Source: Bronfman Youth Fellowships in Israel
The Bronfman Fellowship is now accepting applications for the 34th year of the program. Twenty-six outstanding North American teenagers will be selected for an intellectually challenging year of seminars beginning with a free, five-week trip to Israel in the summer between the their junior and senior years of high school. The program educates and inspires exceptional young Jews from diverse backgrounds to have a significant impact on the world as community builders, deep thinkers, moral voices, and cultural creators.
During the program’s seminars, the Fellows meet with leading intellectuals, religious and political leaders, and educators, such as Israeli writer Etgar Keret, journalist and author Matti Friedman, and biblical scholar Avivah Zornberg. With the guidance of a diverse faculty of Rabbis and educators, the pluralistic group of Fellows have the opportunity to explore a wide range of Jewish texts, from classic religious works to contemporary Israeli and American voices, using them to spark conversations, engage with stimulating existential questions, and achieve a deeper understanding of themselves and one another.
Fellows also interact with a group of Israeli peers who were chosen through a parallel selection process by the Israeli branch of the Fellowship, Amitei Bronfman. Upon returning home from the summer in Israel, Fellows continue their Fellowship year experience with monthly virtual experiences and a Spring seminar in the United States focusing on major themes in North American Jewish life.
Applications for the 2020 Fellowship are due December 1, 2019, and are available online here.
High school students in the United States and Canada who self-identify as Jewish and who will be in the twelfth grade in the fall of 2020 are eligible to apply. The Fellowship is a pluralistic program for Jews of all backgrounds; prior Jewish education is not required. Students are chosen on merit alone.