Jewish Ideas Fellowship

This fellowship is for emerging Jewish leaders who want to dive into Jewish learning, expand and clarify their approach to leadership and experiment with new ideas in their communities.

Applicants must:

• Have between 0-5 years of Jewish leadership experience, either as a professional or volunteer leader
• Currently be in an informal or formal leadership role or seeking to grow and serve their local community more deeply
• NOT have a master’s degree (or higher) in Jewish studies specifically. Why not? The fellowship is a better fit for those who haven’t completed an advanced degree in Jewish studies. We are happy to connect and recommend other avenues for further growth/learning! Reach out here.

Yes, you need to be connected to a Jewish community or organization either as staff or a volunteer (on a board, working group or other leadership role). Please inform a contact in your community or organization that you are applying and note their information on your application. Your nominating/sponsoring organization will be asked to support your participation in the fellowship and pay a sliding scale program fee.

HUC is committed to building a learning community that represents the diversity of the Jewish Community. Jews-by-choice, Sephardi Jews, Mizrahi Jews, Jews of Color, people of color, women, people with disabilities, immigrants, LGBT2QIA+ people, and people who come from poor or working-class backgrounds are encouraged to apply. We are here to talk if you have questions about how you will feel supported in this space. Please reach out to Rabbi Rachel Gross-Prinz to schedule a time to chat. On your application form, you can also indicate in which areas you will need help to feel successful and supported in the fellowship.

The Jewish Ideas Fellowship has a two-part application process. Each applicant needs 1) a nomination form completed by a mentor, staff person, community partner, or supervisor, and 2) an application. The deadline for both forms is September 1, 2024.

Application form: Complete the application form here. Each applicant who applies will ask a mentor, community partner or leader to complete a nomination form on their behalf.

Nomination form: Staff, leaders, and mentors can nominate someone to apply for the fellowship using this nomination form. Once a nomination form is received, we will review it, and, if eligible, invite the nominee to apply. An applicant can also send the nomination form to a supervisor, mentor, or community leader to complete on their behalf when they are applying.

Note: The nomination form is confidential, and the contents will not be shared beyond the application review committee.

Once the nomination and application forms are received, materials will be reviewed and applicants will be notified if they’ve been accepted by the end of September.

Application decisions are based on eligibility, fit for the experience (we want this to be worth your while!) and cohort size (we are creating a community, so our ability to build relationships is key).

This fellowship requires 6-8 hours per month from October-May.

This includes:

• An orientation session and final Siyyum (closing session)
• Bi-weekly or monthly Beit Midrash (literally meaning “house of seeking or study”): Live Zoom learning sessions October – April with the entire cohort. There will be occasional short readings prior to sessions.
• Chevruta (“paired study”): monthly small group or partner discussions for deeper Jewish learning and leadership skill development.
• DIY Learning: occasional reading or reflection exercises for Beit Midrash and Chevruta gatherings.
• Personal Coaching and Small Group Mentoring: Through beginning of the year goal-setting exercises with the Jewish Ideas Fellowship Director and small group mentoring, fellows will practice giving and receiving feedback, experimenting with new ideas and integrating leadership skills into their work
• Creating Jewish Life: Fellows will integrate their Jewish learning, their personal goals for leadership growth, and their vision for the Jewish future into an independent project. Projects will be implemented during the fellowship.
• Celebration! Fellows will be invited to share their independent projects and learning in a public forum at the end of the fellowship. We want to share the joy that comes from fellows’ passion, growth and generativity.

All group sessions will happen on Zoom. If it is geographically possible, small group and chevruta sessions may happen in -person!

• Fellows will deepen their relationship with Jewish learning.
• Fellows will further develop their sense of purpose as a leader and clarify their vision for the Jewish future.
• Fellows will build a network of peers and mentors from across the country, as they clarify their own authentic and unique connections to Jewish life, community, and culture.

When you nominate an emerging leader for the Jewish Ideas Fellowship you are demonstrating that you care about their growth, value their contributions to your organization or community and want them to continue seeing the Jewish community as a place for them to make an impact.

If you care about the future of Jewish leadership and want to nurturing emerging leaders’ creativity, commitment and depth, nominate the talented individuals in your midst.

In the words of past participants:

• “JIF further cemented my commitment to working in the Jewish world, and to the Jewish people.”
• “JIF has renewed my spark for being in intellectual and communal Jewish spaces with my peers (not just my professional community) and has empowered me to pursue Big Jewish Questions of my own and teach others to do the same.”
• “The Jewish Ideas Fellowship pushed me to try new approaches (in a Jewish way) to the work I do as a Jewish nonprofit professional and leader that I would not have had the motivation or support to do otherwise!”
• “[The Jewish Ideas Fellowship] gave me a lot of hope. Sometimes it is so easy to be sucked into the bureaucracy and business of being a Jewish professional. The beit midrash was a regular reminder of how we are all human beings and WHY we got into their work in the first place, and what should be at the core of the work we do. “
• “Looking at solving a challenge in my community forced me to connect more deeply and to examine the spaces I am a part of creating and maintaining and I felt more responsible for my fellow Jewish community members as a result and grew as an educator and a learner through the JIF.”

Each fellow’s project is unique and designed around their interests and the needs they see in their community and the world around them. Fellows can choose to write, community organize, launch a program, write a curriculum, create new rituals and more!

2023-2024 Sample Project Titles:

• Hineini: A Disaster Trauma Reflection Guide for a Post October 7th World
• Ritual Field Trips for Young Adults in Los Angeles
• Nature for the Neshama
• The Challenge of Jewish Institutional Belonging in an Age of Insecurity
• Teshuva in “Edge-case” Scenarios: A Teaching Series
• Queering Judaism Fellowship program
• Support for Neuro-Diverse Learners in Jewish Spaces
• Destigmatizing Death and Dying through Art
• Abundant Roots: A Community Affirmation for Adults Who Do Not Identify as Jewish
• Lev Shomea: A Synagogue Mentorship Program
• Adulting and Judaism: A 4-Week Course
• Pickle Jews? Building Jewish Identity Through a Non-Institutional Framework
• Crafting a Grounding Ritual for Advocacy
• Teen Period Justice Fellowship program
• The Blessing of the Snake: A Biblical Analysis

Fellows learn with a wide range of mentors and faculty from across North America and the Jewish ecosystem. Past faculty and mentors include:

• Sarah Canfield-Dafilou, MARE/MAJNM Woodlands Community Temple
• Brad Cohen, MAJE Eden Village Camp
• Rabbi Nora Feinstein, Sixth & I
• Rabbi Josh Fixler, Temple Emanu El Houston
• Rabbi Samantha Frank, Modern Ritual
• Rabbi Isaama Goldstein-Stoll, URJ Youth Organizing
• Julie Harris, MAJE/MJNM
• Dr. Leah Hochman, HUC-JIR Faculty
• Cantor Aviva Marer, Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation
• Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, Temple Sinai- Oakland, CA
• Andi Milens, MAJCS/MPA Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City
• Jay Rapoport, MARE, RJE, Six Points Creative Arts Academy
• Rachel Schonwetter, MSW/MAJNM, Koret Foundation
• Rabbi Rena Singer, Modern Ritual
• Dr. Miriam Heller-Stern, HUC-JIR Faculty
• Rabbi/Dr. Kari H. Tuling, HUC-JIR Adjunct Faculty
• Liana Wertman, M. EdL Torah Studio
• …and more!

Our goal is a diverse, curious cohort. Therefore, ability to pay a program fee will NOT impact an applicant or nominee’s consideration for the fellowship.

If accepted into the fellowship each fellow or their employer/sponsoring organization will be invited to support the costs of the fellowship with a suggested sliding scale. The sliding scale is $180-$900 (using your own personal or organizational finances as a guide). Ability to support the program costs will not be a factor in acceptance or participation.

All information regarding finances, and the program fee will be kept separate from the application review process.

If you are the nominee’s employer or manage their work as a lay leader in your organization, we ask that you support your nominee if they are accepted into the fellowship. You’ll give them space and support to pursue an independent project and ensure they can attend all sessions of the fellowship.

Sliding Scale Program Fee: If you are the individual’s employer or manage them in a lay leadership role at your organization, we ask that you pay a program fee if your fellow is accepted to the Jewish Ideas Fellowship. The fee is sliding scale from $180-$900, based on the budget of your organization. Please see additional information under “What is the fee for the fellowship if I am accepted?”

Important note: Ability to pay the program fee will NOT impact the nominee’s consideration for the fellowship; we do not want finances to be a barrier to participation. All information regarding finances, and the program fee will be kept separate from the application review process.

Who helps make JIF possible?

The Jewish Ideas Fellowship is a project of HUC-JIR, with additional support from organizations and communities across the country, including: