Edward Fein Campus Professionals Fellowship

“This fellowship altered the way in which I engage with Israel on every level. I cannot overstate how life changing this experience was.” – Campus Professional Fellow, Cohort IX (2023)

In this historic time for Israel and the Jewish people around the world, colleges stand out as an environment where leadership, ideas, identities, pluralism, and relationship with Israel are being confronted and challenged in new and unique ways. They are also the space in which students and professionals have immense opportunity to grow, learn, explore new ideas, and exercise leadership to profoundly enrich and impact the lives of others.

For over a decade, the Edward Fein Campus Professionals Fellowship has been the premier avenue for Hillel professionals to strengthen the tools and approaches that they have to offer to their student communities to meet the challenges and opportunities of this moment. The Edward Fein Campus Professionals Fellowship offers a meaningful framework for campus professionals to learn and apply a new discourse on Israel, pluralism, and Jewish peoplehood, rooted in values and identity rather than divisive political issues. It doesn’t press simplified narratives or tell you what to think. It holds room for debate and nuance for professionals and offers a model of how to bring this approach to your students as well. As a result, professionals emerge from this Fellowship grounded in their own relationship to Israel and Jewish peoplehood, with clarity and confidence in how they want to bring these topics to their student communities.

An elite group of campus professionals from across North America and Israel are nominated by their peers and supervisors to learn with the Shalom Hartman Institute for a full year. Fellows are enriched and empowered by Hartman’s  iEngage curriculum, peer-study, lectures, discussions, field trips, and special sessions with senior members in the Hillel field. Participants explore various models of leadership that are applicable to navigating the distinctive opportunities and challenges within pluralistic organizations like Hillel. The Fellowship will address questions regarding the role of Israel in North American Jewish identity and Jewish organizations, balancing values in pluralistic organizations, and the changing nature of Jewish peoplehood.

Fellows have the opportunity to study with Hartman senior faculty including  Donniel Hartman, Yehuda Kurtzer, Tal Becker,  Elana Stein Hain, Masua Sagiv, and Chaim Seidler-Feller.

Edward Fein Campus Professionals Fellowship Cohort VII in Jerusalem, Summer 2021

“As someone fairly engaged in the Israel conversation on a daily basis I found the fellowship to be extremely helpful in shaping my views in a more nuanced way. I developed a language to use when speaking about the difficult issues around Israel and world Jewry, and the Fellowship allowed me to play with ideas in my head that I was unable to process without the amazing teachers and scholars we learned with.”

“In my role at Hillel, I wrestle with the complex reality of Israel in 2023, and this fellowship has helped me embrace the imperfections and challenges that face Israel today. Especially working with students that have grown up with a very different diaspora-Israel relationship, I feel more comfortable (and better prepared) to have deeper conversations about what is good, challenging, problematic, and less-than-ideal about Israel overall and the relationship we have with the country as Jews in the diaspora.”

Details:

This 12-month fellowship includes:

Week-long seminars held at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem (July 2024 and July 2025).
Three online study sessions with Hartman faculty each semester.
Monthly Cohort XI calls to discuss topics of leadership, pluralism, peoplehood, and relationship with Israel through campus case studies.
Mid-year gathering of Cohort XI in North America.
Access to the Hartman alumni network and programming designed to continue to support you as a community of learners and leaders

Eligibility:

Open to campus professionals in senior positions in their local communities: CEOs and Executive Directors, Assistant Directors, Rabbis, and educators.

Note: The 2024-25 Cohort XI will prioritize Assistant Directors, Campus Chaplains, Rabbis and Educators. The 2025-26 Cohort XII will prioritize CEOs and Executive Directors.

Any level of background and facility with traditional Jewish texts are welcome, but a strong interest in regular text-based learning is required.
Previous time spent in Israel is strongly preferred.

Cost:

All costs associated with participation are fully subsidized by the Shalom Hartman Institute, made possible through the generous support of our donors.

We are grateful to the Edward Fein Foundation for their generous support of this program.

For More Information

For more information, contact Tilly Shemer, Senior Vice President, Wellspring

/ Edward Fein Campus Professionals Fellowship

Edward Fein Campus Professionals Fellowship

For More Information

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