Important Update: Due to COVID-19, we have unfortunately cancelled the program for this year. We are looking forward to coordinating this meaningful program again next year (2021).If you have any questions, please email: futurescholars@JewishGen.org.
JewishGen.org is pleased to invite applications for its second annual JewishGen Future Scholars Fellowship program to take place from July 14, 2020 – July 23, 2020. Graduate students, along with third and fourth-year undergraduate students, are invited to apply.
This immersive program, created in partnership with The Matzevah Foundation, and the Friends of Jewish Heritage in Poland, focuses on the role of Jewish cemeteries today in preserving the memory and legacy of former Jewish communities. Participants will help clean-up a cemetery, learn about symbols on tombstones, the general state of Jewish cemeteries in Poland after the Holocaust, efforts to preserve them from both a communal, political, and Halachik perspective, and what lessons can be gleaned to inform our own life choices today.
On this 10-day journey, participants will tour many Jewish heritage sites including Warsaw and Lublin, Visit Majdanek, spend an inspirational Shabbat in Krakow, visit Auschwitz/Birkenau, and then travel to Przysucha, Poland, where the group will participate in the clean-up and preservation of the Jewish cemetery in partnership with local residents.
The trip will be led by highly experienced staff, and participants will have an opportunity to learn from rabbis, scholars, dignitaries, and community leaders, who will offer first-hand insights regarding the imperative (and challenges) of cleaning-up cemeteries in accordance with Jewish law. They will address how local Polish communities view Jewish cemeteries in their towns, the need to preserve Jewish memory, and more.
Upon returning home, each Fellow will write an essay reflecting on his or her experience. These essays will be made available on the JewishGen website.
This program is nearly fully subsidized, save for a $350 non-refundable registration fee. All other expenses will be completely covered by JewishGen.org (including r/t travel from NY, transportation in Poland, meals, lodging, materials, etc). Dietary laws will be observed.
To apply for the 2020 program, please visit www.JewishGen.org/Fellowship by February 28, 2020
Avraham Groll, Executive Director of JewishGen.org, is passionate about connecting people with their Jewish roots, and helping them experience what it means to be part of the Jewish people.
He holds an MBA from Montclair State University, an MA in Judaic Studies
from Touro College, a certificate in Jewish Executive Leadership from Columbia University, and a BS in Business Administration from Ramapo College. Avraham spent two years studying at Yeshiva Ohr Yerushalayim in Israel and is a frequent lecturer on a variety of Jewish genealogical and historical topics.
He is married to Dina, and has four children.
Dan A. Oren, M.D., associate professor of psychiatry (adjunct) at Yale University has worked for thirty years as a psychiatrist and faculty member at Yale and has been Visiting Professor of Physiology at the University of Rzeszów, Poland. Oren is author of the new book on Jewish genealogy and family history “The Wedding Photo". He is author or co-author of numerous scientific articles. He is married to artist Jeanette Kuvin Oren, and has two children and one grandchild. He has been tracing his genealogy for more than forty years and has led multiple groups in Poland.
Steven D. Reece worked as a photojournalist before entering religious and charitable
work.
He leads The Matzevah Foundation to care for and restore Jewish cemeteries in Poland, commemorate mass grave sites, and educate the public about the Holocaust.
Steven is an ordained Baptist minister and is a graduate of Baylor University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Steven is certified to teach about the Holocaust through Yad Vashem and Tel Aviv University. He received his Ph.D. in Leadership from Andrews University in 2019.