Posted on October 9, 2025
Renowned Program Embarking on 40th Year of Transformative Program
for Intellectually Curious High School Students from Diverse Jewish Backgrounds
New York, NY – October 2025. The Bronfman Fellowship is pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted for its historic 40th cohort. Every year, The Fellowship selects twenty-six outstanding North American teenagers from a wide range of Jewish backgrounds for a free, intellectually challenging year of programming, beginning with an immersive summer experience in the U.S. and Israel in between the Fellows’ junior and senior years of high school. For nearly 40 years, the program has educated and inspired exceptional young Jews to have a significant impact on the world as community builders, deep thinkers, moral voices, and cultural creators. The nonprofit Fellowship was founded by Edgar M. Bronfman, z”l, formerly CEO of the Seagram Company Ltd. and a visionary Jewish philanthropist.
Applications for the 2026 Fellowship are due December 2, 2025, and are available online at bronfman.org. High school students in the U.S. and Canada who identify as Jewish and who will be in 11th grade in the fall of 2025 are eligible to apply. The Bronfman Fellowship is a pluralistic program for Jews of all backgrounds; prior Jewish education is not required.
“The Fellowship is an opportunity for dynamic personal and intellectual growth in a group of carefully chosen teens,” said Becky Voorwinde, CEO. “In a world that is increasingly polarized and divided, we seek to increase communication and understanding between young people from across the spectrum of Jewish life, including fostering bonds between Jews in North America and Israel. This program serves as a creative force that has inspired some of our best Jewish young adults to become leaders in their communities, and to develop their unique talents to change the world for the better.”
“My father, Edgar M. Bronfman, placed enormous faith in young people’s ability to see the world not just as it is, but as it ought to be,” said Adam R. Bronfman, President of The Samuel Bronfman Foundation. “He believed that young people energized by their Judaism were best equipped to both shape a Jewish ‘Renaissance’ and improve the world.”
For the past three decades, Bronfman Fellows have built a pluralistic community through a transformative, intellectual, and deeply personal journey in which they have the opportunity to see the world through a lens broader than their own. Fellows expand their perspectives as they build community with those representing different backgrounds, worldviews, and approaches to Jewish life and practice. Inspired by a stellar faculty of rabbis and educators, Fellows explore a wide range of Jewish texts, from classic religious works to contemporary poetry and philosophy, using these sources to engage with stimulating existential questions and achieve a deeper understanding of themselves and one another. Bronfman educators create a welcoming space where Fellows can explore ideas freely, share diverse perspectives, and have challenging conversations built on openness and respect.
In addition to learning with faculty members, Fellows also have the unique opportunity to engage with speakers who are leading intellectuals, artists, and religious and cultural leaders. Past speakers have included journalist Matti Friedman; author and professor Dr. Mara Benjamin; musician and Yiddish scholar Anthony Russell; and Torah scholar Dr. Avivah Zornberg. Additionally, Fellows participate in the Fellowship’s arts tracks: workshops in areas including poetry, dance, drama, visual narrative, and music, taught by leading innovators in the field of Jewish art. Requiring no previous training, the workshops allow Fellows to immerse themselves in creating art, providing deeper context for understanding the lives and narratives of others, and empowering them to add their voices to the rich tapestry of Jewish culture and ideas.
The Fellowship year begins with extensive programming in the U.S. and a 10-day trip to Israel, where the Fellows interact with a group of exceptional Israeli peers who were chosen through a parallel selection process by the Israeli branch of the Fellowship, Amitei Bronfman. Following their immersive summer, Fellows have monthly virtual meetings and two in-person seminars in the U.S., in which they explore major themes in Jewish life, and embark on projects to bridge the ideas and questions from their Bronfman summer with their daily lives and home communities.
The Bronfman Fellowship alumni community includes some of today’s leading Jewish voices. There are now over 1,500 Bronfman Fellowship alumni across North America and Israel. Among them are 9 Rhodes Scholars, 4 former Supreme Court clerks, and 20 Fulbright Scholars. Leaders of note among Fellowship alumni include Daniel Handler, a.k.a. Lemony Snicket, author of the best-selling A Series of Unfortunate Events children’s books; Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything Is Illuminated; and Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl, the first woman to be named Senior Rabbi at New York’s Central Synagogue and the first Asian-American person to be ordained as a rabbi and cantor. Others include Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, renowned opera singer; Anne Dreazen, Vice President and Director of the AJC Center for a New Middle East; Dara Horn, author of People Love Dead Jews; Itamar Moses, Tony award-winner for The Band’s Visit; Raphael Rosen, co-founder and CEO of Carbon Lighthouse; and Rabbi David Wolkenfeld of the Ohev Sholom Congregation in Washington D.C. Alumni also include entrepreneurial Jewish leaders who have founded organizations like Keshet, Sefaria, and YidLife Crisis; and serve in central leadership roles at major organizations like The Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, the Jewish Women’s Archive, Central Synagogue, Hillel International, and The Foundation for Jewish Camp, to name a few.
Our Israeli alumni have also ascended to positions of influence in government, civil groups, the private sector, and cultural institutions. Amitei Bronfman alumni include attorneys at the State Justice Department, noted journalists, successful filmmakers (including a Tribeca Film Festival winner), political advisers to Members of Knesset, members of elite IDF units, and university lecturers.
To learn more about The Bronfman Fellowship, and to apply, visit bronfman.org.
Contact:
Stefanie Weisman, Communications Manager
stefanie@bronfman.org