The Lauder Fellowship is an international network of Jewish university students who seek to represent and advocate on behalf of the global Jewish community. Created on the initiative of the president of the World Jewish Congress, Ambassador Ronald S. Lauder, the Fellowship is an extremely prestigious initiative that, this year, selected 31 young people from twenty countries to train, connect and develop projects related to subjects of interest to the Fellowship: diplomacy, public policy, combating anti-Semitism, communication, and related.
UJR-AmLat is proud to inform that two participants are members of Latin American reform communities: Tomas Blaser, from NCI-Emanu El (Judaica Belgrano, Buenos Aires) and David Britva Beraha, from Congregação Israelita Paulista (CIP, São Paulo), and executive director of the UJR.
According to Tomas: It was an honor and a great pride to be selected as one of the 23/24 Lauder Fellowships. I feel that it is a space given to us so that we can contribute with our vision on certain subjects, representing, above all, the youth of my community. The fact that we are endorsed by the World Jewish Congress gives us the possibility to effect great changes in our own communities. Finally, the fact that our projects and decisions were discussed, debated and modified by fellow fellows from over 20 different countries, where each one had a very different and enriching vision for the common goal we all have, is of great help to be able to find the best way to reach them. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I’m excited for the road ahead of us in the year ahead.
David adds: Besides the honor of being selected, it is important to say that it is the first time in five years of the program that we have a young Brazilian. Brazil has a special situation of not having a Jewish student movement as it happens, for example, in Europe, South Africa or Australia, although it is a challenge, it is a field with enormous potential for related projects. We left the opening seminar with a sense of mission and pride, and it is great to be able to dialogue with young people from other parts of the Jewish world and other views and positions on Judaism. I strongly believe that we have all points to add and in this dialogue we all come out stronger.
Learn more about the Lauder Fellowship on the World Jewish Congress website: https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/lauder-fellowship
See what happened at the 2023-2024 Fellowship Opening Seminar: https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/opening-seminar
