By Gabrielle Ariella Kaplan-Mayer
Chief Program Officer, Jewish Learning Venture

 

On Wednesday, February 1st, our inaugural cohort of Venture Israel Fellows arrived in Tel Aviv to begin a week of learning about and experiencing contemporary Israel through the eyes of artists, scholars, activists, and poets. The Venture Israel Fellowship, a new partnership funded by Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia and facilitated with Jewish Learning Venture, aims to nurture a diverse network of Jewish professionals eager to create robust and engaging programming that brings evolving Jewish identity into dialogue with the dynamic complexity of today’s Israel.

A wide shot of about a dozen adults standing together and smiling inside a room that it's unclear where they are.

Along with JLV’s Chief Executive Officer, Elana Rivel, I am thrilled to be the agency’s staff person working with our cohort of amazing professionals. Together, we represent the diversity of people working in the Jewish community today in terms of not only our connections to Israel but also our ages, professional and personal life experiences, geopolitical views, and religious backgrounds. For example, the youngest member of our cohort turned 24 on the trip while other participants have worked in Jewish communal organizations for 40+ years. Our cohort includes a program director who works in a synagogue but herself isn’t Jewish, an Israeli-American Conserv