in 2001 but then returned to Jerusalem in 2003 to continue his langauge education at Ulpan Etzion, a famous immigration absorption center in the heart of Jerusalem. After studying at Etzion until the Summer of 2003 Ariel returned to the United States and moved to Denver, Colorado to begin law school.

Ariel attended the University of Denver Sturm College of Law from 2003-2006. While at the law school Ariel was elected Vice President of the law school chapter of the ACLU and chairman of the Honor Board, the law school ethics review board. Ariel also worked as research assistant to Professor Rashmi Goel who's area of academic focus included the use of cultural defense in criminal trials and the impact of cultural differences on the justice system in the United States. Ariel graduated from law school in May of 2006.

Ariel was married in Fox Point, Wisconsin a couple of months later, July 2, 2006, to his love Dana Brynn Levin, a teacher from Milwaukee. Ariel studied for the February 2007 Colorado bar examination. Ariel passed and was admitted to the Colorado bar in 2007, sworn-in by the Honorable Gerald Rafferty in a private ceremony at the Arapahoe County Justice Center.

[edit] Professional experience

Ariel started working at a very young age. At fifteen years old his father Jerry hired him to work part time during the summer between his freshman and sophomore year of high school as a tele-fundraiser in one of Jerry's companies, Great Lakes Communications (GLC). Even at this young age Ariel was one of GLC's top fundraisers. Ariel also developed an early love for and expertise with computers and was hired the following years as a network technician at GLC.

[edit] Current Practice

Ariel is currently working as a law clerk to the Honorable Gerald Rafferty, District Court Judge, 18th Judicial District, Arapahoe County, Colorado. Ariel is the first law clerk in Colorado hired solely for work on death penalty law.

[edit] Ariel's Websites

Ariel has created a handful of websites to further his hobbies. Most notable is his Free Siddur project, a philanthropic attempt to transliterate the Jewish prayer book and which is used by people all over the world.

[edit] List of Ariel's Websites

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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