Assembly works closely with organizations and communities that are ready to build their capacity for innovation and grow their community-building muscles. Today we are spotlighting our wonderful partners at Pardes.
Pardes Pioneers is a flagship partnership between Assembly and The Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies, designed to activate Pardes alumni as conveners of Jewish learning in their own communities. Now two cohorts in, this initiative sits at the heart of Pardes’s Alumni Activation strategy — moving alumni from deep personal learning in the Pardes Beit Midrash in Jerusalem to confident leadership of peer-led learning circles rooted in Torah in their own spaces and living rooms.
Assembly serves as faculty and thought partner for Pardes Pioneers, bringing our expertise in building community through Jewish learning to this cohort-based, “learn and do” fellowship model. Across four interactive workshops, Pioneers are trained in the core practices that turn learning into lived community:
- Relational Recruitment: How to Get the People in the Room
- The Spine of a Session: Introduction to Pedagogy
- The Art of Great Questions
- Curating Relational Learning Experiences
Participants immediately apply these tools in situ, organizing and leading small-group learning communities for their peers while receiving ongoing support and guidance.
Through this partnership, Assembly helps Pardes translate its educational excellence into scalable, relational impact. Our IYUN approach equips alumni not only to teach texts, but to gather people. In the first two cohorts alone, more than 35 Pardes alumni have been trained and supported to seed new Jewish learning communities across North America and beyond.
Together, Pardes and Assembly are demonstrating what’s possible when alumni activation is treated not as outreach from the institution to the former student, but as formation — developing leaders who carry Jewish learning outward with skill and confidence.
“Leading an IYUN group provided me with a sense of hope and autonomy- that I have the ability to cultivate community, and in turn, my future, filled with supportive and curious people. Participants of my group expressed gratitude for finally finding a space where they can fully be themselves. We look forward to continuing our learning together and building friendships.”
—Allie Fischgrund, Cohort 1