The Tikvah Scholars Program at Yale University is an eleven day residential summer institute for current 10th and 11th graders. We seek students who want to think deeply about serious questions, push their intellectual limits, and read the great works of the Jewish canon and of Western thought with world-class faculty in a vibrant and pluralistic community of students from around the world. The program seeks to advance Jewish excellence in the modern age by exposing some of the best Jewish students to the most important foundational questions in politics, economics, Zionist thought and Judaism, guided by some of the top teachers, scholars, and policy-makers.
Tikvah Scholars are Jewish teens who, out of deep commitment to their faith, are curious to explore how their religion impacts the broader currents of intellectual, political, and cultural life. Specifically, Tikvah Scholars are interested in how Judaism speaks to the larger issues of the day, both those that are grounded in timeless questions of philosophy, theology, meaning, and purpose, and those that are more current and timely, informing some of the major cultural divides, debates, and questions of the day.
Tikvah Scholars wants to study with peers who share their curiosity, but who are variegated in their interests. They want to study Western civilization’s most enduring questions alongside the most pressing topics in Jewish thought and Zionism, exploring the points of contact—and difference.