The Meyer-Gottesman Kol Koleinu Teen 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 build their activism toolbox 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 Capstone project.
During the year, Fellows will meet monthly through virtual cohort meetings where participants learn from and teach one another in a supportive Jewish feminist community. Also online, Fellows will meet their Capstone mentors and work on Capstone 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.
Join us next year!
Applications for the 2025-26 cycle will open on March 17, 2025. Sign up to get notified when applications open or learn 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. Peer-Teaching: Raise Your Voice
One of the wonderful parts of constructing a Jewish feminist community is to create a space for everyone to be heard. Your peer-facilitation, known as Raise your Voice, will help you sharpen your skills of public speaking, whether you lead an ice breaker or another community building opportunity online or at the retreats. We understand that it’s not always easy to learn on zoom, and it’s beautiful to grow your skills in different modalities. You will have the support of your Teen Leader to create your Raise your Voice.
2. Immersive Community Building
Regional cohorts will meet each month online with your cohort leader and Teen Leaders (2nd 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 tools together, and dive deep into change-making Capstone project types and topics.
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 talk about what we’ll take with us.
3. Creating a locally-based Capstone project
Kol Koleinu fellows will practice their activism skills by creating a changemaking Capstone project that will bring their learning, passions, and leadership 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 Capstone 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: Organizing a STEM for women group in school, creating art classes for children of immigrants while parents are in ESL class, joining an already established club to make change, creating a feminist zine, and creating a toolkit for teachers to support LGBTQ+ students.
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 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 learning from experts in the field of feminism and activism and taking on leadership roles in their cohort. 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 Capstone project, but instead will support their mishpacha throughout the Capstone process. They will support fellows as they explore their passion 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.
“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).