In Summer 2025, the Impact Office at the Zahava and Moshael J. Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought provided grants to several students with internships in the political arena, fostering a new generation of leaders dedicated to both public service and Jewish values. The Impact Office recently sat down with Straus Scholar Ava Eden to discuss her summer internship at 18Forty, where she wrote multiple articles on a variety of topics and contributed to larger-scale projects.
What were your main responsibilities during your time at 18Forty? As a research fellow, I spent most of my time writing articles for the 18Forty website and providing research for larger-scale projects. By the end of the summer, I had written three articles and gathered foundational information for what was then 18Forty’s forthcoming AI summit.
The essays that I wrote all focused on some sort of tension or interaction between Judaism and Western culture. My first essay explored different cultural or ideological conceptions of freedom by comparing the hippie movement of the 1960s and Rav Aharon Lichtenstein’s conception of religious humanism. My second essay was written during the Three Weeks between the 7th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av, and the assignment was to write about death. I wrote about identity loss as a type of death, and used the Elisha ben Abuyah story as a springboard. My final essay was more personal and focused on the challenges and lessons of the ever-developing confrontation between humanity and artificial intelligence through the lens of a personal encounter with AI. That third essay came from research I conducted for the 18Forty AI Summit, a conference hosted by 18Forty that explored the challenges and questions posed by AI in the areas of Jewish education, Jewish philosophy, Jewish law, public policy and antisemitism. Overall, my work, and 18Forty’s work in general, seeks to articulate the modern questions that are posed to Judaism and create means of communication, whether that be by bridging or contrasting Jewish wisdom and modern culture.
Which skills did you improve or develop during this experience?
As this was my first time writing to be published, much of the work experience and essay development was somewhat new to me. My boss, Sruli Fruchter, helped me improve my writing skills to match the “literary magazine” genre that they were aiming for by encouraging me to write more concisely, balance academic content with the readability factor, summarize after more complex paragraphs, and use suggestive language to allow for exploration, invitation, and discussion. A few months out of my internship, I have found myself able to write more clearly, more expressively, and more quickly.
Were there tasks that surprised or particularly challenged you?
I wrote my first essay in just under 25 hours (in total, not in a row), including some 25-minute chunks before shacharit (morning prayer service) in the mornings and late-night bursts before going to sleep. It is not my favorite essay that I put together, but it was a seminal experience for me in terms of pushing my work ethic, pouring myself into a creative project and researching a topic I was unfamiliar with, and being able to, within days, write about it accurately and productively. I truly feel that I submitted myself to the burden of the challenge, and the product was more than worth it. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I did not have an initial interest in writing about AI for my final essay, which made it much harder to get around to. But after starting the project, I completely changed my mind and opened up to the topic. I ended up writing a piece that I am proud of, with paragraphs of personal reflection and original thoughts and content. I really had low hopes and low interest in this project, but that’s not an excuse when I have a job to do, and interests can develop and change when you have an open mind.
How did your experience as a Straus Scholar influence or impact your work?
Considering the main thrust of my work was to interact with a combination of Judaic and Western sources, the Straus Center’s mission and education were critical in my ability to do my job well. Overall, I felt that the nature of work was productive and important, and I started to understand how my growing familiarity with Western thought can assist me in my articulation of religious ideals. Without the intellectual and religious influences from the staff and scholars of the Straus Center, I’m not sure if I would have seen value in what I was doing, and hence would probably not have done as good a job.
Why do you believe this work is important?
After writing my second essay, which, in part, dealt with the emotional experience of leaving religion, I received an email from an academic I had never met (we’ll call him Prof. Y) who was asking me about my perspective on religion and theology. The interaction has been ongoing, and we have been in touch over the past few months. At some point in the conversation, it became clear that Prof. Y is someone who frequently interacts with those who are questioning religion or are on their way out. One of his “questioners” had come across my article and had sent it to him. I think this is the first time that I really felt that my writing could have a broader effect on the general discourse on a topic. I’m not saying that anyone involved changed their mind about Torah Judaism, but it did open a means of communication and, with that, exploration. All of this would not be possible without the Straus Center and its Jewish and Western education, but it would also not be possible without the experience of a “research/writing” internship, where you’re asked to put your skills and knowledge to use while also pushing the boundaries of those very same skills and knowledge. The more one writes, the better one is at writing. Writing in a professional setting could greatly boost your skill and experience, which is the necessary pair of the knowledge and kinetic energy acquired at the Straus Center.
To learn more about the Straus Scholars program, click here.
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