Jewish Community Partners

Sophie Bloch, Director of Hillels of Memphis, has been accepted to participate in the 8th cohort of the Hartman Fellowship for Hillel Professionals during the 2020-2021 school year.

The Hartman Fellowship for Hillel Professionals brings together a select group of campus professionals from across North America and Israel for study of Israel’s central challenges. The Fellowship cultivates this group of elite leaders to think in values-based terms about Israel as a core element of Jewish life, and provides them with a set of tools to foster substantive and compelling conversations about and relationships with Israel.

The Fellowship includes two in-person seminars at the Jerusalem based Shalom Hartman Institute, a mid-seminar intensive in New York City, and bi-weekly video conference calls throughout the academic year. As a Hartman Fellow, Sophie will study the Hartman Institute’s iEngage curriculum, which is designed to transform and elevate the tone and level of discourse about Israel on campus by exploring questions such as:

• How do we create and maintain a Jewish democracy?
• What values should a Jewish state embody?
• What is the meaning of Jewish Peoplehood?

Sophie has previously participated in the Hillel Professionals cohort at the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, as well as the Birthright Israel Fellows training program through the iCenter.

Sophie, front row right, previously participated in a Hillel Professionals cohort at the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem.

“I’m excited to bring new knowledge and insights from the Hartman Fellowship back to my work on campus by stimulating meaningful conversations and dialogue among and between our students,” said Sophie. “I also hope to add to the conversation about Israel within the broader Memphis Jewish community.”

“We are so proud that a member of our staff has been chosen for this prestigious national fellowship,” said Bluma Zuckerbrot-Finkelstein, Chief Strategy Officer for Jewish Community Partners. “Sophie is a dynamic and engaging Jewish professional who will continue to strengthen Jewish life on campus and students’ connection to their Judaism and the State of Israel.”