New Leaders Fellowship

Advancing the Next Generation of Community Leaders

Applications for the 2024-2025 New Leaders Fellowship are closed. Check back here in June 2025 to apply for the next cohort.

Put your values into action and learn how to be a leader for change through this inspiring and immersive experience for Bay Area leaders in their 30s and early 40s.

Through the New Leaders Fellowship, you will deepen your knowledge and confidence alongside other Jewish leaders, learn from a distinguished faculty, and be part of JFCS’ work improving people’s lives.

Questions? Contact Tamar Zaken at [email protected]

HONE THE SKILLS YOU NEED TO MAKE AN IMPACT

Over the course of six months, we’ll dive into key tenets of nonprofit leadership, learn how to put personal leadership styles into meaningful action, and build critical leadership skills for maximum impact

CONNECT WITH OTHER YOUNG LEADERS WHO CARE

As a JFCS Fellow, you’ll have the opportunity to network with a diverse group of Jewish leaders who share your values and your desire to make the world a better place.

DRAW FROM JEWISH WISDOM TO STRENGTHEN YOUR COMMUNITY

Grapple with the contemporary leadership challenges impacting our Jewish and the broader community, now and into the future, and learn from world-renown scholars from the Shalom Hartman Institute.

A Comprehensive Curriculum

Our learning sessions are led by a distinguished faculty of respected community and business leaders, educators, rabbis, and scholars.

Throughout the curriculum, we explore:

Steering a successful nonprofit for maximum impact
Creating change through advocacy, community engagement, and philanthropy
Using case studies to approach the most pressing issues facing our community
Leveraging personal leadership styles for more effective action
Understanding community and identity needs through a Jewish lens

Fellows have access to influential community leaders, opportunities to meet with legislators, and first-hand exposure to JFCS fundraising, advocacy, and events.

As part of participation in the JFCS New Leaders Fellowship, we ask accepted Fellows to make a personally meaningful donation to JFCS in support of our programs.

Turn Learning into Impact

Every day, JFCS changes lives. We help individuals and families through all stages of life and provide a lifeline to anyone facing personal crises or challenges.

Fellowship Alumni have the opportunity to make a meaningful impact in other peoples’ lives through leadership opportunities on JFCS committees and special volunteer initiatives. Many of our alumni have taken on meaningful leadership roles, including Board placement at JFCS and other nonprofit organizations! You will also have access to continued learning and networking within our Fellowship Alumni Network.

“For me, the Fellowship was an opportunity to learn about non-profit leadership and an invitation to find my own vision for social impact through a uniquely Jewish lens. I grew tremendously: from a place of not-knowing when it came to my role as a person of means and opportunity, to a place of understanding; from a place of having little to no Jewish community of peers, to a place of fellowship. I’m deeply grateful to have had this opportunity and excited to meet the next class of Fellows!”

—Susan Strom, JFCS New Leaders Fellow, 2021 – 2022 Cohort