The mission of the Meorot Fellowship is to inspire undergraduate Modern Orthodox men and women to enter into professional Jewish religious leadership. The fellowship devotes six evenings during the fall academic semester to exploring the challenges and opportunities of contemporary Jewish leadership. Sessions will be guided by modern Orthodox rabbis, thinkers, and Jewish professionals, and directly address real-life challenges which will confront the Jewish leaders of tomorrow.

Fellows, comprised of undergraduate juniors and seniors and recent college graduates, do preparatory readings of primary sources and academic articles, participate in lectures by highly esteemed rabbinic and academic scholars and reflect on and critique what they have heard and read in breakout discussion groups. Topics covered include: Torah from Sinai; Dogma; Confronting Problematic Texts; Rabbinic Authority; Outside Influences on Halakha; Jew and non-Jew; Zionism; Gender Issues; Tolerance, Pluralism and Its Limits; and Leadership.

The mentors of the Fellowship are Rabbi Dov Linzer, Rosh HaYeshiva and Dean of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot, Chair of the Bible and Jewish Thought Departments, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, and Rabbi Avi Weiss, President of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah.

The Meorot Fellowship is an outgrowth of the successful Meorot/Torat Miriam Fellowships for rabbinic and graduate students and the Meorot Rabbis in the Field Program. Over 200 graduate students, rabbinical students, and rabbis have participated in these programs since their inception in 1996.

Adina Polin, Meorot Fellow '06 said the following about her experience in the program:  "In my interview for Meorot I said that through the fellowship I hoped to approach fundamental questions of Jewish life and thought in a rigorous and sustained way. Meorot proved weekly to exceed even my most generous expectations. In large part due to the skilled leadership of Zev Farber and Yonatan Cohen, Meorot Coordinators, we have had the opportunity to hear lectures from renowned Jewish scholars and leaders on Jewish philosophy, theology, and practical matters of immediate concern to the Jewish community and then to articulate our own thoughts through often highly impassioned discussion. We have formed a community of individuals, where our striving to serve God is expressed by a strong sense of obligation towards each other, fellow Jews, and the rest of the world."

If you are interested in learning more about this program, please call 212.666.0036 or e-mail This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it . The deadline for applications for program year 2009-2010 is September 17, 2009.

To download an application for the Meorot Fellowship, click here.

To view a sample annual calendar of speakers and sessions, click here.