Mar 11, 2009 -- As the economic downturn ripples through the US job market, Yeshiva University students, alumni and other community members interested in working in the Jewish community learned about various career opportunities at a job fair organized by YU’s Center for the Jewish Future (CJF) on the Wilf Campus on Feb 26. Read the story in the Jewish Week. More than 300 people attended the Jewish Job Fair, co-sponsored by the CJF in conjunction with the Institute for University-School Partnership at Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, the Career Development Center, the Yeshiva Student Union, Torah Activities Council and Jewish Social Enterprise Training (JSET), a student organization. Joining the 160 students who submitted resumes to CJF in advance were an additional 150 “walk ins,” both student and non-student, who attended on the day of the fair. “The fair created and shared new venues for our young women and men to play a professional role in the Jewish community, and served as a resource for the entire Jewish community in these difficult times,” said Rabbi Kenneth Brander, dean of the CJF. Twenty-one Jewish day schools from across the United States and 16 Jewish organizations participated in the fair. Rabbi Shmuel Levine, head of Hillel Day School in Boca Raton, FL, spent the hours preceding the job fair interviewing YU seniors for teaching positions at his school. “One of the greatest challenges as an educator is finding quality Judaic studies faculty,” Levine said. “This event helped us see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “There is a real sense that the vision of the university is not just about YU but about the broader Jewish community and that’s exciting.” Rabbi Daniel Kraut, executive director of Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh, said that his community’s search for a new rabbi through YU’s RIETS Rabbinic Placement Office gave him the idea to attend the fair. “It was only natural that we came to YU for the Jewish Job Fair to look for teachers,” Kraut said. The fair was geared toward career development and not employment exclusively, said Aliza Berenholz and Keren Simon, CJF staff members and co-organizers of the event. Organizational representatives promoted a wide array of opportunities ranging from teaching positions and fellowships to scholarships for master’s programs and internships. Erin Zimmerman, coordinator of a Young Judea Israel Program in New York City, for example, offered an alternate track for recent college graduates. The six-month program in Israel enables college graduates “to build their resumes by interning in their field of interest while experiencing Israeli culture.” Recruiting for University Jewish Chaplaincy in England, Dov Lerner was looking for someone who would consider relocation to the U.K. “It’s an opportunity to be constructive in developing the Jewish community in England, in terms of systemizing kashrut [Jewish dietary laws] and education,” Lerner explained. “The American populace has more experience with this type of work.” Berenholz and Simon plan to track the outcomes of the fair with a survey of the numbers of interviews and subsequent positions offered.