The T’ruah Israel Fellowship offers a select group of six students spending the academic year in Israel the opportunity for intensive study, experiential learning, development of a rabbinic voice, and cohort building. Fellows participate in monthly study sessions, special opportunities to see human rights issues on-the-ground (in addition to the regular Year-In-Israel program), and leadership training. Fellows also take leadership roles in guiding and facilitating the Year-in-Israel program for their fellow students.
- Scroll down or click to meet our current and past fellows.
- Watch a video about our Year-in-Israel program participants planting trees in a Palestinian village.
- Read an Associated Press article about our Year-in-Israel program.
- Watch Year-in-Israel program participants talk about their experiences.
- Listen to a podcast about our Year-in-Israel program.
Israel Fellows
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Ari Witkin
Ari Witkin, a Minneapolis native and Goucher College graduate, is a third year rabbinical student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Prior to joining the RRC community, he spent 5 years loving living in Baltimore where he worked as a community organizer engaging religious communities in violence prevention and youth advocacy campaigns and as an experiential educator at the Pearlstone Center. While at RRC, Ari has served as the development manager for the Jewish Farm School, and as Rabbinic intern at Kol Ami Congregation in Boca Raton, FL, and Hillel at Drexel University. Among other things, Ari is passionate about environmental stewardship and community building.
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Ariel Root Wolpe
Ariel Root Wolpe is a third year rabbinical student at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at American Jewish University in Los Angeles. She originally hails from Philadelphia, PA, and received her B.A. in religion and music at Emory University, where she was active on the Inter-Faith Council and religious life. Ariel has produced three albums with interfaith, folk and Jewish music, with the goal of creating connection and meaning through her melodies and lyrics. For the last four years, Ariel has volunteered with Wilderness Torah, a grassroots organization dedicated to re-connecting Jewish learning and prayer with nature. She believes that spiritual music and earth-based learning are essential to healing ourselves and our world, and that Judaism offers a unique partnership with the two. To hear Ariel's music and learn more about her, visit www.arielwolpe.com.
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Deborah Goldberg
Deborah Goldberg is a first year rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion. Prior to enrolling at HUC-JIR, Deborah served as the Teen Programs Coordinator at the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs in Chicago, IL. In this role, she managed all aspects of JCUA's teen social justice program, Or Tzedek. Before working for JCUA, Deborah was an Eisendrath legislative assistant at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. She is passionate about providing spaces for teens to explore their identity and root causes of social justice issues and developing opportunities for teens to engage in advocacy and community organizing work. She spent her summers as a camper and staff member at URJ Camp OSRUI in Oconomowoc, WI. Deborah graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2013 with majors in history and political science. When she’s not working or studying, Deborah can be found hiking through a national park or reading a good book.
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Jessica Fisher
Jessica Fisher is a second year rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Before beginning rabbinical school she ran the Chicago Diller Teen Fellows, a leadership development program for Jewish teens, and worked at the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, she first moved to New York to attend the joint program between Columbia University and JTS, where she earned bachelor's degrees in the History of Social Inequality in the Americas and Midrash. Jessica is also a certified natural foods chef and has taught cooking classes and published articles on food and Judaism.
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Morris Panitz
Morris Panitz grew up in Norfolk, Virginia and attended the University of Maryland, College Park where he earned a double degree in Philosophy and Jewish Studies. He worked within the field of Jewish, environmental education from 2009-2014, participating in the Adamah Fellowship, serving as a farm apprentice at Ocean Air Farms, and leading the educational team at the Pearlstone Center. There, he managed the Jewish Community Gardening Collective and served as the Program Director at the Pearlstone Center, overseeing a wide array of innovative educational programs, including farm-based field trips, conferences and retreats, immersive programs, and service learning. In August, 2014, Morris and his wife, Elana, relocated to Los Angeles, where he has now completed two years of rabbinical school at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at American Jewish University. He is a graduate of Yeshiva University's Certificate in Jewish, experiential education program and a member of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship.
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Nora Feinstein
Nora Feinstein is a first year student at the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion. Before starting rabbinical school, Nora served as a Program Associate at the Schusterman Family Foundation in DC. She holds bachelor's degrees from Barnard College and the Jewish Theological Seminary, where she pursued a course of study in literature, history, and people watching. Nora hails from Baltimore, though there's a piece of her heart in South Carolina where her family now lives. She is passionate about pursuing interfaith work, exploring the intersection of religion and social justice, and co-creating Jewish communities that are relevant, resonant, and empowering. Nora is a StartingBloc Fellow and a Wexner Graduate Fellow. She enjoys yoga, live music, hiking, and public radio.