Program Highlights

  • Prestigious and unique scholarship
  • Exclusive focus on nurturing future American Jewish leaders
  • Sponsors Jewish college students to study Torah in Israel for up to 2 years after graduation

Abraham Scholarship Program

The Foundation envisioned, developed, built and created the Abraham Scholars program, the first Jewish international education fellowships focused exclusively on identifying and nurturing future American Jewish leaders. The scholarship encourages post graduate advanced study in Israel. A unique and prestigious scholarship is awarded to a limited number of college students to study Torah in Israel for one to two years following graduation. The program was so successful that one of the largest family foundations in the world began investing millions of dollars into scholarships based on the Abraham Scholar model.

Carey Wolchok came up with the idea of the Abraham Scholars program as a tool to focus the giving of the Foundation to select leading students. He named the scholarship in honor of his former father-in-law, West Palm Beach philanthropist S. Daniel Abraham, the founder of Slim Fast Foods company and Thompson Medical Corporation, with whom he enjoyed a long and deep friendship for more than a decade.

I am so thankful to you for providing me the Abraham Scholarship. I think it is safe to say that receiving the Abraham Scholars award allowed me to have an experience that changed the course of my life. While I was at Midreshet Rachel I learned a tremendous amount about Judaism that I was never exposed to before. However, I gained much more than the foundation for an orthodox lifestyle at Midreshet Rachel, I underwent a life transformation.

— OLIVIA OTKIND, ABRAHAM SCHOLAR

I had the honor and privilege of being an Abraham Scholar after I graduated from Northwestern University in 2011. I was growing considerably and desired to go to E”Y after graduation, but with no financial means to do it. My family was completely unsupportive and could not understand why I couldn’t just be applying to jobs like all of my peers. Applying and receiving this prestigious scholarship gave my endeavor legitimacy as well as the financial means to make it possible!

—MICHELLE (JACOBS) PENN, ABRAHAM SCHOLAR

Upon graduation from Emroy University, I deferred my offer to join Citigroup and went to Machon Yaakov, with the help of the Abraham Scholars program. Thank you so much for the support and for helping us live out our dreams, it has been a blessing beyond description.

—MICHAEL SEIDMAN, ABRAHAM SCHOLAR

I feel so blessed that I had the opportunity be an Abraham Scholar, the year that I spent at Neve Yerushalayim changed my life. I do not think I can possibly put into the words the gift that you have given me in my life.

—JAIMI (LOWEN) LERNER, ABRAHAM SCHOLAR

Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to be an Abraham Scholar. It changed my life for the better and I will forever be a changed person because I had the opportunity to go to Yeshiva. Attending Yeshiva for these two years was a key stepping stone in my life and gave a foundation for the future.

Jared Weiss, Abraham Scholar