The Kol Koleinu Feminist Fellowship is a distinctive opportunity for young Jewish feminists (rising 9th through 12th graders) to build intergenerational and peer-to-peer relationships, to learn how to effectively speak their minds and apply the building blocks of activism, Judaism, and Feminism to create change in their community.
This year-long fellowship invites young Jewish women, trans teens, and non-binary teens to learn how to apply a Jewish feminist lens to the world, ask powerful questions, deepen their knowledge about social change, and amplify their voices to share their beliefs and express a call to action. Finally, fellows hone their skills by creating a tangible and local passion project.
During the year, fellows will meet monthly through virtual cohort meetings where they learn together in a supportive Jewish feminist community. Also online, fellows will meet their assigned mentors and work on their passion projects. We will also get together twice in-person, at the start of the program year and at the end, to build community, learn together and celebrate ourselves.
Ninth graders will be involved in all communal learning and gatherings, but instead of a local passion project, they will raise their voices on their March cohort call. Utilizing the building blocks they learn throughout the year and through the mentorship of a teen leader, they will prepare a teaching and facilitate a discussion on a topic on which they are passionate. We understand that the social and academic transition into high school can be new and challenging and therefore call on our 9th graders to commit to a smaller opportunity to raise their voice. There are limited spots for 9th graders in our program.
Learn More
Applications for the 2026-27 Kol Koleinu cohort will open on March 2, 2026.
Sign up to get notified when applications reopen, nominate a teen who may be interested, or read more about the application process:
“This program gave me the opportunity to meet so many amazing young people and showed me how my perspectives on Judaism and feminism can help me make the world a better place.”
– Kol Koleinu alum
Program Details
Throughout the Kol Koleinu fellowship, participants will teach, learn, connect, and create. The fellowship experience includes:
1. Immersive Community Building
Regional cohorts will meet each month online with your cohort leader, while Teen Leaders (2nd year fellows), and Senior Teen Leaders (3rd year fellows) will lead an additional monthly community-building call.
In the fall, you will participate in a 3-day in-person retreat with your regional cohort. At the retreat, we will build community, explore Jewish, feminist and activist building blocks together, and dive deep into the concept of your change-making passion project.
In the spring, we will close the program at a 3-day in-person full program retreat in the Midwest where we will celebrate the successes of the year and reflect on what we’ll take with us.
2. Creating a locally-based Passion Project
Kol Koleinu fellows will practice their activism skills by creating a changemaking passion project that will bring their learning to their local community.
Fellows will work in pairs with a hand-selected mentor who will guide and support the development of their changemaking project as well supporting the fellows’ own growth as leaders and activists in their communities.
Through the passion project process, fellows will experience the power of working with others, learn successful changemaking skills, and gain valuable experience in the various kinds of leadership necessary for different phases of a campaign or project.
Examples of past projects: Create space for LGBTQ+ middle schoolers to gather at synagogue, intergenerational gathering to sew period products for donation, STEM for women panel at school, work with school administration to update gendered retreat housing policy, invite a survivor to school to support Holocaust education.
Additional opportunity:
Kol Koleinu Teen Leader Program (for Fellows interested in returning for additional years)
Teen Leaders have ownership and responsibility for community-building in their cohort. This includes guiding a subset of their cohort (a mishpacha, or “family” in Hebrew), opportunities to teach a piece of monthly gatherings, convene once a month cohort bonding evenings, develop and lead parts of the in-person retreats, and more.*
*Leadership looks different for everyone: some folks are comfortable being forward-facing, and others prefer a behind-the-scenes role. Together with the Kol Koleinu Director, the other Teen Leaders and your cohort leader, you will practice your leadership preference, which may change over the course of the year.
Teen Leaders will develop core skills by facilitating parts of monthly cohort call, learning from experts in the field of feminism, activism and Judaism, and taking on leadership roles throughout the year. And, of course, they will be proud to put this program on their college applications and resumes.
Teen Leaders are not expected to create a Passion Project, but instead will support their mishpacha throughout the process. They will support fellows as they explore their project, decide on the type of project they will create, and work with their mentor to launch their project.
As a Teen Leader, you will be responsible for building community in your regional cohort, which is no small task! This is an opportunity for you to build your leadership & activism skills by learning from field experts, support first year fellows, and help enhance the Kol Koleinu experience for all participants. You will set an example of attendance and participation, be a cheerleader for your cohort, and support your cohort leader. You may also be asked to volunteer for Moving Traditions through webinars, interviews, info sessions, and more. The expected time commitment is approximately 7 hours per month. Teen Leaders will have the opportunity to apply to be a Senior Teen Leader in their final year of the program.
“My Kol Koleinu project really gave me the skills and confidence to continue my activism work. Right now, I am in the midst of working on a presentation on transgender inclusion in feminist spaces for my college, and I find myself building off the things I learned from my time [in Kol Koleinu].”
– Kol Koleinu alum
Background
Kol Koleinu: All Our Voices (pronounced like “coal coal-ay-nu”)
The name Kol Koleinu was created as way to signal a feminism that is gender inclusive and a vision of a community that truly elevates and celebrates all voices. In many Jewish communities in the past, and in some still today, the voices of women and sexual and gender minorities have been quieted, silenced and/or sexualized.
This program envisions a community where all voices are heard and taken seriously, and where teens work together or side by side to make change in our lives and in the world.
Teens from all streams of Judaism are welcome and encouraged to participate.
Kol Koleinu Fellows
Meet our current Kol Koleinu fellows from around the country.
Become a Kol Koleinu Mentor
Make a difference in the life of a teen feminist.
Kol Koleinu Projects
Check out the incredible social change projects that our fellows are working on.
Funding Partners
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Your gift to Moving Traditions emboldens Jewish youth to thrive through the pursuit of personal wellbeing (shleimut), caring relationships (hesed), and a Jewish and feminist vision of equity and justice (tzedek).