The organizers behind the Aish HaTorah Campus Leadership Fellowship are currently interviewing students in Montreal. The fellowship allows students to earn $500 in cash after pledging a commitment of one two-and-a-half-hour session per week for 10 weeks, plus a potential Shabbaton or retreat. On the wall for the Facebook group advertising the fellowship, a McGill student asks what the catch is of the program. Rabbi Dov Whitman, Hillel Montreal’s Jewish educator, denies there is a catch. However, sceptics may question the core motive of the fellowship – what are students to do once they complete the fellowship and are $500 richer? Although it does promote pro-Israel activism and provides generous funds for many events on campus, Aish HaTorah has often controversially been compared to religious cults. Through its rigorous religious practices that some classify as ‘brainwashing,’ Aish is often associated with the movement of non-Orthodox Jews who have become more Orthodox, or baalei teshuvah. Even if Aish does not encourage Orthodox Jewish values during the fellowship, students are questioning the program’s true goals.
The limited number of spots for the fellowship suggest it is competitive; 33 people are in the facebook group, while an applicant of the program was told there would be approximately 15-25 fellows. The Aish Web site outlining the fellowship states that it aims “to enable Jewish university students to experience, explore, and learn about their Jewish heritage, helping to shape confident and knowledgeable Jewish leaders of the future.”