“My years at the Jerusalem Fellows were of paramount importance.”

Daniel Fainstein,
Graduate of Cohort 2, Mandel Jerusalem Fellows
Dean of the Universidad Hebraica, Mexico

Daniel Fainstein is Dean of the Universidad Hebraica, the only Jewish College in Latin America, providing B. Ed., B.A. and M.A. programs in Jewish Studies and Education.

His challenge in Latin America, like that of many others in different Jewish communities, is to help overcome the shortage of qualified, updated and motivated Jewish educators.

“We are working in new paradigms to attract young talented woman and men to the field of Jewish education and to develop an effective in-service program that provides the professional skills and the attitudinal approaches required to educate our youngsters,” says Fainstein.

Fainstein was a member of the second cohort of the Mandel Jerusalem Fellows, but still remembers his first impressions: “My preliminary interview in Jerusalem with Professors Rotenstreich, Fox z”l, Rosenak and Zohar was a close meeting with some of the great giants in their fields and I was trembling.”

He describes his years at the Jerusalem Fellows as being of paramount importance:
“I was at the beginning of my professional career, says Fainstein. “I learned a lot in all areas, had wonderful teachers, time for serious thinking without the pressures of the daily work in the “field” and the opportunity to develop personal and professional contacts that were and still are very enhancing and useful in my life.”