Educational Leadership Program

Applications are due September 24. A committee drawn from the Mandel Institute’s faculty, staff, advisors, and graduates reviews all applications and selects a group of finalists to move forward in the admissions process. Finalists are asked to secure a reference from their supervisor (including time release for full participation) and are invited to interview in person at our Brookline, MA office.

Interviews will be held December 17-21, 2026 (excluding Shabbat). We aim to notify finalists and those not advancing by November 6, 2026, and to share final admissions decisions by December 24. Finalists will be assessed in relation to the following criteria:

• Demonstrated capacity for educational leadership.
• Emotional intelligence, curiosity, intellect, and reflectiveness.
• Interest in and capacity for engaging with big ideas about the purposes and practice of Jewish education.
• Openness to and capacity for learning from settings, educational approaches, and perspectives quite different from their own.
• Enthusiasm and capacity for forging connections within the wider Jewish educational ecosystem and thinking broadly about the field.

With these criteria in mind, the admissions committee seeks to create a cohort that represents the diversity of the Jewish community.

The program’s curriculum is organized around three stands:

Educational Ideas and Practice

This strand is premised on our belief that learners, teachers, and organizations as a whole benefit when educational leaders are deeply intentional in their approach to Jewish education—when they take the time to clarify their educational purposes and the ways they will bring those purposes to life. We also believe that engagement with a diversity of educational approaches, including those quite different from one’s own, is a powerful lever for developing, refining, or reimagining approaches to Jewish education. Thus, the heart of this strand is engagement with and analysis of rich, varied educational visions. Fellows share their educational visions with each other, and encounter others through site visits, educational experiences, videos, and artifacts. Fellows deepen their understanding of the visions they encounter and bring their insights to bear on their own evolving educational thinking.

Educational Ecosystem

This strand is premised on our belief in the importance of broad-thinking educational leaders who attend to the quality of Jewish education in their own organizations, but who also seek to understand and strengthen the field as a whole. To that end, the Educational Ecosystem strand includes learning about patterns and trends in North American Jewish communities, the Jewish educational institutional landscape, and the evolving history of Jewish education in North America. Through analysis of the ecosystem, fellows will engage in generative conversations about field-wide challenges and opportunities, such as the tension between “education” and “engagement,” the educator pipeline, the potential for new structures for Jewish education, opportunities for cross-setting collaboration, and more.

Reflective Leadership

This strand is premised on our belief that leaders are more effective when they are able to respond to challenges with wisdom and discernment, and to initiate and manage change processes with clarity, purpose, and care. Through the lens of tikkun middot (cultivating innate character traits), fellows will develop these capacities as they explore who they are as leaders and individuals, and how they aspire to grow. In addition, fellows will participate in virtual short courses on leadership between seminars. Toward the conclusion of the program, fellows will synthesize their learning of all three strands into a vision for their future leadership.

Torah study is also an important component of the program. We engage in Torah learning both for its own sake, and in the context of the three curricular strands. (Translations are always provided and the learning is accessible to both more experienced and less experienced learners).

The Israel seminar is premised on the belief that leaders in Jewish education should be familiar with contemporary Israeli society in all its complexity. Thus, the Israel seminar explores the diversity of Israeli society through visits to schools and educational programs. A typical seminar includes visits to secular, Haredi, Arab, and national religious schools, along with other educational models, such as youth villages. These site visits include classroom observations, conversations with school leadership and teachers, and conversations with students.

The visits also give fellows the opportunity to encounter a range of educational visions and models of leadership. Fellows also meet and exchange ideas with their counterparts in the Mandel School for Educational Leadership in Israel.

After the second seminar, each fellow is matched with an advisor based on the fellow’s interests and the advisor’s areas of expertise. Advisors are experienced leaders in the field, as well as skillful mentors. For the remainder of the program, fellows meet monthly with their advisors, who can serve as thought partners as fellows navigate leadership challenges or career trajectory decisions, and support fellows in their educational thinking and leadership growth.

Fellows must commit to attending all four seminars in their entirety. Between seminars, fellows continue their learning through virtual courses, peer consultations, meetings with an advisor, and assignments. The typical time commitment for online sessions between seminars is 4-6 hours per month.

Sponsoring organizations must approve release time for fellows to join the program’s four seminars.

The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation covers travel and program expenses, except for meals during travel. Sponsoring organizations provide release time for participation in the seminars.

No, you do not have to be Jewish to apply for the program. Any person who has at least six years of professional experience in the field of Jewish education and is currently employed by a Jewish nonprofit organization in the United States or Canada is invited to apply for the program.

If you applied in the past, you are welcome to apply again. We do not provide feedback concerning previous admissions rounds, as all deliberations by admissions committees are confidential. A new admissions committee is created for every Educational Leadership Program cohort. Each admissions committee deliberates independently on every application, so repeat applications are neither advantaged nor disadvantaged.

Fellows who are nursing are offered Milk Stork to help them ship home their pumped milk home. This applies to seminars in the United States. Fellows will be given a private space to pump when needed. Fellows who have a newborn under 1 year old may bring their baby with them to the seminar regardless of location. Fellows are encouraged to bring a family member or other caregiver to take care of the newborn during the seminar. MINL will cover the cost of the flight to bring the caregiver, and the caregiver and infant will be invited to meals when no programming occurs.  If a fellow does not have a caregiver to bring to the seminar and must bring their baby, the fellow should find local childcare where the seminar takes place and is fully responsible for managing the childcare provider. MINL will reimburse the fellow up to $200 for each day of the seminar for the cost of childcare.

For finalists who are traveling to Boston for admissions interviews, Milk Stork is offered to ship pumped milk home. Finalists will be given a private space to pump when needed. If a finalist needs to bring an infant with them, the finalist will be responsible for ensuring childcare during their interview day.

Finalists who are unable to travel due to pregnancy or care of an infant will be offered the option of participating virtually.