Sephardic Leaders Fellowship

The Sephardic Leaders Fellowship brings together Jewish professionals, educators, and lay leaders to learn Sephardic and Mizrahi history, thought, and culture from leading scholars and rabbis, and to bring that knowledge back to the institutions they serve. JIMENA launched the fellowship in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2021 with the support of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties, and has since grown it into a national program with cohorts built for specific fields.

Our goals

What the fellowship sets out to do

• Deepen knowledge. Fellows study classical and contemporary Sephardic and Mizrahi history, identity, thought, and culture with leaders in the field.
• Build a network. Each cohort becomes a community of practice and friendship that continues after the program ends.
• Change institutions. Fellows bring practical tools back to their synagogues, schools, agencies, and campuses so that Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews are seen, served, and included.

Cohorts

Designed for each field

Every cohort has its own design and curriculum, built around the people in the room and the work they do.

How it works

The program

• Cohorts meet twice a month over several months, online for national cohorts and in person or hybrid in Los Angeles, New York, and the Bay Area.
• Sessions combine learning with scholars and rabbis, conversation, and practical tools, with more than 150 hours of learning offered across all cohorts.
• Fellows close the program with a commitment to action: a concrete step they will take in their own institution or community.

Where our fellows lead

Fellows from across Jewish life

Fellows have come from synagogues, federations, JCCs, Jewish day schools, Hillels, social service agencies, universities, and national Jewish organizations, including UJA‑Federation of New York, the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, Hillels at UCLA, USC, UC Berkeley, and Tufts, Stanford University, Yad Vashem, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Union for Reform Judaism, Repair the World, Leading Edge, SAR High School, the Heschel School, Pressman Academy, and Valley Beth Shalom.

Impact

What fellows take home

Graduates have used the fellowship to reshape their work: building lessons around Sephardic and Mizrahi history, starting a workplace employee resource group, and launching a project to record the stories of Iranian Jews.

“The LA JIMENA cohort was a truly special experience. I built community, learned more about my heritage, was challenged and gained a better sense of myself, and I left feeling extremely empowered.”

Fellow, Los Angeles Emerging Leaders cohort, 2024

Faculty

Learning from leaders in the field

Past faculty include Dr. Mijal Bitton, Dr. Devin Naar, Rabbi Daniel Bouskila, Dr. Sharon Nazarian, Dr. Saba Soomekh, Rabbi Hayyim Angel, Dr. Ronnie Perelis, Adam Eilath, Sarah Sassoon, Vanessa Hidary, Rachel Sumekh, and Dr. Guila Benchimol.

See more

The fellowship in the news and online