Meet our Fellows
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JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa) announced the first-ever cohort of campus professionals for its Leadership Fellowship run through its Sephardic Leadership Institute. The fellowship has been redesigned specifically for this cohort.
“Campus professionals have distinct needs, challenges, and opportunities that are different from mid to senior level Jewish communal professionals and lay-leaders. These campus professionals are on the front-lines of growing antisemitism in the United States. We want to empower and train these leaders with new knowledge and skills to support them and the students they serve."
Sarah Levin, executive director of JIMENA.
The select cohort of twenty Jewish campus professionals, welcomed with the support of the Jewish Community Response and Impact Fund (JCRIF), includes professionals from Stand With Us, Hillel International, TAMID Group, Springboard Fellowship, and the Jewish Agency. Fellows serve Jewish college students at campuses throughout the United States including: Tufts University, Brooklyn College, UC Berkeley, University of Illinois, Penn State University, Cornell University, UCLA, and many others.
The Fellowship covers the history of Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa, defining antisemitism, campus-advocacy 101, the Abraham Accords and a shifting Middle East, Sephardi and Mizrahi holidays and rituals for college students, and more. Sessions are led by top-tier rabbis, scholars, international activists, and Jewish educators
- Hedda Harari-Spencer, Senior Lecturer of Hebrew, Tufts University
- Sarali Cohen, Previously worked at Tanger Hillel at Brooklyn College
- Maya Zinkow, Senior Jewish Educator, Berkeley Hillel
- Joseph Gindi, Jewish History Teacher, Jewish Community High School of the Bay
- Ben Shefter, Senior Director and Senior Jewish Educator, McMaster University
- Rachel Merovitz, Campus Manager, Hillel Montreal
- Karen Shalev, New England Campus Coordinator, Stand With Us
- Jared Hoffman, Teacher, Temple Ner, Tamid
- Valerie Chambers, Campus Director, Kennesaw State University Hillel
- Sarah Cohen Domont, Director of Lifelong Learning, Kehillah Synagogue
- Boaz Avraham-Katz, Jewish Educator, Elon University Hillel
- Sarah Abrams, Metro Chicago Hillel
- Alana Mantel, Campus Program Associate, TAMID Group
- Shachar-Lee Yaakobovitz, Intrapreneurship Springboard Fellow at Penn State Hillel
- Chloe Levian, Campus Regional Manager: Southwest, Stand With Us
- Ruth Gal Gabriel, Israel Fellow, Hillel at UGA
- Yehoshua Hooper, Cornell Hillel, Director of Israel Experiential Education, Co-founder & mentor to the Sephardi Mizrahi Student Council
- Heni Bizawi, Israel Fellow at Hillel Milwaukee
- Leenie Baker, Wellness Director, USC Hillel
- Rachael Petru, Director of Philanthropic Partnerships, UCLA Hillel