(Courtesy of Tikvah Fund) For the 11th consecutive year, the Tikvah Fund will be hosting its prestigious 11-day Tikvah Scholars Program for current 10th and 11th grade students. Next summer, the program will offer two sessions—the first from June 27 through July 7, and the second from July 25 through August 4. The program, which takes place on the campus of Yale University, brings together exceptional students from across the world to study with leading professors, thought leaders and scholars, engaging in deep discussion and debate on a wide variety of topics.
Over the course of the program, students are immersed in core seminars in Jewish philosophy, western civilization, Zionism and modern politics. They also delve into a variety of electives with topics ranging from bioethics to law, economics to Greek philosophy and modern literature to American political thought.
Professors include director of the Notre Dame/Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership James Otteson, award-winning novelist and professor Dara Horn, founder and executive VP of Shalem College Daniel Polisar and director of academic programs at the Witherspoon Institute and visiting instructor at Princeton University RJ Snell.
Rabbi Mark Gottlieb, former head of school at Yeshiva University High School for Boys (MTA) and principal at the Maimonides School in Boston, is dean of the program and senior director of the Tikvah Fund. “With its immersive culture of deep learning and vigorous discourse, the Tikvah Scholars program is one of the most powerful tools to cultivate the next generation of Jewish thought leaders. Students with a passion for ideas and a sense of Jewish purpose won’t want to miss it,” he said.
Lia Solomon, a graduate of SAR High School in Riverdale, New York, and Migdal Oz in Israel who is currently studying at Yale University, said, “The Tikvah Scholars Program offered me a space in which I could approach the world with curiosity. It is an incredible environment full of people who deeply care about inspecting the world around them and are not afraid to ask tough questions about everything from epistemology to the nature of Jewish faith and how it relates to reason. It is an atmosphere that pushes individuals to consider perspectives vastly different from their own, an ability that is vital in the polarized world in which we live.”
A virtual Open House is being hosted on Tuesday, December 21, at 8 p.m. The program will be accepting applications through January 31. Learn more, apply or nominate a deserving student at tikvahscholars.org.
