May 12, 2006 -- Four Yeshiva University students have been awarded Wexner Graduate Fellowships for Fall 2006. The prestigious fellowship provides $20,000 a year for up to three years of graduate training. Yeshiva College graduating senior Efrayim Unterman of Bergenfield, N.J., will pursue rabbinic ordination at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), an affiliate of Yeshiva University (YU), in the fall, as will Jordan Rosenberg, a Pittsburgh native, graduate of University of Pennsylvania, and a teacher at Yeshiva University High School for Boys in Manhattan. Stern alumna Hindy Poupko, a 2005-2006 Presidential Fellow at YU’s Center for the Jewish Future, will attend the dual program in Nonprofit Management and Judaic Studies at New York University. Ms. Poupko has roots in Cincinnati and Montreal. Roanoke, Virginia native Adena Kaplan, an NYU graduate and a program specialist at the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, will attend YU’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work. The Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program was established by Leslie and Abigail Wexner to encourage promising candidates to meet the challenges of professional Jewish leadership in the North American Jewish community. Wexner Graduate Fellowships are awarded to 20 outstanding individuals to allow them to seek graduate training for careers in Jewish education, Jewish communal leadership, the rabbinate, the cantorate and Jewish studies. “At Wurzweiler, I felt the sense that everyone I spoke to was saying ‘We think you could really contribute and be an important part of our community.’” Ms. Kaplan said about her decision to attend YU’s graduate school of social work. “The fellowship and RIETS are a natural way to deepen my own knowledge and help me become a better Jewish educator,” said Mr. Rosenberg, who hopes to focus on curriculum development for both formal and informal Jewish education, such as outdoor programming. All four students have also been designated as Davidson Scholars. William and Karen Davidson established an annual cohort of 10 Davidson Scholars in the career areas of Jewish education and Jewish communal leadership as part of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship.