The MFJC connects, supports, and invests in Jewish leaders and scholars across the globe. Through fellowships, leadership programs, and innovative learning, we strengthen Jewish communities by nurturing bold ideas, bridging divides, and empowering people to shape vibrant Jewish futures wherever they live, learn, and lead.
72
Countries
The MFJC has supported scholars, rabbis and emerging leaders in 72 countries around the world
16,000
16,000 SCHOLARS, RABBIS AND LEADERS
The MFJC has supported 16,000 scholars, artists, filmmakers, rabbis and Jewish communal leaders over the last 52 years
53
Israel Prize Winners
53 recipients of the Israel Prize were supported during their careers by the MFJC
Support MFJC
Help transform the future of the Jewish World.
MFJC supports the regeneration of Jewish culture in communities around the world. We are a 501 (c)3 grant-giving organization. Your support helps future scholars, artists, filmmakers and emerging Jewish leaders contribute meaningfully to the growth of Jewish life globally.
Explore Our Programs
The Nahum Goldmann Fellowship
The Nahum Goldmann Fellowship is a week-long intensive seminar for emerging Jewish leaders to engage in Jewish learning across denominational, geographic, and ideological lines. We provide a unique environment wherein participants are able to freely explore issues of Jewish identity, Jewish community and global Jewish peoplehood.
In 2017, in honor of the 30th anniversary of the NGF, the MFJC conducted an extensive evaluation to understand the long term impact of the Nahum Goldmann Fellowship on past participants. The study indicated that the International Nahum Goldmann Fellowship is indeed helping emerging Jewish lay leaders and professionals: to connect more broadly across the Jewish world; to engage with serious Jewish learning; and to return to their home communities prepared to engage in greater leadership roles.
The effects of the program are summarized in three key areas in which the NGF succeeds: Link. Learn. Lead.
Doctoral Seminar
The purpose of the MFJC Doctoral Seminar is to create an international network of emerging scholars and foster the next generation of academics working in Jewish studies by providing financial assistance and peer and professional support.
ADVANCED TORAH FELLOWSHIP
The purpose of the MFJC’s Advanced Torah Fellowship program is to support the highest level of intensive Torah study for those who have the potential to become a Torah scholar-leader in a community or Torah institution.
EPHRAIM E. URBACH POST DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP
The International Ephraim E. Urbach Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Jewish Studies is funded and administered by the MFJC in cooperation with the World Union of Jewish Studies. Its purpose is to assist a limited number of outstanding recent recipients of the PhD in a field of Jewish studies in publishing their first book, launching their scholarly career, and/or furthering research in their area of special interest.
Fellowship Grants
The purpose of the MFJC Fellowship program is to assist well-qualified individuals in carrying out an independent scholarly, literary or art project, in a field of Jewish specialization, which makes a significant contribution to the understanding, preservation or transmission of Jewish culture.
PRESS
Judith Sudilovsky
Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture marks 60 years of enabling Jewish Peoplehood
October 29, 2025
The Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture has gone through multiple iterations in its 60 years. First the organization, which was founded by Nahum Goldmann with German reparations, focused on reconstructing Jewish cultural life in the wake of the Holocaust and then pivoted to a broader focus on Jewish Peoplehood. More recently, the foundation has started working to prepare the younger generation with resiliency tools to confront growing antisemitism worldwide.
Jodi Savin
Brownsville students take part in Holocaust survivor project
November 15 2024
Savin decided to write a book and received a grant from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture to help cover travel to see various works Strobel had given away over the years.
Denys Chyk
Stanisław Lem’s Novels and the Ukrainian Science-Fiction Literature of the Soviet Times: Representations of Trauma, Memory, and Resistance to Totalitarianism
2024
Dr. Denys Chyk endeavours to explore the novels of Stanisław Lem within the broader context of Ukrainian science fiction literature from the latter half of the 20th century, specifically those by Volodymyr Vladko (1900–1974) and Oles Berdnyk (1926–2003).
Joel Silverstein
Joel Silverstein grant recipient: The Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture
2024
Joel Silverstein has been awarded the grant to finish his book project, called The Brighton Beach Bible, comprises 60-90 images, with essays by Ori Z. Soltes and Hillel Smith. Completion projected for Spring 2023.
Sarah Sassoon
Of Prayers and Grape Leaves
Grapevine leaves are the perfect festive food. A food that requires the luxury of time.
October 15 2024
The preparation, research and publication of this article was made possible by a grant from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture.
Robert Kirschbaum
Professor to Expand Series of Artworks with Grant from Memorial Foundation for Jewish CultureProfessor to Expand Series of Artworks with Grant from Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture
September 30 2024
Trinity College Professor of Fine Arts Robert Kirschbaum received a fellowship grant from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture (MFJC) for his Ashlar Series: creating intaglio and relief prints, a work of art that will raise issues of identity, spirituality, and abstraction.
MFJC CEO Jeni Friedman
What Jewish studies scholars in Ukraine can teach the world about resilience
June 24 2024
More than two years since the start of the war, what can we learn from how Jewish scholars in Ukraine strive to deepen their research in a time of war and ongoing disruption? What wisdom do they offer for how to emerge from a crisis with resilience, clarity and purpose?
MFJC CEO Jeni Friedman
Supporting Jewish studies scholars in Ukraine: What we’ve learned and where we’re going
February 27 2023
Less than two months after the start of the war, a group of Jewish studies professors from four universities in North America partnered with the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture (MFJC) to form an emergency grant program that provides support for Jewish studies scholars in Ukraine. Together, they raised funds from a consortium of universities that were matched by the MFJC.
