Fellowship Archive
NGF 9 was the second Fellowship held in Latin America, and took place in Itaperica da Serra near São Paulo, Brazil, with 36 Fellows from 9 Latin American countries in attendance. Dr. Felipe Yafe, Dean of the Seminario Rabinico Latinoamericano and NGF Faculty member described the participants, a combination of scholars and communal leaders in the early stages of their careers, as ‘shufra d’shufra’, meaning the very best.
program
The Fellowship was put together in cooperation with the Latin American Jewish Congress and continued the MFJC’s meaningful investment in the Jewish communities of Latin America.
The theme and strategic thrust for the program had been shaped by a meeting in Argentina prior to the NGF with 26 alumni of the NGF living in Latin America. The theme chosen was Construyendo la Judeidad Latino Americana (Building Latin American Jewry).
The faculty-led presentations addressed the challenges identified by the NGF alumni and included:
Latin American Jewry: Perspectives and Dilemmas
The Ethical Foundations of Community
Jewish Culture in the Post-Holocaust Era
Raising and Shaping Jewish Consciousness
Challenges of Responsibilities of Jewish Leadership
faculty
The Faculty for NGF 9 consisted of some of the most distinguished Spanish-speaking scholars from the US, Israel, and Latin America:
Professor Haim Avni, Institute for Contemporary Judaism, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Dr. Steven Bayme, American Jewish Committee, New York, NY, USA
Professor José Meiches, University of São Paulo and Former President of CONIB, São Paulo, Brazil
Dr. Rina Rosenberg, Private Psychologist, Jerusalem, Israel
Professor Shalom Rosenberg, Professor of Jewish Philosophy at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
Rabbi Henry Sobel, Community of São Paulo, Brazil
Professor Manuel Tenenbaum, Executive Director of the Latin American Jewish Congress, Montevideo, Uruguay
Professor Paul Warszawski
Rabbi David Weitman, Chabad representative of São Paulo, Brazil
Dr. Felipe Yafe, Dean of the Seminario Rabínico Latinoamericano Marshall T. Mayer, Buenos Aires, Argentina
more about the fellowship
Central to this NGF were the workshops and discussion groups. The faculty-led workshops dealt with Jewish Texts, Jewish Identity and Jewish Community, and offered Fellows the opportunity to examine these core pillars of Jewish life under the guidance of expert faculty. A special workshop was held on Human Rights in Latin America: a Jewish Perspective.
The discussion groups led by the Fellows themselves covered topics such as: What Can We Learn from One Another; The Future of the Jewish Communities in Latin America; Working With the Non-Jewish Community and Engaging Ourselves and Our Communities Jewishly.
Twenty five percent of the Fellows at this NGF were from small, isolated or dispersed Jewish communities in Latin America including Cordoba, La Plata, Rosario, and Bahia Blanca in Argentina; Campinas in Brazil; Camaguey in Cuba; and Lima in Peru. Reina Roffe, from Camaguey, Cuba, described the enormous challenges facing this unique Jewish community of 100 souls.
As a result of this encounter, Fellows from the JDC in Buenos Aires helped organize additional financial support for the Jewish community in Camaguey, Cuba, demonstrating the value of these gatherings in establishing strong and meaningful connections between communities and the valuable support that comes from encouraging cooperation between them.
