What We Learn

What do you learn on The Bronfman Fellowship?

The Bronfman Fellowship is a space of learning for learning’s sake. An intellectual program without tests, homework, grades, or judgment, where Fellows can give free rein to their curiosity and explore issues with depth, candor, and joy.

Throughout the Fellowship, Fellows achieve a deeper understanding of themselves and one another through exploring Jewish ideas and texts. They meet with great thinkers who are asking big questions, visit sites around Israel, and study texts that range from traditional materials to contemporary Israeli and American voices. These are texts that ask, and work to answer, stimulating existential questions.

The Bronfman Fellowship is at the forefront of Jewish education. Our diverse faculty of Rabbis and educators create an atmosphere of intellectual openness, in which deep thinkers and questioners feel at home as well as challenged.

Click here to see our current and past faculty members.

Our unique learning atmosphere is marked by depth, rigor, personal relevance, and learning for the sake of learning. Fellows are able to pursue interests, passions, and modes of thinking that they may not be able to explore during the school year. The Fellowship is not a for-credit program, nor are Fellows given any homework or assignments. Click here to see a day in the life a Bronfman Fellow during the immersive summer experience.

The Fellowship’s faculty, speakers, and shiurim (learning) change from year to year.  Below are some past examples.

Sample Speakers & Their Topics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sample Shiurim (Learning) Taught by Faculty

• Jewish Spiritual Journeys
• Male and Female God Created Them? Rabbinic Gender
• Law at its Limit: When Jewish Law Gets Beyond Its Own Categories
• I/Thou: Text, Art and Relational Practice
• Sensuality and the Sages: Beauty, Seduction and Romance in Rabbinic Literature
• American Judaism: Thinking Historically
• Talmudic Science and Superstition
• A Documentary History of the Israeli-Palestinian Encounter

Bronfman Arts Tracks

Arts tracks are an exciting addition to our summer curriculum!  Fellows have the opportunity to participate in workshops in areas including poetry, dance, drama, visual narrative, and music, all taught by leading innovators in the field of Jewish art.

Requiring no previous training, the workshops allow Fellows to immerse themselves in creating art, provide deeper context for understanding the lives and narratives of others, build empathy and personal connection, and empower Fellows to add their voices to the rich tapestry of Jewish culture and ideas. Read our press release in eJewish Philanthropy.