Since she was young, senior Aliza Lesser knew she wanted to be a part of the Bronfman fellowship. Even in elementary school, she, along with other friends from her community, would talk about applying in high school. Throughout her high school experience, Lesser became more and more excited about the unique opportunity.
The Bronfman Fellowship is a pluralistic educational Jewish summer program that brings together teens with different Jewish backgrounds to learn, explore their Jewish identities and bond. The program has a focus on learning for the sake of learning, and brings in diverse teachers for seminars. In addition, students travel around the U.S. and throughout Israel.
After undergoing a long application process, including an in-person interview in New York, on June 25 Lesser and senior Shalvah Lazarus joined 24 other rising seniors from around the country and departed for Pearlstone Retreat Center to kick off their fellowship year. Almost at the same time, a group of Israeli teens known as Amitim met for their opening seminar for the fellowship.
A large part of the Bronfman fellowship is building connections. The community remains after the fellowship year, when fellows join an active 1,400+ member alumni community.
“Definitely one of my favorite parts was just the people,” Lesser said. “…Just making a bunch of new friends, and getting to spend time with these people… was definitely something that was very important to me, and very fun.”
Over the course of four weeks, the American fellows traveled to and around Maryland, Boston and New York before departing to Israel, where they met the Amitim. Due to the Israel-Hamas war, American fellows only spent a week in Israel and the rest of their time on the East Coast.
Throughout the trip, the group went sightseeing, where they saw historical and popular landmarks such as the Freedom Trail in Boston, Old City of Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. During parts of the tour, they had the opportunity to learn from a wide array of speakers including relatives of hostages, Bronfman alumni and representatives from many communities in Israel.
“What really stood out to me was [the fellowship’s] ability to really choose amazing Jewish worlds, to send us in and expose us to,” Lazarus said. “For example, we visited the Chabad Rebbe’s grave and got to see that community in action.”
Lazarus and Lesser agreed that a highlight of the trip was the conversations that people had about their learning outside of their seminars.
“Everybody on the program was very tuned into deep, meaningful conversations all the time,” Lazarus said. “So every bus ride, every meal, we talked about really, really interesting topics, and everybody was really engaged and excited to listen and share their thoughts.”
This is just the beginning for these students, as this fellowship meets via zoom once a month over the course of the year, and for a few days for an in-person spring and winter seminar. During this time, fellows chose a question, topic or idea to further explore with the help of staff and alumni.
As a culmination of the time in the fellowship they will present what they learned to other fellows. After, as an alumnus of the program, fellows are still able to meet through yearly collegiate gatherings on the East Coast.
“I’m really excited to have the new friends and the new contacts that I’ve made,” Lesser said. “I’ve just been calling up people from Bronfman, asking them questions, and we’ve been learning together and just carrying on those relationships and the learning that we’ve started on Bronfman, carrying that throughout the year, and hopefully for the rest of my life.”
