When Jessi Glueck was looking for summer opportunities, she wasn’t sure going to Israel was the best fit for her. After all, the Blue Valley North Senior had already been to Israel with her family 10 times. But it turns out The Bronfman Fellows intensive five-week program of study and travel in Israel, designed to develop future community leaders committed to Jewish unity, was an experience she loved and will never forget.
Jessi, a member of Kehilath Israel Synagogue and the daughter of Miriam and Robert Glueck, said it’s hard to describe the program and the experience succinctly. She’s also quick to point out that anything she says about the Bronfman experience is strictly her personal opinion and nobody else’s. Throughout the five weeks, much time was spent discussing and debating various viewpoints on a variety of Jewish texts and Israeli issues and, more often than not, agreeing it is OK to disagree.
“Any attempt to represent this experience is hard because 26 different people went on it starting in 26 different places and we all ended up in 26 different places,” she said. “The way I tell it is my personal and individual experience of it. I loved it and I feel like I learned a lot, but I want people to realize that what I say about Bronfman is hardly the absolute truth. … We all have different interpretations of it.”
One thing she learned about the world and how she sees it is that no matter how much she’s seen and done, her ideas “are still narrow and still need to be broadened by different perspectives.”
Following a competitive application process, this year’s Bronfman Fellows came from 12 states across the United States and Canada. They represent diverse Jewish backgrounds, including Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, unaffiliated and non-denominational.
“We have the privilege of working with young participants who are already leading in their communities. We, in turn, instill in them a love for learning Jewish texts, a commitment to pluralism, and a sense of social and Jewish responsibility,” said Rabbi Mishael Zion, co-director and director of education of The Bronfman Fellowship.
Bronfman’s commitment to pluralism is probably one reason Jessi was chosen from among more than 200 applicants, and the same reason she thought she probably wouldn’t be accepted, or even be an appropriate fit for the summer program.
Jessi said that before she went to Bronfman, she didn’t have much interest in exploring her Jewish identity; but after a summer spent analyzing Jewish texts and ways of Jewish life, she has realized the importance of Judaism in her world. She began to get an inkling that the program would be a good fit during her interview with Rabbi Zion.
“He asked me to analyze a story told by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov about Shabbat. I loved that I was being asked to analyze a story on the spot. I really like literary analysis. I came up with an interpretation that he really liked and we had a great conversation about that and a number of other things,” Jessi said.
During the virtual orientation she had the feeling she would really like the program when she was given some texts from Pirkei Avot including, “Make for yourself a teacher, acquire for yourself a friend,” by Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Perachya.
“We had a very long, intense debate about what it means to make for yourself a teacher, acquire for yourself a friend. People were brilliant and had all these interesting ideas. It was a fascinating discussion and this is a group unlike anything I’ve been a part of before. These kids are really smart and really want to engage with texts and really want to engage with big philosophical questions,” Jessi explained.
Rabbi Zion noted that the organized Jewish community is often very centered around the large communities on the East and West Coast, but in Bronfman’s recruitment for this year’s fellowship they discovered some of the most creative young thinkers came from the Midwest.
“Jessi was an inspiring fellow. She is a gifted writer, a thoughtful presence and someone who was especially keen to understand the relationship between Israel and America. We are excited to see where Jessi will take her talents — and the questions she began asking at Bronfman — to the next stage, and to the benefit of the Jewish future,” Rabbi Zion said.
The diversity among the teens in the group, and her professors, were two of the things she enjoyed most about the experience.
“A lot of learning about these issues consisted of just talking to one another. They had people from very diverse backgrounds. We had two people from Teaneck, New Jersey, which is a very, very observant Orthodox Jewish community where everyone practices essentially the same kind of Judaism,” Jessi said.
Several teens on the program considered themselves atheists.
“We explored the possibilities of how one can be Jewish and consider himself or herself to be an atheist. I didn’t think it was possible, but it apparently is,” Jessi said. “I heard a lot about what it means to feel a connection to the Jewish community without necessarily feeling a connection with God. It was very interesting.”
She said she came home from the experience changed in a number of ways.
“I realized that I actually really cared about Israel and it’s not just an idea that I inherited from my parents,” she said, referring to the fact that her parents are active supporters of Israel and Israeli causes and have spent many summers living in Israel.
During the Bronfman program, she began forming her own opinion of Israel separate from what she has experienced with her family.
“When I got there this time I did feel a connection to Israel and I didn’t even quite realize the strength and reality of that connection before,” Jessi said.
She also believes she’s become more spiritually connected with Judaism, but that may not change how she practices the religion.
“I’m a lot more interested in learning about Jewish topics than I was and I’ve discovered that there are some really great Jewish philosophers like Rabbi Nachman and Rashi who I am actually really interested in learning about and who I would not have picked to study before I went on this program.
“It means I certainly know a lot more about Judaism then I did and I certainly feel a deeper connection with certain aspects of the actual religion itself then I did. It doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m going to start going to synagogue every Saturday morning or even most Saturday mornings. If there’s one thing that I take away from Bronfman it’s that it’s OK to be confused. It’s OK to be a little bit hypocritical or contradictory in terms of your practices. It’s OK to do whatever feels right to you and I think I’m going to do that.”