About Emerging Scholar Fellowship

The Emerging Scholar Fellowship identifies, cultivates and helps launch the next generation of outstanding Orthodox female adult Jewish educators. The fellowship provides mentorship, supports the development of the fellow's pedagogy, and offers opportunities to teach. Begun in 2022, the fellowship grew out of Ma’ayan’s long-standing mission of supporting the growth of women’s Torah learning.

We have witnessed more than a generation of outstanding Orthodox female scholars of Jewish texts. To date, however, the Jewish community has not created a structure to support their growth as adult educators. This fellowship program seeks to address that gap. Before launching the fellowship, Ma’ayan consulted scholars at the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University, who confirmed that no organization in the field was training adult Jewish educators in this way. Dr. Ziva Hassenfeld now serves on the ESF committee, and Prof. Jon A. Levisohn advises the program.

Scholars who have completed the fellowship have gone on to teach in synagogues, schools, and Torah-learning institutions across North America. They have taught in Sefardic and Ashkenazic communities, in six states, and for organizations including Torah in Motion, Drisha, and the OU Women's Initiative. Their writing has appeared in publications such as Tradition and The Lehrhaus.

Fellows also stay connected to Ma'ayan and to one another, joining a network of mentors and alumnae who continue to open doors for each other.

This fellowship is geared to an Orthodox Jewish woman in North America with a strong background in the study of Jewish texts, who is developing or wishes to develop a practice in teaching text-based adult Jewish education. There is no geographic limitation within North America, but the fellow will be expected to travel to Boston.

Year 1: The fellow will teach for Ma'ayan in Boston four times over the course of the year. The fellow will meet with a mentor twice before and once after each class session.

Year 2: The fellow will return to teach two classes in Boston the following year.

The fellow will earn a stipend of $7,000, distributed in two parts. Ma'ayan will also provide travel and housing throughout the fellowship.

Made possible by the generous support of our donors.