Tikvah Legal Fellowship

A chance for law students to study with world-class legal experts, receive personalized career coaching, and join a community dedicated to Jewish and American ideals.

Since its founding, Tikvah has brought together young leaders to study great texts and consider pressing issues with experts in Jewish thought, the Western canon, and public affairs. Many hundreds of talented students have benefited from Tikvah’s summer seminars, college fellowships, and advanced institutes — and many have been inspired to give back to their country and their communities in their professional lives.

But as Tocqueville famously observed, in America, almost every issue of public debate winds up as a legal question; and it is no coincidence that a substantial number of Tikvah’s most exceptional alumni have gone on to pursue legal careers. Law school is a crucial gateway to effective advocacy of many of the causes Tikvah represents: religious liberty, freedom of speech on campus, a strong alliance between the United States and Israel, school choice, and others.

Because of this, Tikvah has partnered with the Blackstone Legal Fellowship to create a Jewish counterpart to what Blackstone has offered Christian students for decades: a formative legal training grounded in religious and constitutional principles. The Tikvah Legal Fellowship was launched in Summer 2021 with just five members, all of whom were welcomed by a vibrant and growing community of Christian law students — natural allies in the constitutionalist or traditionalist legal movement. Over the course of this fellowship, we hope to demonstrate that Jewish participation in legal advocacy matters.

Students who are accepted to the Tikvah Legal Fellowship will receive highly personalized career services as they search for summer internships or summer-associate positions. They will also join in-person learning sessions at the start and end of summer. These sessions will take place at the Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg, Virginia, alongside and in conjunction with the Blackstone program. Glatt Kosher food will be provided for Tikvah Legal Fellows.

The 2022 Tikvah Legal Fellowship consists of three Phases:

Phase I (May 29 – June 3, 2022): Tikvah Legal Fellows will come together for a week of rigorous learning with world-class legal experts and like-minded peers, on subjects ranging from natural law to religious-liberty battles to Jewish approaches to public bioethics. It will also include more casual career sessions with Jewish attorneys who have worked or are working in the executive branch, the judiciary, the military, the academy, or big law — all of whom share a broad dedication to the Constitution and an ethic of service.

Phase II (approx. June 6 – August 5, 2022): Tikvah Legal Fellows will spend Phase II gaining real-world experience in their internships. In the months leading up to summer, Tikvah and Blackstone staff will help each student find a summer internship that suits his or her professional interests, geographical preference, and academic performance. Last year, Tikvah students interned for federal judges, a state attorney general, and a prestigious law firm.

Phase III (August 10 – 14, 2022): The summer will conclude with another opportunity to join a community of public-spirited students and teachers engaged in the pressing matters of the day. Phase III also offers a chance to reconnect with friends before returning to law school.