ILLUMINATE OUR LEARNING
Keep FJC the Leading Egalitarian Campus of Jewish Life and Learning in Jerusalem
Help us to Illuminate Our Learning
To honor both the Festival of Lights and the hum of activity at FJC, we call our annual winter fundraising campaign Illuminate Our Learning. With both a regular slate of classes and programs as well as new experiences on the horizon, we are blazing a path from the heart of Jerusalem all the way around the world.
Your support today will help ensure that FJC is able to fulfill its central purpose: to power an inspirational and stimulating hub in the heart of Jerusalem where all are welcome to learn, pray, and explore.
Support Us
Checks payable to:
US ($)
America Gives
P.O. Box 3263, Washington, DC, 20010
Israel (NIS)
United Synagogues of America, 8 Agron Street, P.O. Box 7456. Jerusalem, Israel 94265
Canada (CAD)
Canada Charity Partners
5785 Smart Ave., Cote St Luc, Quebec, H4W2M8
UK (Pounds)
UK Gives
483 Green Lanes, London, England, N134BS
Write ‘580153047’ and your gift designation – Illuminate Our Learning – in the memo section.
*All donations to the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center are tax-deductible.
In 2021 we are celebrating our Re-Opening after our 18-month shut-down due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Our decision to re-open has been an important decision for many FJC Community Members. From CY Students to our Synagogue’s congregation members, FJC’s re-opening has been an important decision for hundreds of people.
Alexandra Rosenbaum
Alexandra Rosenbaum is a Rabbinical Student at the CY
Two years ago, I started on my Conservative Yeshiva journey. I came in a state of spiritual crisis, and l left on a spiritual high. There were so many special pieces to this puzzle – the brilliance and variety of teachers, the way the faculty invested in the students and community as a whole, the coming together of Jewish learners, leaders, and teachers from all walks of life, and the prioritization of chevruta learning. The CY gave me a community built on mutual-love, deep learning for its own sake, and religious commitment, the likes of which I had never experienced in quite the same way.
Due to personal circumstances, I ended my time at the CY a semester early, and I was not ready to leave when it came time to go home. My plan was to return to the CY with my fiancé at the start of the next school year, but COVID swept in and upended the world, my plans with it.
The CY opened its doors this year, and I’ve been able to pick up where I left off. To immerse myself in Torah Lishma. To explore Jewish prayer on a personal and communal level. To make wonderful new friends. To nourish and deepen my relationship with Israel in all its complexity.
Avrum Burg
Avrum Burg is a member of the Shabbat BaBoker davening community and participated in FJC’s High Holiday Prayer Services in 2021
I will say that the very event of this year’s High Holidays – Yamim ha-Noraim – was unique in two ways. In the midst of COVID everyone was concerned and wondered what will be, what the future of life and death would be, [so] it was a good idea to hold prayer services together rather than be alone and isolated.
First it was good to be open and celebrate in person. The second was that there were various communities all praying together. It was a gathering of spiritual power. Hundreds of people in kol nidre, shaharit, musaf – all together. It was so powerful to come together and pray with the power of one.
I am an occasional visitor of FJC, but pray with “Shabbat BaBoker” – but there was a feeling of excitement of being together for the Yamim ha-Noraim. When I saw people walking down the street in their small groups and couples I felt that the inner-sanctity of the Beit Knesset was with them as they were on the street. And this was beautiful.
Photo by Andrea Krogmann
Chaim Whitney
Chaim Whitney is a Lishma Fellow at the CY
I came to Judaism later in life than most. I spent the last 20 years of my professional life working in various positions with the US Government. While I had wanted to convert to Judaism for years, only after the initial response to the Covid pandemic subsided did I have the time to devote to studying and working with a rabbi to begin the process. While it’s possible to chavruta over Zoom, “attend” shul over zoom, and even participate in a Purim celebration over Zoom, it’s not possible to truly experience the richness of Jewish life over Zoom. In discussing ways to immerse myself in Jewish living with my rabbi, he suggested I consider the Conservative Yeshiva (CY) at the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center (FJC). He had attended the CY during his rabbinical studies, and had a lot of praise for both its faculty and its community life.
I arrived in Israel, after far too many PCR tests and one very stressful visit to the Israeli embassy in Berlin to pick up my visa, right before Rosh Hashanah. From the moment I arrived at the CY I have felt welcomed into the community. I could certainly write a lot about the quality of Jewish education I am receiving, which is top notch. What I’d like to focus on though is the importance of the kehila at the CY in my learning and living. We’re a diverse bunch: lishma fellows, rabbinical students from at least five rabbinical schools (representing at least three of the major movements of diaspora Jewry), and Nativers. The underlying love of Torah and tefillah sets the foundations of our community. Without being able to be physically present with others learning and living in Jerusalem I would be missing out on so many subtle and profound moments as I build my own Jewish practices.
I am incredibly thankful to have the opportunity to be here in person and experience the richness of Jewish life and learning.
Ilana Kurshan
Ilana Kurshan teaches Talmud at the CY. She is the author of If All the Seas Were Ink and Why is This Night Different From All Other Nights?, as well as a regular contributor to FJC’s weekly Parashat HaShavua blog, Torah Sparks!
“Alas! How lonely sits the city, once great with people” (Lamentations 1:1). Alas! How lonely sat the Beit Midrash, once great with people. Our classrooms were deserted, our building’s gates shuttered, our holy books thick with dust. Gone from the Conservative Yeshiva were all who were her glory. Her rabbis and teachers were like deer that found no pasture. Her students spread out their hands, with none to comfort them. Behold, how forlorn we had become!
“When God brought back those that returned to Zion, we were like dreamers” (Psalms 126:1). The return of teachers and students to the Conservative Yeshiva Beit Midrash feels like a dream come true. Our mouths fill with laughter, our lips with words of Torah. Students stream back to class like watercourses in the Negev. Teachers who sowed alone on Zoom now reap together with their students at shtenders set up in the outdoor amphitheater. We come to the Beit Midrash in joy, bearing our sacred texts.
