JSI Careers Fellowship
An 8-week cohort-based fellowship for Jews who want to use their careers to do as much good as possible, grounded in evidence and Jewish values.
You know you want your career to count. The question is where it counts most. You'll spend around 80,000 hours working over your lifetime, which makes your career one of the most significant resources you have for improving the world.
Our tradition (echoed by modern psychology) teaches that the work we choose shapes the kind of people we become and can be a deep source of meaning. And there's no shortage of problems worth working on, from global health to emerging technology, or ways to spend a working life, so it's difficult to know where your own skills and energy could do the most good.
Given my beliefs, skills, and circumstances, how can I make the biggest social impact with my career?
It’s a hard question, and not one to think through alone. For centuries, Jews have studied in chevruta: with a partner, out loud, arguing ideas into focus. The JSI Careers Fellowship points that form at this modern question.
You’ll meet weekly with a small cohort of peers and an experienced facilitator. On your own, you’ll read and work through exercises; together, you’ll wrestle with them.
Alongside foundational Jewish sources on obligation and priority, you’ll learn practical tactics for accelerating your career and frameworks for weighing where a person can actually move the needle. Then you’ll apply what you’ve learned to issues ranging from poverty to animal welfare to major global risks like climate change, war, and pandemics.
Early in your career, weighing your options.
Some experience under your belt, rethinking your direction.
Ready to use the position you've built for greater impact.
At any stage, the fellowship is most valuable when a real choice is directly in front of you: finishing a degree, on the job market, weighing graduate school, or seriously considering a change. If you're near a decision, the eight weeks give you something concrete to act on.
You don't need a particular level of observance. Fellows come from across the spectrum, religious and secular. You also don't need a specific professional background or prior knowledge.
What matters more is the qualities you bring: that you want your work to help others, that you're curious and capable (or driven to build the skills), and that you're willing to follow the evidence about how to do the most good, even when it points somewhere you didn't expect. It helps to be ready to think out loud alongside others and be disagreed with.
Not sure you're a fit? Apply anyway and we'll help you figure it out!
[The fellowship] opened me up to new ideas of charity and impact.
The fellowship encouraged me to found a startup and strive to make big changes in the world through earning to give and asking the most of myself.
I am considering now ... a career change plan which will have more impact rather than just finding a job and considering whether to work with people who share similar values and mindset.
Sam Roth is the executive director of the Jewish Social Impact Network. Before coming to JSI, he earned a master’s in public policy from the University of Chicago and worked in political analytics as a researcher studying the effectiveness of campaign tactics. A JSI fellowship is what catalyzed his own transition from that field to impact-focused career-building, and helping others think through the same process is now his favorite part of the job. Sam credits his passion for Jewish learning to his day school education and involvement at the University of Chicago Hillel, including a summer in the Milgrom Social Justice Fellowship.
You’ll meet virtually with a small cohort of 6–8 fellows once a week for eight weeks. Each week involves roughly two hours of reading and exercises, plus a 90-minute discussion-and-activities session. The fellowship is free to join.
No. The fellowship doesn't hand you the "right" answers. It gives you a way to reason about impact and lets you reach your own conclusions.
About two hours of reading and exercises a week, plus a 90-minute group session. It's built to fit around full-time work or study, and we’ll work to place you in a cohort that best fits your schedule.
Not on its own. The fellowship helps you work out where you want your career to go and how to take the next step toward it, and it can connect you with people and resources that often help along the way. But it's built for thinking clearly about direction, not for placing you in a role, so you’ll still need to do the applying and interviewing.
We will aim for cohorts to begin meeting as soon as possible after the application deadline, likely mid-August. September sessions will be scheduled around the High Holidays as needed.
No. Fellows range from deeply observant to secular, from Jewishly engaged to barely connected. The Jewish sources are a lens for thinking, open to anyone, not a test you have to pass.
It happens. Materials are shared in advance so you can catch yourself up if you need to miss a session. That said, much of your learning comes from the chevruta format and being fully present benefits others as well, so please try to attend all of the sessions.
Spots are limited: cohorts stay small on purpose, six to eight people, to ensure a high-quality conversation.
Not sure it’s the right fit, or want to explore other ways to get involved first? Get in touch or follow our work via our newsletter.
A community of Jews committed to making a difference.
