Bronfman youth fellowships
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The Bronfman Fellowship is a
non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
educational program for young Jews in
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
and
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...
. It was founded in 1987 by philanthropist Edgar M. Bronfman, and is partially funded through his foundation, The Samuel Bronfman Foundation. It was formerly known as The Bronfman Youth Fellowships in Israel (BYFI). The Bronfman Fellowship selects 26 outstanding North American teenagers and 20 Israeli teenagers for a rigorous academic year of seminars including a free, five-week trip to Israel for North American Fellows ("Bronfmanim") between the summer of Fellows’ junior and senior years of high school, and a free trip to the United States for Israeli Fellows ("Amitim") during their final year of high school. The program educates and inspires exceptional young Jews from diverse backgrounds to grow into leaders grounded in their Jewish identity and committed to pluralism. The Bronfman Fellowship's network of over 1,400 alumni include 8
Rhodes Scholars The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...
, 2
Schwarzman Scholars Schwarzman Scholars (), founded by American financier Stephen A. Schwarzman, is an international postgraduate award program for students to study at Tsinghua University. Awards are made to 100–200 applicants per year, worldwide. The program s ...
, 4 Supreme Court clerks, 18
Fulbright Scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...
s, 35 Wexner Fellows and 27 Dorot Fellows. Their 2011 applicant to Fellow ratio was 12:1, whereas
Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
’s was 14:1 and
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
’s 16:1. The Bronfman Fellowship has been listed by Chuck Hughes, former Senior Admissions Officer at
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, in his book, "What it Really Takes to Get Into the Ivy League and other Highly Selective Colleges" as one of the programs which "act as filters for admissions officers to validate candidates who have been similarly identified by other organizations for talent and promise."


History

The Bronfman Fellowship was founded in 1987 by Edgar M. Bronfman, in response to what he perceived as a lack of dialogue among the various
Jewish denominations Jewish religious movements, sometimes called "religious denomination, denominations", include different groups within Judaism which have developed among Jews from ancient times. Today, the most prominent divisions are between traditionalist Ortho ...
in North America. Edgar also dreamed of a "renaissance of Torah study," in which all Jews would not only be welcomed into the dialogue but would also be equipped with the thoughtfulness and Jewish literacy to engage in serious study of Jewish texts. In 1998, the organization launched Amitei Bronfman, its program for young Israelis. Today, the Bronfman Fellowship is one of the most well-respected youth programs in the Jewish nonprofit space.


Educational philosophy

The Bronfman Fellowship's "Bronfmanim Impact Framework" outlines four core developmental goals for Fellows: Community Builders, Deep Thinkers, Moral Voices, and Cultural Creators. Their methodology for achieving these goals is grounded both in experiential learning and in Jewish text study, facilitated by professional rabbis and Jewish educators who share the Fellowship's philosophical commitments. The Fellowship places particular emphasis on the intellectual autonomy of the young Fellows, rather than on any one particular worldview or mode of Jewish practice. The Fellowship utilizes Jewish text study as a central pedagogical framework. A broad variety of works serve as jumping-off points for conversation, including canonical texts such as the
Tanakh The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...
, philosophy, literature, poetry, and visual art. The Bronfman Fellowship's pedagogy is also relational, with knowledge emerging not from one rabbi or text but from ongoing conversations among Fellows and faculty. One of the first traditional texts which each Fellowship cohort studies is a famous line of
Pirkei Avot Pirkei Avot ( he, פִּרְקֵי אָבוֹת; also transliterated as ''Pirqei Avoth'' or ''Pirkei Avos'' or ''Pirke Aboth''), which translates to English as Chapters of the Fathers, is a compilation of the ethical teachings and maxims from ...
which translates to “make for yourself a teacher, acquire for yourself a friend.” This text is used to introduce one of the core tenets of the program: that connecting with others and engaging in challenging dialogue with them allows friends to become teachers, and teachers to become friends. The Fellowship intentionally selects as religiously and politically diverse a cohort as possible.


Program description

The Bronfman Fellowship program consists of three dedicated group experiences, regular video conferences throughout the year, and a culminating project. The first of these experiences is the Immersive Summer Experience, which takes place in Israel (with the exception of the 2020 cohort, whose program was fully remote, and the 2021 cohort, whose program is being held in the United States). Fellows spend five weeks in Israel, engaging in learning and bonding with their peers while traveling the country. They also have the opportunity to live in a homestay with an Israeli Fellow ("Amit") during part of the trip. In December, the Israeli Amitim come to the United States for their own travel experience, as well as a weekend retreat and a homestay with the American Fellows. In the Spring, Fellows embark on a five-day exploration of American-Jewish identity in a Northeastern city, typically New York City or Washington, D.C. Throughout the Fellowship Year, Fellows work on their Beyond Bronfman project, a process of exploration of a question or idea, which culminates in an artifact which Fellows then share with their peers.


Alumni

Following the Fellowship Year, Bronfman Fellows join an alumni community of over 1,400 people across North America and Israel. Alumni are able to take advantage of programs such as collegiate gatherings, lectures and seminars, mentoring programs, interest groups, and a pluralism discussion series. The Bronfman Fellowship’s approach to building a community among alumni at different life stages has been featured by The Schusterman Family Foundation’s Alumni Playbook. In 2005, The Bronfman Fellowship launched the Bronfman Alumni Venture Fund (AVF), the first Jewish mini-grant program of its kind, which fundraises from the Fellowship’s North American and Israeli alumni for the sole purpose of re-distributing that funding to alumni-led projects. Projects supported serve the wider community and perpetuate the values of pluralism, Jewish learning, engagement with Israel, and social responsibility. As of early 2020, the AVF has distributed over $300,000 in grants as well as valuable peer support to impactful projects led by over 160 alumni. The AVF was named one of the nation’s 50 most innovative Jewish nonprofits by Slingshot in their 2010-11 and 2011-12 guides.


Notable alumni


Authors

*
Jonathan Safran Foer Jonathan Safran Foer (; born February 21, 1977) is an American novelist. He is known for his novels '' Everything Is Illuminated'' (2002), '' Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close'' (2005), '' Here I Am'' (2016), and for his non-fiction works ''Eati ...
*
Dara Horn Dara Horn (born 1977) is a Jewish American novelist, essayist, and professor of literature. She has written five novels and in 2021, released a nonfiction essay collection titled ''People Love Dead Jews'', which was a finalist for the 2021 Kirkus ...
*
Daniel Handler Daniel Handler (born February 28, 1970) is an American author, musician, screenwriter, television writer, and television producer. He is best known for his children's book series ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'' and ''All the Wrong Questions ...
, pen name
Lemony Snicket Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American author Daniel Handler (born February 28, 1970). Handler has published several children's books under the name, most notably ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'', which has sold over 60 million copies and s ...
*
Ilana Kurshan Ilana Kurshan is an American-Israeli author who lives in Jerusalem. She is best known for her memoir of Talmud study amidst life as a single woman, a married woman, and a mother, ''If All the Seas Were Ink.'' Personal life Kurshan was raised ...
*
Itamar Moses Itamar Moses (born 1977) is an American playwright, author, and television writer. Biography Moses grew up in a Jewish family in Berkeley, California, earned his bachelor's degree at Yale University, and his Master of Fine Arts degree in dramati ...


Journalists

* Matti Friedman * Adam Davidson, NPR business correspondent and NYT Magazine Columnist *
Jonathan Tepperman Jonathan Tepperman is an author, journalist, and expert on international affairs. He is currently the Editor in Chief of ''The Catalyst'' and a Senior Fellow at the George W. Bush Institute''.'' From 2017 to 2020 he was Editor in Chief of ''Foreig ...
, Managing Editor of ''Foreign Affairs'' * Anya Kamenetz, lead education blogger at NPR and author of ''The Art of Screen Time''


Filmmakers

* Amir Bar Lev, documentary film director * Etan Cohen *
Noah Oppenheim Noah Oppenheim (born 1977 or 1978) is an American television producer, author, and screenwriter. Previously, Oppenheim was the executive in charge and senior producer of NBC's ''Today Show'', where he supervised the 7–8am hour of the broadcas ...


Creatives

* Alex Riff, poet and co-founder of the Cultural Brigade for Russian-Jewish Israeli Heritage *
Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen (born 1994) is an American countertenor. He was a winner of the 2017 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Grand Finals, after which he was described as "a complete artist" and "young star" in ''The New York Times''. He ...
, counter-tenor


Jewish leaders

*
Angela Warnick Buchdahl Angela Warnick Buchdahl ( ko, 앤절라 워닉 북달; born July 8, 1972) is an American rabbi. She was the first Asian-American to be ordained as a rabbi, and the first Asian-American to be ordained as a ''hazzan'' (cantor). In 2011 she was name ...
, senior rabbi at Manhattan's Central Synagogue * Joshua Foer and Brett Lockspeiser, co-creators of
Sefaria Sefaria is an online open source, free content, digital library of Jewish texts. It was founded in 2011 by former Google project manager Brett Lockspeiser and journalist-author Joshua Foer. Calling itself "a living library of Jewish texts", Sefa ...
* Judith Rosenbaum, Executive Director of the Jewish Women’s Archive *
Yehuda Kurtzer Yehuda Kurtzer is President of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. He has written and lectured widely on Jewish history, Jewish memory, leadership in American Jewish life, and the relationship between American Jews, Israel and Zionism. ...
, President of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America


Other

* Tali Farhadian, former federal prosecutor and a candidate in the
New York County District Attorney The New York County District Attorney, also known as the Manhattan District Attorney, is the elected district attorney for New York County (Manhattan), New York. The office is responsible for the prosecution of violations of New York state laws ...
race in 2021


See also

* Edgar Bronfman Sr.


External links


Bronfman Fellowships 25th Anniversary Magazine


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bronfman Fellowship Fellowships Jewish organizations based in the United States