Two Connecticut teens have been selected to join a group of intellectually curious 11th-graders from across North America who will make up the 2022 cohort of the prestigious Bronfman Fellowship. 

The 26 Fellows will participate in a free Fellowship-year experience beginning with a summer in Israel, where they explore a tapestry of Jewish texts and ideas in conversation with one another and a faculty team of leading rabbis, educators, and artists. They also interact with a group of Israeli peers.

The 2022 Fellows are from 11 states and Canada, and represent a wide range of Jewish backgrounds. The students from Connecticut chosen to join the 31st cohort are:

David Garsten of North Haven, Connecticut. Garsten attends Choate Rosemary Hall and is a member of Temple Beth Sholom. A conlanger and YouTuber, he co-founded LingLeague, an international organization for teens interested in linguistics – most recently hosting student events at the annual Linguistics Society of America meeting and a college fair with linguistics programs including Yale, Brown, and NYU. He’s a student member of the LSA and the Language Creation Society, and co-president of Hillel and the Linguistics Club at his school. He also loves creative writing and edits the Lit, his school’s most prominent literary magazine.

Eliana Simmons of West Hartford, Connecticut is a junior at Hall High School and a member of Beth El Temple.  Through JTConnect’s Teen Leadership and Philanthropy Initiative, she is working with a group of teens to raise money to promote gender equity and fight homelessness. Simmons studies with the Einayich Yonim Fellowship, which approaches environmental issues and leadership from a Jewish spiritual perspective, and serves as an engineer on her high school’s VEX robotics team. She is also a writer and editor of French for Gladiatores, Hall’s foreign language magazine, as well as a member of the French National Honor Society. Last summer, she studied Jewish literature with the Yiddish Book Center’s Great Jewish Books program.

The Bronfman Fellowship alumni community includes eight Rhodes Scholars, four former Supreme Court clerks, 20 Fulbright Scholars, 37 Wexner Fellows and 27 Dorot Fellows. 

The Bronfman Fellowship was founded in 1987 by Edgar M. Bronfman, z”l, formerly CEO of the Seagram Company Ltd. and a visionary Jewish philanthropist, who died in December 2013. It reflects his vision that young people who are enriched and energized by their Judaism are poised to contribute not only to Jewish life, but to improving the world.

For more information about The Bronfman Fellowship, including how to apply, visit www.bronfman.org.