Student Scholarships
A huge part of Nehirim’s mission is to support GLBTQ Jewish students. At each retreat roughly 25 undergraduate and graduate students are offered a scholarship to cut or cover the costs of attendance. Students are invited to fully participate in a cross-generational community, and also enjoy a “students-only” meal and workshops that are geared towards issues that Jewish LGBTQ students are facing.

Please contact our outreach coordinator Zvi Bellin if you are interested in a student scholarship for any of Nehirim’s programs.

Student Feedback
For me the Nehirim Shabbaton was...

"…a weekend where I could connect my Jewish mind and body, where I could find a community of like-minded gay AND spiritual journeyers where I could simply feel an authentic part of a vibrant community For me the Nehirim Shabbaton was only the beginning....I'm already counting the days until the next Nehirim event, hoping for an even more spiritual (and perhaps scenic) landscape."

"…an excellent chance to meet people genuinely committed to Judaism, who also share a queer orientation with me. At other Jewish LGBT events, the emphasis is on the sexual orientation side, with much matchmaking and socializing going on. Nehirim on the other hand is much more content oriented and focuses on Judaism, which is beautiful and perfect for me because my religious beliefs and spirituality are important to me, and I am so happy that I have found a queer framework where Judaism is important to everyone else as well."

"…an opportunity to be surrounded by lots of cool queer Jewish types...and have that lovely feeling where everything feels so comfortable that you forget that such a configuration is unusual.....or hard to find. I also really enjoyed all the academic lectures - it was very cool to have an academic/political infusion to a weekend that in the past has been mostly spiritual/social. I appreciated having a mix of all four elements...."

"…a great opportunity to reconnect with friends, create new friendships, explore our journeys as LGBT Jews, and enter into a greater mindfulness through our learning and coming together in community. I appreciated the thoughtfulness that went into planning the weekend, ensuring that the array of activities and sessions reflected the diverse interests of our community."

Other Programs

In addition to providing student scholarships to retreats, Nehirim supports our student community in these additional ways:

The Shalshelet Elder/Youth Program. Gay and lesbian youth rarely have gay and lesbian elders to mentor them. Most of us are born into our religious and ethnic communities, but rarely are gays and lesbians born into gay or lesbian families with gay role models, teachers, and mentors. Worse, as these young adults seek out mentors in the gay community, they are often justifiably fearful of being objects of sexual predation. The Shalshelet program matches up gay and lesbian "youth" (loosely defined as anyone under 30) with elders willing to mentor them. The program is supervised by Rabbi Jacob Staub and Zvi Bellin. Please click here for more information.

Nehirim and NUJLS!. Nehirim is proud to work with NUJLS, the National Union of Jewish LGBTIQQ students, in a number of ways. NUJLS staff regularly teaches at Nehirim events. Nehirim staff regularly teach at NUJLS events. We're in touch with NUJLS regularly, sharing information and contacts, marketing events, and planning our work together. Visit NUJLS' website to learn more about this great organization.

Internship opportunities. Nehirim loves interns! Each year we have 1-2 interns who do substantive work for our organization, including programming, grant research, outreach, and many other ways. Click here to learn more.

Bring Nehirim to Campus. Finally, even if you can't come to Nehirim, Nehirim can come to you. Our staff and faculty regularly visit college campuses, with lectures, services, programs, workshops, classes -- you name it. If you're looking for someone to lead a Pride Shabbat, or for resources on queer Kabbalah, or for workshops that will help you build queer Jewish community in your campus, send us an email to find out more.

We look forward to seeing you at a Nehirim event soon!