The Ralph I. Goldman Fellowship in International Jewish Communal Service Celebrates Its "Chai" Year

When the first recipient of the Ralph I. Goldman Fellowship in International Jewish Communal Service set off in 1987 for a year of work-study in JDC's global offices, she was keenly aware that it would be the opportunity of a lifetime. Yet JDC knew it had struck upon something that would ripple throughout the Jewish world well beyond that individual experience.

This year, as JDC commemorates its 90th anniversary as well as the 90th birthday of its honorary executive vice-president, Ralph Goldman, also commemorated is the "chai" year of the fellowship that bears his name. Since it bestowed its initial award, the Goldman Fellowship has become a symbol of Ralph's more than three-decade career as a trailblazer in the JDC's life-saving work and his lifetime of commitment to world Jewry that have set the bar for Jewish communal professionals.

Goldman Fellows are a diverse cadre of young men and women who have hailed from the United States, Canada, Israel and Europe, in careers ranging from medicine to academia to communal service. But they have all been drawn to the unique opportunity to follow in Ralph's footsteps, and to the rare privilege of an insider's perspective on key issues facing JDC and world Jewish communities that only the Fellowship provides.

Over the course of its first eighteen years, the Goldman Fellowship has grown in prestige by remaining true to these original principles, and to its search for Fellows with demonstrated intellect, personal warmth, a pluralistic outlook, and proven commitment to the Jewish community. They, in turn, have brought these abilities to successful overseas placements that have literally spanned the globe – from Havana to Paris, Buenos Aires to Bucharest, Casablanca to St. Petersburg, and Bishkek to Mumbai.

"We are looking for a star that will shine beyond the Fellowship year," declares JDC Board member Billie Gold, chairman of the Goldman Fellowship Committee. As the expanding cadre of former Fellows demonstrates, that goal has been more than fulfilled.

Alumni have coalesced into a positive force for growth and change, becoming "movers and shakers in the Jewish community," offers JDC Assistant Executive Vice-President Linda L. They begin their year linked by a commitment to strengthen world Jewry, but complete the experience with a spiritual connection to the work of the JDC that influences their future dedication to Jewish life.

With the 18th Fellow now at work overseas and the 19th set to begin in the fall, JDC looks back with pride on this first era of the Goldman Fellowship and ahead with great anticipation to the next. The Fellowship offers ongoing promise that the leaders of today will leave a strong legacy to the Jewish communities of the future, in the spirit of Ralph's long career and JDC's historic commitment to world Jewry.

"Their real contribution to the Jewish people can be measured only fifty years from now," offers Ralph Goldman himself. "They are the ones who will affect Jewish life in the future."