JOFA is pleased to announce the launch of its new JOFA Campus Fellowship for academic year 2010-2011. This program will give eight undergraduate Orthodox women across North America the opportunity to become leaders in their campus communities. JOFA Fellows will participate in a cutting-edge leadership seminar in New York City where they will meet and learn from JOFA leaders. The Fellows will work together with JOFA to plan and execute relevant and exciting programming for their campuses.
Women do not have sufficient opportunities for leadership roles within the Modern Orthodox community. This program is JOFA’s newest expression of our commitment to advancing women’s leadership. We are confident that the JOFA Fellows will contribute to strengthening the Jewish community.
The leadership seminar will focus on program development, as well as negotiation of the challenges of being a feminist in the Orthodox community and an Orthodox Jew on a progressive campus. Each Fellow will be provided with a stipend and funds and organizational support for programming on her campus. Fellows will also be paired with mentors from the JOFA Board. The cohort of JOFA Fellows will form a supportive network, empowering them to effect change on their campus and beyond.
The program also reaches beyond the Fellows themselves, as other students on their campuses will be engaged in programs where they seriously discuss ways to create a Modern Orthodoxy that offers more opportunities for women within the framework of halakha and shows sensitivity to issues of gender.
