Amy Aaland

Amy Aaland, former executive director of the Joseph Slifka Center, died at her home Jan. 3 after a prolonged battle with breast cancer. She was 48.

Aaland joined the center one year after it was founded and expanded the center’s programming during her 10 years as executive director. Rabbi James Ponet, Yale’s Jewish chaplain, said Aaland spearheaded several significant projects, including a visit from ex-prime minister of Israel Shimon Peres and a 50th anniversary celebration of the founding of the state of Israel, for which she commissioned a symphonic piece performed at Woolsey Hall. Ponet said Aaland sought to extend her time at the center despite her illness and continued to serve as director until December 2008, when her disease left her too weak to continue.
“She was a ferociously hard worker,” Ponet said.
In addition to religious programming, Ponet said Aaland enjoyed planning food and arts-related events at the center. She brought playwright Tony Kushner to campus in 2004 and poet laureate Robert Pinsky to campus in 2008.
Aaland also worked closely with students to promote art at the Slifka Center, said Susan Jeannette, who works in communications at the center. Jeannette said Aaland would display student work in Slifka’s gallery space.
In an e-mail Sunday, Hillá Meller (’07) recalled how Aaland encouraged her to visit and photograph her 85-year-old grandmother in Israel after Meller expressed a desire to “capture” her grandmother’s cooking. Meller said she made the trip and printed 20 posters on her return, which Aaland hung in the Slifka Center kitchen for the year.
“It was, for me, an example of how much she pushed those she knew to follow small dreams, things we want to do but put aside,” Meller said.
Other recent alums also remembered Aaland for her warmth and mentorship.
Sarah Kellner (’08), a former co-president of Yale Hillel, said Aaland was a source of “endless career advice and general inspiration” and approached her work with “tremendous energy and love.”
Aaland’s influence in the Jewish community extended beyond Yale: Aaland played a role in establishing the Yale Jewish Community Cemetery in Meriden, where she was buried last week, Ponet said. She and her family were also active members of Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel (BEKI)  New Haven.
“The first time I really talked to Amy a few years ago was at the synagogue after Shabbat services and learned of her deep intellectual and spiritual commitment to Masorti or Conservative Judaism,” said BEKI’s Rabbi Jon-Jay Tilsen. “She understood the theory behind Conservative Judaism and that’s what guided her life. She was pious in that and that’s what brought the family to the neighborhood. They had lived closer to downtown New Haven, but moved here so that they could walk to the synagogue on Shabbat.
“Amy attended Shabbat services very frequently and has been involved in a number of programs. In her husband, Jonathan Freiman – a prominent attorney who both works at a local firm and is a world expert in laws of terrorism and has been involved in the most prominent terrorism cases – she found someone who shares a deep understanding and commitment to law as a guiding force in their lives, as seen both in their civic and political outlook and involvement, and very much in their Jewish life.
“The other significant thing she’s been doing recently is that she was very involved in preparing their oldest son for his bar mitzvah, coming up this August.”
In addition to her husband, Aaland is survived by her three sons, Gabriel, Elijah and Caleb.

This article is reprinted from  the Yale Daily News. Judie Jacobson contributed to this report.