Jewish Ideas Fellowship

This fellowship is for early-career Jewish professionals and lay 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
• Be 22-40 years old
• Currently be in an informal or formal leadership role or seeking to grow and serve their local community more deeply
• Live in North or South America
• NOT have a master’s degree (or higher) in Jewish studies or a related field. Please note that current students and alumni of any HUC degree-track program are not eligible for this fellowship. 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. If accepted into the fellowship, you or your employer/sponsoring organization will be invited to support the costs of the fellowship.

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. Please reach out to Rabbi Hannah Lybik if you have questions about how you will feel supported in this space. You will also have the opportunity in your application to express in which areas you might need help to feel successful and supported in the fellowship.

The Jewish Ideas Fellowship has two components to the application process. Each applicant should submit a nomination form completed by a mentor, staff person, community partner, or supervisor, as well as an application form. Both the nomination form and application form need to be submitted by August 28, 2025.

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. 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!

2024-2025 Sample Project Titles:

• Belief, Belonging, & Beyond: God in Judaism & in Our Lives
• Reclaiming Sexuality in Judaism
• Mahloket in the Tent: Pluralistic Israel – Palestine Dialogue
• Tikkun Olam: A Mission Without a Meaning
• Sustaining Soul and Spirit in Jewish Communal Work
• Hebrewglyphics: An Iconic B’nei Mitzvah Tutoring Tool
• Jewish Values and Environmental Interpretation

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

• Brad Cohen, MAJE Eden Village Camp
• Rabbi Josh Fixler, Temple Emanu El Houston
• Rabbi Samantha Frank, Modern Ritual
• Rabbi Isaama Goldstein-Stoll, URJ Youth Organizing
• Dr. Leah Hochman, HUC-JIR Faculty
• Cantor Aviva Marer, Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation
• Andi Milens, MAJCS/MPA Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City
• Rachel Schonwetter, MSW/MAJNM, Koret Foundation
• Liana Wertman, M. EdL Torah Studio

Our goal is to create 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. We know that there will be some for whom this is not possible. At no point will ability to support the program costs 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.

If you are the individual’s employer or manage them in a lay leadership role at your organization, we invite you to support the costs of the program if your fellow is accepted to the Jewish Ideas Fellowship.

Important note: Ability to support the program costs 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 will be kept separate from the application review process.