Yehuda Bernstein, Mijal Bitton, Simcha Gross and Shlomo Zuckier Awarded Prestigious Fellowship Four Yeshiva University alumni are the recipients of prestigious fellowships awarded to outstanding future Jewish professionals. Yehuda Bernstein, Mijal Bitton, Simcha Gross and Shlomo Zuckier have all been selected as Wexner Graduate Fellows for their past achievements and promise as future Jewish leaders.

Each year, 20 exceptional people entering graduate school are selected from a pool of hundreds of applicants who aspire to careers in the Cantorate, Jewish Education, Jewish Professional Leadership, Jewish Studies and the Rabbinate. Alumni of Yeshiva University’s undergraduate programs have become mainstays in Wexner cohorts. “Yeshiva University and Stern College graduates are significantly represented in each of our fellowship classes,” said Or Mars, director of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship/Davidson Scholars Program. “Applicants from these schools come to us with very impressive leadership experiences on campus and in internships. They all display a deep commitment to devote their many talents to the betterment of the Jewish people.” As participants of the four-year leadership program, the four YU alumni will be awarded annual stipends for a two-year term with the possibility to renew for a third year. They will also participate in biannual conferences that focus on Jewish leadership training.

Bernstein ’10YC, ’11BR and Gross ’10YC, ’11BR will be pursuing doctoral degrees in Jewish Studies. Bernstein, who will commence his studies of Modern Jewish History at NYU in the fall, was an active student leader as a senior editor of The Commentator and a diligent student in the Jewish Studies department. “At Yeshiva, I was able to learn about Jewish history and texts at the most rigorous academic levels. My experiences in the Yeshiva University classroom and the relationships I struck with its professors, shaped my decision to pursue a doctorate in Jewish Studies,” said Bernstein. Gross, who is bound for Yale University to study Ancient Judaism, founded YU’s Tanakh Yom Iyun program as well as the student-run TEIQU club. In 2009, he was included in The Jewish Week’s 36 Under 36 series.

Newly minted Wexner Fellow and Davidson Scholar Bitton ’11S, recently graduated from the S. Daniel Abraham Honors Program at Stern College for Women and will begin a dual M.A. program in Jewish Education and Jewish Studies at NYU. She praised YU for enabling her to develop her leadership skills. “In particular, I am very grateful to YU’s Center for the Jewish Future for affording me the opportunity to immerse myself in Experiential Jewish Education and of working in conjunction with the greater Jewish community,” said Bitton. "The Yeshiva community encouraged me to act on my passion to serve the Jewish people."

A former editor of Kol Hamevaser, Zuckier ’11YC, ’11BR is a graduate of the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Honors Program at Yeshiva College and is completing his coursework toward an MA from YU’s Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies. He will begin formal studies at YU-affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) this fall. Zuckier is confident that his continued studies at YU and involvement with the Wexner Foundation will build on the trajectory he established for himself at Yeshiva. “The last seven years, which I have split between Yeshivat Har Etzion and Yeshiva College, have engendered in me a concern and sense of responsibility for the Jewish people,” said Zuckier. “The fellowship offers the opportunity to focus on leadership skills while cultivating the tools necessary for ideal service to the Jewish people.”