There are a number of steps to the process – we like to think of it as an opportunity for you to get to know Avodah while we’re getting to know you. We’ll ask you to think about some of your goals and thinking about social justice, and you’ll have the chance to interview with Avodah staff and alumni.There are a number of steps to the process – we like to think of it as an opportunity for you to get to know Avodah while we’re getting to know you. We’ll ask you to think about some of your goals and about social justice, and you’ll have the chance to interview with Avodah staff and alumni.
The application for the 2020-2021 program year is open now – apply by the priority January 23rd deadline!
1. Apply Online
2. Interview
3. Learn Your Status
After interviews, you will be notified of your status. Possible statuses include:
4. Match with Your Work Placement
If you are invited to participate in the matching round, the process will occur as follows. You will:
See the next FAQ question “How does matching work?” for a more detailed overview.
5. Congratulations, You’ve Been Accepted!
Additionally, one of your three references MAY fit the following criteria, either:
It’s not too late! Get in touch with our Recruitment Manager Emily Becker at [email protected] and we’ll be happy to help you out with this.
After reviewing all applications submitted by the deadline, we contact qualified applicants for an interview. This is a very competitive process – not all applicants will be interviewed.
If you move to the interview stage, you’ll be considered for a place in only one of our program cities. Usually, this city is one of the cities you expressed preference for in your application. If you don’t have a preferred city, we’ll place you in the city we believe is a strong fit for you.
Interviews will take place in mid-February. Applicants who submit their application after the deadline will be interviewed on an as-needed basis – reach out to Emily at [email protected] for an updated timeline if needed. If you submit your application prior to the deadline, you may be contacted earlier for an interview.
A typical interview lasts 30-60 minutes.
The vast majority of our applicants interview over the phone. If you are able to come to one of our offices in Chicago, New Orleans, New York City, or Washington, DC, please contact our Recruitment Manager Emily Becker at [email protected] to schedule an in-person interview. We may also be able to offer in-person interviews with alumni in several other cities around the country.
Placement agencies conduct all interviews exclusively by phone. You do not need to travel, but you do need to be available by telephone throughout the interview week. If you are going to be away all or part of that week, please let us know right away.
If you applied by the deadline, you can expect us to be in touch with you in early to mid-March. After that, we accept new applicants in a rolling capacity so the timing will vary.
The chances that you will be invited into a subsequent matching round changes from round to round, depending on how many matches were already completed. We will be in contact with you periodically to update you on your status.
We do not defer acceptance into the program for the following year. If you’re not sure about what you want to do next year, and think Avodah is a serious option, please do apply. However, if don’t want to do the program this coming year, please wait to apply until you are ready to participate. We’ll be happy to interview you then!
Let your interviewer know about any special circumstances that will affect your potential participation. These might include things such as being out of the country during the matching round, anything that would limit full participation during the year, specific needs or preferences that may pose challenges. If there’s something you’re concerned about as you apply, you can always contact Emily at [email protected] to discuss your circumstances.
Here’s a short summary of the process:
While we can’t guarantee a particular placement, we work hard to find you the right match. You are not accepted into the program until you have been selected by a placement site.
We invite candidates into the matching round if we believe they would be assets to the program. While no contracts are signed until after you match with a placement, we expect you to enter a matching round prepared to accept if offered a match. Interviewing is a time-consuming and thoughtful process, and we want to make sure our placement partners only interview applicants who are viable candidates. In addition, we’re only able to accommodate a limited number of candidates in each matching round, so we want to make sure that each spot is filled by someone who is fully committed to the process.
We strive to make our matching process transparent so that you can make your choice with as much information as possible. If you have any specific timing issues, please let us know during the interview process. However, if you do match with a placement organization and sign a contract, we expect you to discontinue any other job searches or applications.
We’ll provide access to placement position descriptions and links to organizations’ websites. You may also have an opportunity to speak with the Corps Member currently placed at organizations that you are considering, if applicable.
Each round takes about a week and a half.
You’ll have 24 hours to decide if you want to accept a position, so please be prepared to make a decision soon after you get an offer. We expect our applicants to use the time during the matching round to consider working at the various placements and participating in the program. If one candidate turns down a match, it is likely that another applicant will match with that placement, so it’s important to be able to make decisions quickly. We do understand that this is a big decision, and you may be weighing multiple factors as you decide. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to discuss them with us.
While it varies from year to year and city to city, there are usually 3-4 matching rounds.
We do our best to match our applicants with their top choices. Still, there are times when applicants are unable to match with a placement agency. You are not accepted until you match with a placement agency and sign a contract.
If you applied by the application deadline, you can expect us to be in touch with you in mid-March.
If you’re selected into a matching round, it means we believe that you are an excellent fit for the program. We accept applicants into matching rounds with the expectation that they will participate in the program if they make a match. We expect you to enter the matching round with a good faith commitment that if you are matched with a placement, you will join the program.
There are a lot of different pieces to this, so we’ve broken it up into a few different categories: Jewish Life, Working, Living, and Learning.
We try to put at least one house in each city within walking distance (1.5 miles) of a synagogue. Please be sure to discuss questions or concerns about access to a synagogue during your interview.
All kitchens in our houses are kosher at the time of move-in. As the year progresses, each household negotiates the standards of kashrut (Jewish dietary law) that the members of the community wish to maintain.
You and your fellow Corps Members will create a pluralistic “Community Shabbat” at least once a month. In many houses, Corps Members choose to celebrate together more frequently.
Being Jewish is not required, but it’s important to know that a large part of the experience is based on the interplay between Judaism and social justice, and creating a Jewish community. We do ask that you have the ability and interest to live and learn in an environment that is structured around a Jewish lifestyle, regardless of individual faith.
Definitely! Our pluralistic community is made up of people all different backgrounds and identities. Our Corps Members are Secular, “Just Jewish,” Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, Modern Orthodox, and everything in between. We strongly encourage Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews, Jews of color, queer, trans, and gender non-conforming Jews, and Jews who come from poor or working-class backgrounds to apply.
In order to ensure your ability to focus on Avodah-related activities and still find time for downtime and other personal activities, you may not take classes, hold a part-time job, or do extensive volunteer work for the first four months of the program year. After that, we ask that you limit extra commitments to five hours per week so that you can participate fully in the Avodah community.
All kinds! In addition to having a fantastic position on their resume, alumni receive support in finding jobs through informational interviews and networking in our community, assistance with resumes and application materials, reference letters, career advice, and more. Our alumni are organizers, lawyers, health care professionals, activists, clergy, educators, non-profit staffers, and much more. Some even stay on at their placements! Read about some of our alumni stories here.
The 2019-2020 Service Corps year will begin in late August 2019.
They sure are! And they have all the dishes, pots, pans, and everything else you’ll need to run a household, including a kosher kitchen.
We work to provide the safest living situations possible. You’ll be living in an urban environment where—like most city neighborhoods—crime can be an issue and levels of safety are unpredictable. Our staff will provide resources for dealing with crime prevention and safety, and you’ll be living in a concerned community where you and your housemates will help each other use caution and safety.
You should be prepared to share a room for all or part of the program year. Our houses may have some singles, but most rooms are doubles. We don’t assign rooms – each household decides together how to divide up the living space.
Living in
Our programs are a space for the kind of skill-building, leadership training, and consistent reflective practice that strengthen all effective activists and provide the foundation for a future in social change work. You’ll meet with local social change leaders, engage in personal and communal reflection on the year’s unfolding challenges and accomplishments, create space to debate ideas and methods of social change, and participate in
The programs are also a setting to engage with your Jewish identity as it relates to your activism, and with the ways that your political and social beliefs and struggles can inform your Jewish practice. You and your fellow Corps Members will meet with rabbis, teachers, and Jewish activists throughout the year to explore Jewish texts, history, and justice-oriented approaches to Jewish holidays and ritual.
There are anywhere from 4-6 evening programs in any given month. You’ll also participate in
Good question. Our staff team is composed of leaders with backgrounds in both social justice and Jewish education, and they’re guided by a curriculum that we’ve been perfecting for almost 20 years. But we believe deeply in participant leadership, so every Corps Member steps up throughout the year to help plan everything from site visits to Shabbat celebrations to leadership development programs.
Your housing and public transportation costs are covered during your service year, and health insurance will be provided by your placement organization. In addition, you will receive a modest monthly stipend based on the costs for basic necessities in the city you live in. The allowance is not designed to cover large expenses like air travel, school application fees, or out-of-pocket prescription medication costs that exceed $500 per year.
Most applicants are able to support themselves on the allowance. It may be a modest lifestyle, but living in a community helps to keep
We are continuously striving to make the Jewish Service Corps more economically accessible to a wider variety of participants. We have an Economic Access Fund for our Corps Members to provide a safety net to Corps Members who don’t already have one. The Economic Access Fund can be requested for expenses such as medication copays, winter clothes, transportation for a visit home, etc.
The numbers are based on costs for basic necessities, which are a bit different depending on the city you live in:
Chicago
$360/month allowance
New Orleans
$325/month allowance
New York City
$460/month allowance
Washington, DC
$425/month allowance
Many loans can be deferred during a year in Avodah, though you should check with their specific loan provider to confirm. You’ll have to initiate this process yourself, and we’re happy to provide instructions and help you sort things out.
Your placement organization will provide you with health insurance during the year, as well as a travel subsidy to pay for local public transportation costs.
It’s true! During the summer before the program starts, you’ll join us in increasing awareness of Avodah and raising money to support our work together. You’ll run your own campaign, setting a goal with a minimum expectation of $1,500.
We believe that this skill is invaluable for people who want to create change. Fundraising is essential to every nonprofit organization and knowing how to galvanize people behind a cause you believe in is a vital skill. This is a chance to increase awareness about Avodah among your friends and family who might not know about our
We’ve learned that everyone reaches different fundraising goals, and we’ll support you in your efforts so the whole process is a rich learning experience. The bottom line is that we won’t exclude anyone from the program for not meeting the fundraising goal. And we’re grateful for every minute of work you put in to fundraise before the program starts (high five!).
You’re going to be super busy during the year between working full-time and participating in the Avodah community. We like to be realistic and avoid asking you to try to fundraise on top of your other responsibilities. We have found that incoming Corps Members do a great job of expressing their enthusiasm even before the official start of the year.
You can totally do this, and you won’t be doing it on your own. Our all-star development team will provide you with fundraising training, tips, and work closely with you throughout the process.