Peoples big ideas are always worth money. Heres your chance to get a cash prize in six figures if you have a big Jewish idea.
The Jewish News of Greater Phoenix reports, in its Oct. 5, issue that philanthropist Charles Bronfman is ready to pay handsomely to whoever comes up with an idea that can transform how the Jewish community thinks about itself. The winner not only takes a hefty sum to the bank, he or she will be the Charles R. Bronfman Visiting Chair in Jewish Communal Innovation at
Brandeis
University in a two-year visiting professorship.
During that assignment, the winner will be charged with publishing a significant English-language work based on his or her idea.
We only have to look at the high-tech industry to see that all ideas dont pan out, but all you need is one Google or Mapquest to justify a whole lot of ideas that dont go anywhere, said Jonathan Sarna, the chairman of the Hornstein Jewish professional leadership program at the university in Waltham, Mass.
The goal is to find something as significant as Birthright Israel, the highly popular program that gives Jewish young people, ages 18 to 26, free trips to
Israel for intense education on its culture, government and spiritual dimension. They consequently come away with deeper roots to their Jewish heritage. It has been seen as a way to strengthen the sense of solidarity among world Jewry; and to strengthen participants’ personal Jewish identity and a connection to other Jewish people.
The Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies fund numerous foundations and projects. By one list, Charles Bronfman is the 15th richest person in
Canada, worth about $2.2 billion in U.S. dollars.
The winner will get a salary of $110,000, plus benefits, and will be expected to teach a course each semester at Brandeis, beginning in the fall of 2008. Brandeis University Press will publish the book that the winner is expected to write.
A proposal of up to five pages can be submitted. Finalists will be expected to present their plan to a symposium. For details, see www.brandeis.edu/jcs/resources/job/Bronfman%20Chair.html.
