Fellowship Archive
For one week in Stellenbosch, South Africa, 30 dedicated Fellows from around the Jewish world gathered to learn, reflect, and explore their Jewish identity and leadership in relation to the core values of the program: Authenticity, Courage, and Belonging: New Paradigms for the Jewish Communal Future.
Program
With considerable input and support from an outstanding international and local faculty, the Fellows engaged meaningfully with their individual Jewish identities in relation to their shared Jewish future. A significant portion of the conversations focused on the evolving relationship these Jewish leaders have with Israel, especially in light of the harrowing events of October 7. The Fellows engaged in deep reflection on how these events have affected their communities and their personal connection to Israel, grappling with feelings of pain, solidarity, and hope that are shared across the Jewish world despite deep ideological differences.
Some of the sessions this year included:
Leadership in a response to crisis
Jewish identity in a polarized post-modern world
Kol Yisrael Arevim – Israel-Diaspora mutual responsibility
New philosophies of Zionism
Culture as a response to trauma and transformation
Faculty
Viv Anstey is described as a serial social entrepreneur, being the catalyst for numerous start-ups in the SA Jewish scene. She has had a hand in establishing: The Eliot Osrin Leadership Institute (current director), Melton (director), Limmud SA, Jewish Literary Festival, PJ Library, Tikkun, the SA Jewish Museum and Jewish trauma network.
Rabbi Dr. Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi is an American-Israeli leader, author, and public speaker, and the inaugural senior rabbi at Har Sinai-Oheb Shalom Congregation in Baltimore.
Dr. Galeet Dardashti is an anthropologist, vocalist, and composer who has earned a reputation as a trail-blazing advocate for Middle Eastern and North African Jewish culture.
Dr. Daniel Fainstein is the dean and a professor of Jewish Studies at the Universidad Hebraica in Mexico City.
Dr. Laura Shaw Frank is the national director of the William Petschek Contemporary Jewish Life Department at American Jewish Committee (AJC).
Dr. Eric Goldman is a film historian and educator who lectures and writes on Jewish, Yiddish, and Israeli cinema. He is adjunct professor of cinema at Yeshiva University and instructor at the Streicker Academy for Adult Jewish Learning in New York City.
Wendy Kahn is the National Director of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies.
Rabbi Dr. Samuel Lebens is a professor in the philosophy department at the University of Haifa.
Professor Adam D. Mendelsohn is Director of the Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies and Associate Professor and Head of the Department of History at the University of Cape Town.
Dr. Karen Milner is an Associate Professor of Psychology in the School of Human and Community Development at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Dr. Channa Pinchasi is a research fellow at the Kogod Research Center for Contemporary Jewish Thought at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.
Menachem Rosensaft is Adjunct Professor of law at Cornell Law School, Lecturer-in-Law at Columbia Law School and General Counsel Emeritus of the World Jewish Congress.
Dr. Steven Windmueller is the emeritus professor of Jewish Communal Studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles.
Charisse Zeifert is the Deputy Director, SA Jewish Board of Deputies.
MORE ABOUT THE FELLOWSHIP
Through the multi-faceted program that included presentations, panels, music, film and texts, the Fellows were challenged to think deeply about the Jewish future within the context of the enormous contemporary challenges facing global Jewry. Being in South Africa at this time brought into sharp focus the current ICJ and ICC cases being spearheaded by the South African government and the strategies required of Jewish communal leadership living under governments hostile to the interests of the local Jewish community. The program included presentations from South African faculty that showcased the remarkable efforts of the local Jewish community in safeguarding their rights as Jewish South African citizens.
Reflections on NGF 34
Image Gallery
If you would like to submit any photos or testimonials please contact us at ngf@mfjc.org
