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). 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 needs a nomination form completed by a mentor, staff person, community partner, or supervisor, and a complete application form. Both the nomination form and application form should be submitted by August 17, 2026.

Application form: Complete the application form here.

Nomination form: Staff, leaders, and mentors can nominate someone to apply for the fellowship using this nomination form. An applicant can also send this 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 mid-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 participation in virtual spaces for 6-8 hours per month from October-April. This includes:

• A small-group orientation session and full cohort kick-off.
• Bi-weekly or monthly Beit Midrash (literally meaning “house of seeking or study”):  learning sessions with the entire cohort which will explore the many layers of the Jewish canon—including questions of Torah authorship, the social and historical contexts of rabbinic sources, and approaches to interpretation—while using Jewish texts as a lens for engaging contemporary questions and experiences. Sample session titles include: “Leading in Times of Uncertainty,” “Jewish Joy and Its Cultivation,” “Wrestling with God,” “Understanding Moral Injury,” and “Mizrahi Voices in Literature and Film.”
• Chevruta (“paired study”): 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.
• Small Group Electives and Mentoring: In a small group guided by a mentor, fellows will reflect on challenges and opportunities in leadership roles and focus their learning on a particular skill set. Small Group Electives will focus on topics such as group facilitation, ritual innovation, lay leader/professional partnerships, and spirituality as a tool for community building.
• A final Siyyum (“closing session”) to celebrate the cohort and growth throughout the fellowship!

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

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.”

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
• Cantor Aviva Marer, Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation
• Rabbi Hilly Haber, Central Synagogu
• Missy Goldstein Gleisser, MAJE and MAJNM, Hillel International
• Rabbi Asher Knight, Temple Beth El
• Logan Zinman Gerber, Certificate in Experiential Education, REVADA Foundation
• Rabbi Evan Schultz, Congregation B’nai Israel
• Rabbi Dr. Shirley Idelson, Director of the Zelikow School
• Dr. Karen Skinazi, Director of the Louchheim School for Judaic Studies at USC
• Rabbi Dr. Laura Novak Winer, HUC Interim Rabbinical School Director

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 and your nominee is accepted into the fellowship, we ask that you support by:

• Aiding them in prioritizing attendance at all sessions of the fellowship
• Inquiring about their learning in the fellowship and reflecting on integrating their learning into their leadership

We also 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.