Maimonides Fund Launches Scholar in Residence Program To Meet This Unique Moment in Jewish Life 

Rabbi David Wolpe and Dr. Mijal Bitton will initiate new projects to foster Jewish life and community post October 7 

August 26, 2024 — Maimonides Fund announced today that Rabbi David Wolpe and Dr. Mijal Bitton will become its inaugural Scholars in Residence, commencing in September 2024. 

Both Scholars are expanding their previous roles with Maimonides Fund – Rabbi Wolpe as Senior Advisor on Viewpoint Diversity Initiatives and Dr. Bitton as a Maimonides Fund Fellow – and will be undertaking major research and development projects to understand and meet this unique moment in Jewish life. 

“The changes wrought by the tragic events of October 7^th and beyond will be with us for generations,” said Mark Charendoff, President of Maimonides Fund. “We must double down on our ongoing work with a new sense of urgency, and we also need to reexamine what it means to be Jewish in the world today. Wise, creative, and inspirational leaders like Rabbi Wolpe and Dr. Bitton can help us make sense of our moment and our efforts to strengthen and sustain Jewish life into the future.” 

Rabbi Wolpe is the Max Webb Emeritus Rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles and is the inaugural rabbinic fellow at the ADL. As Scholar in Residence, he will be developing a new vision of non-Orthodox Judaism that will equip rabbis, educators, and other cadres of Jewish leaders with the tools they need to bring more effective Jewish practices and ideas to their communities. Rabbi Wolpe has already begun this work by piloting a series of sermon workshops in advance of the High Holidays that bring him in dialogue with a unique roster of speakers to examine different areas of transformation in Jewish life and in Israel after October 7th.  

Dr. Bitton is the spiritual leader of the Downtown Minyan, a Visiting Researcher at NYU Wagner, and a former Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute. She will be focusing her work as Scholar in Residence on understanding and capitalizing on the awakening of spiritual, intellectual, and communal hunger among so many American Jews since October 7^th, especially young adults and parents. She will work to better understand the new challenges and opportunities that exist for those seeking access to rich, sophisticated and accessible Jewish life and learning.  

By joining Maimonides Fund as Scholars in Residence, both Rabbi Wolpe and Dr. Bitton will be able to build upon the Fund’s deep and varied relationships with organizations already working in these areas. Taking a 30,000-foot view of the Jewish communal landscape, they will deploy a diverse set of resources in pursuit of their goals, including grantmaking, convening, research, new program incubation, and thought leadership. 

Maimonides Fund aims to connect Jews to their people and their heritage, and to contribute to the vitality of the State of Israel. The Fund passionate about supporting projects that help Jewish people grasp our common past and that encourage them to play a role in shaping our shared future. 

Dr. Mijal Bitton is a spiritual leader, public intellectual, and sociologist. She serves as the Rosh Kehilla of the Downtown Minyan in NYC and is a Scholar in Residence at the Maimonides Fund. Mijal is a Visiting Researcher at NYU Wagner, where she directs pioneering research on Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews in the United States. She spent 11 years at the Hartman Institute, serving as a Research Fellow and faculty on topics such as the sociology of religion, American Jews and Judaism, Jewish education, Sephardic Judaism, Zionism, antisemitism, pluralism, diversity and multi-cultural morality. Mjial earned a Ph.D. from NYU and a B.A. from Yeshiva University, publishing several articles in academic journals about issues of identity and diversity. She is an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, a New Pluralist Field Builder, and a Sacks Scholar. Mijal is committed to building a welcoming and vibrant Jewish life, leveraging renewed Jewish solidarity and commitment post-October 7.   

Named The Most Influential Rabbi in America by Newsweek and one of the 50 Most Influential Jews in the World  by The Jerusalem Post, and twice named one of the 500 Most Influential People in Los Angeles by the Los Angeles Business Journal, David Wolpe is the Max Webb Emeritus Rabbi of Sinai Temple. He serves as the ADL’s inaugural rabbinic fellow and a Scholar in Residence at the Maimonides Fund. Rabbi Wolpe has taught at Harvard, the Jewish Theological Seminary, the American Jewish University, Hunter College, and UCLA. Rabbi Wolpe has published widely, including in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Time, Newsweek and The Atlantic. He has been featured on The Today Show, Face the Nation, ABC This Morning, and CBS This Morning as well as series on PBS, A&E, History Channel, and Discovery Channel, and has engaged in widely watched public debates with Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker and many others about religion and its place in the world. Rabbi Wolpe is the author of eight books, including the national bestseller Making Loss Matter: Creating Meaning in Difficult Times (Riverhead). His latest is titled David, the Divided Heart (Yale U Press). It was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Awards, and has been optioned for a movie by Warner Bros.