Next fall, one outstanding HC rabbinical student will be the first Carpenter Fellow, receiving full tuition for all five years of study. The new fellowship, to be awarded on the basis of merit and need, is a major milestone in efforts to increase the Rabbinical School’s scholarship pool.

The $100,000 grant for a full, five-year scholarship was awarded in July by the Philadelphia-based E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, a foundation that primarily supports graduate theological education as well as public charities and hospice care.

“Our students are pioneers. They come to us because they share our vision for change in North American Jewish life,” says Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, Dean of the Rabbinical School. “We encourage them to develop new visions of the rabbinate, to reach out to underserved populations, yet the prospect of major debt can force graduates into only the safest, most conventional positions.

“We are especially grateful to the Carpenter Foundation for this fellowship, which will provide full financial support and position an outstanding student to think more creatively about his or her rabbinate.”

Rabbi Cohen Anisfeld says the Rabbinical School is seeking funders for additional scholarships. While HC has received other generous fellowships for students, this is the first fellowship to cover in full one student’s education.

The Carpenter Foundation first showed support for the College by funding the Rabbinical School’s Spiritual Direction Program, directed by Rabbi Carol Glass, in 2004. They continue to support the program with a generous annual gift.

“The Carpenter Foundation sees the need for high quality spiritual leaders in the world—no matter the denomination—and they take that need really seriously,” says Ellen Bernstein, HC Grants Consultant. “They understand what Hebrew College is trying to do.”

For more information about the Carpenter Foundation Fellowship, contact Sharon Cohen Anisfeld at 617-559-8634 or sanisfeld@hebrewcollege.edu.

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