TORONTO — The New York-based Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture is accepting applications for the European Nahum Goldmann Fellowship, scheduled to take place in Croatia, on the island of Pag, from March 8 to 16, 2010. The deadline for applications is Nov. 30.
The fellowship – the 22nd of its kind – includes room and board, but not travel expenses. Men and women age 25 to 40 with an interest in Jewish culture and potential for individual growth and communal leadership are eligible to apply.
The theme of this year’s fellowship is Trauma and Transformation: Reconstructing Jewish Culture and Communities in the Diaspora in the 21st Century.
Faculty will include, among others, Ismar Schorsch, professor of Jewish history and former chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary; Moshe Halbertal, professor of Jewish thought and philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Benjamin Ish-Shalom, rector, Beit Morasha, Jerusalem; Jerusalem-based psychologist Rina Rosenberg; and Rabbi Benjamin Lau, director of the Center for Judaism and Society, Beit Morasha, Jerusalem.
The program includes lectures, discussion groups; workshops on Jewish texts, Jewish identity and community building; cultural events; and a meeting with fellowship alumni now serving their respective communities.
There are more than 700 graduates of the program, although few are Canadians, Jerry Hochbaum, the foundation’s executive vice-president, told The CJN. “We’re very eager to see some Canadians there,” he added.
Among the former fellows are about 60 Americans and about 200 from Russia, according to Hochbaum. Previous seminars have been held in eastern and western Europe, Australia, southeast Asia, South Africa, Latin America and Israel.
“The chief rabbi of Turkey was a fellow,” he said. As well, he cited university professors, a president of the Jewish community in Stockholm, and a vice-president of the Jewish community in Sydney, Australia.
“We keep the numbers small,” said Hochbaum, who developed the program. “It’s a very intimate and intense experience.
“The most important part is the opportunity to meet and talk to one another about their concerns – personal, communal and professional.”
Goldmann himself – a founder of the World Jewish Congress and the founder of the Memorial Foundation, who died in 1982 – “understood the need, in Europe particularly… to prepare the next generation of leaders,” Hochbaum said.
In a letter to fellowship alumni, Hochbaum wrote that by organizing the upcoming seminar in Croatia, the Memorial Foundation is “making an important statement about our responsibility to smaller Jewish communities in Europe and around the world.”
Further information is available at ngfp.org.