The T’ruah Rabbinical and Cantorial Student Summer Fellowship in Human Rights offers a select cohort of rabbinical/cantorial students an eight week experience working in a human rights/social justice organization in New York, learning about human rights in Jewish text and tradition, and gaining the skills to be human rights leaders in your own communities. Learn more about the program and how to apply.
The program is generously funded by the Michael and Alice Kuhn Foundation and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.
US Fellows
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Hadar Ahuvia
Hadar Ahuvia (she/her) is a Rabbinical Student at Hebrew College (class of 2026) and a cross-disciplinary artist, ritual leader and Jewish educator. Hadar’s work centers the body in explorations of Jewish political and cultural lineages. Her essay “Joy Vey” on choreographing a diasporic identity beyond Zionism is featured in the Oxford Handbook of Jewishness and Dance. Her choreographer credits include: Baryshnikov Arts Center, Danspace Project, 14th St Y, Gibney, LABA, Movement Research, and New Jewish Culture Fellowship, a Bessie nomination for Outstanding Breakout Choreographer, and Dance Magazine’s ‘25 to Watch in 2019’. Research for her dances began alongside curriculums she developed for Kolot Chayeinu’s b'nai mitzvah program. Hadar is studying Ashekanzi vernacular and cantorial music, weaving performance and services that suture between generations and are committed to collective transformation.
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Claire Bergen
Claire Bergen (they/them) is a rabbinic student at the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism (IISHJ), with ordination expected in 2025. For over 15 years, Claire taught Los Angeles public school students, primarily as a Teaching Artist in music, with organizations including the Los Angeles Philharmonic and YOLA (Youth Orchestra LA). They served as lead lerer (teacher), Curriculum Specialist and officiant at the Sholem Community, and currently facilitate and mentor emerging Jewish educators at Mishkan Chicago. Claire holds an MA in Teaching from USC, an MA from Indiana University's Borns Jewish Studies Program, and is a Certified Vegvayzer/Madrikhe (secular Jewish leader and officiant) through the IISHJ. They also enjoy drawing and writing. Inspired by stories of their family and of the pre-WWII secular Jewish left, Claire believes that the stories we tell about the past shape the future we are building.
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Julie Fishbach
Julie Fishbach (she/her) is a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, expecting ordination in 2026. She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she worked as a counselor and Program Director at Camp Tawonga. She studied Sociocultural Anthropology and Theater at UC San Diego, and completed coursework in Political Media while interning with the Children’s Defense Fund in Washington DC. Upon graduation in 2014, Julie moved to Chicago to pursue a career in comedy. She spent six years performing, directing, and writing for the Second City Training Center and other comedy institutions, while also teaching middle school. At the same time, Julie grew involved with Mishkan Chicago, working closely with the clergy as a Leadership Fellow and member of the Davening Team. Through leading Mishkan’s prayer services, she gained a deep appreciation for Judaism as a tool for inspiration, healing, and positive social change. Julie is passionate about justice work, and has volunteered across the country and world to support those in particularly vulnerable positions, including Ukrainian refugees in Poland, Palestinian olive farmers in the West Bank, and unhoused children in the US. She previously served in a T’ruah fellowship during the 2021–2022 school year in Jerusalem. Julie loves hiking and baking.
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Michelle Katz
Michelle Katz (she/her) is a rabbinical student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, expecting to graduate in 2027. She is excited about navigating the spaces between the written word and lived experiences, and creating opportunities to center liminality. Her passion for community building and religious ritual brought her to study Sociology and Jewish and Israel Studies at Wesleyan University, 20th century Jewish History, Literature, and Culture at NYU, and Contemporary Jewish Leadership at Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership and Northwestern University. Prior to RRC, Michelle served as the Assistant Administrative Director at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism (now SAJ: Judaism That Stands For All), Director of Membership & Conference Content at the Association for Jewish Studies, and Administrative Consultant at Judaism Unbound. For her work with the AJS membership community and annual conference, Michelle was named as one of the Association Forum’s Forty Under 40 in 2020. She is thrilled to be combining her deep love of Jewish learning with inclusive communal engagement at RRC and beyond. In her spare time, you can find Michelle in Philadelphia, PA, writing, reading, dancing, stitching, and cheering for her favorite sport, roller derby, alongside her husband Robert and their dog Lina.
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Eliezer Weinbach
Eliezer Weinbach (he/him) is a rabbinical student at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in New York City, with expected ordination in 2024. He graduated from Yeshiva University with a BA in Psychology, and slowly made his way from that field to the Jewish professional world. As a retreat coordinator at The Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, Eli discovered both environmentalism and "all-streams" Judaism, and it is at the intersection of those concepts that he makes his home. Eli is pursuing a Masters degree in Sustainability Management in addition to his rabbinic studies, and hopes to use both secular and religious sources as an environmental educator for the Jewish community. The T'ruah will be his fifth fellowship, following participation in the JOFEE, Hadar Jewish Wisdom, Adamah Farm, and UJA Graduate fellowships. Anywhere that people are working to free themselves from the constraints of conflicting truths, you will find Eli cheering them on.