The COJECO BluePrint Fellowship

The BluePrint Fellowship is a year-long program for Russian-speaking Jewish adults ages 25-40 to explore personal and collective identity through the creation of Jewish community projects, supported by group workshops, one-on-one guidance, and a mini-grant.

Please Stay Tuned for Information about Upcoming BluePrint Cohort

Cohort 2019-2021

The BluePrint Fellowship brings together a select group of Russian-speaking Jewish innovators, artists, and intellectuals, to explore the link between personal identity and creativity.

What does it mean to be Jewish for someone born in the Former Soviet Union and living in the United States today? The BluePrint Fellowship offers participants the opportunity to examine and explore this question on their own terms. Chosen through a competitive application and interview process, fellows are able to bring their ideas to life and engaged in this community-wide conversation.

BluePrint Community Projects

BluePrint projects from years past have been innovative initiatives that impact the Russian-speaking Jewish community and Jewish community at large in areas such as: arts & culture * media & technology * gender & sexuality * literature * education * environment * children and family life * social justice * philanthropy

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Me and Ethel Rosenberg

Yelena Shmulenson

The New Wave of Russian Jewish Cultural Production

Anna Katsnelson

IDF Project

Ross Denisov

Helga and the Life-sized Carl Sagan

Alex Pergament

Portrait of an Artist

Alex Kaluzhsky et al.

Central Park: An Original Musical Story

Dina Pruzhansky

GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF BLUEPRINT

Knowledge:
Offering fellows a deeper historical and cultural perspective on the Jewish people and contemporary issues of the Jewish world today, with a unique focus on post-Soviet Jewry through a series of informal educational experiences.

Inspiration:
Motivating participants to become more active members of the Jewish community through a personal connection to and familiarity with an array of projects, organizations, and approaches to Jewish community life.

Skills:
Providing fellows with the tools to develop successful community projects through hands-on professional workshops and peer-to-peer review.

Mentoring:
One-on-one mentoring guides Fellows in setting clear goals for project objectives, offers options for achieving desired goals and outcomes, and identifies possible resources that go beyond traditional methods.

Russian Jewish community projects created since 2008

140

Projects continuing beyond their Fellowship year

55

New Jewish non-profit organizations resulting from BluePrint projects

6

Fellows who became Jewish professionals or lay leaders

47

People engaged by BluePrint Fellowship community projects

13,000+

BLUEPRINT FELLOWSHIP REQUIREMENTS

  • Fellows must be Russian-speaking Jews between the ages of 25 and 40, residing in the NYC area.
  • Fellows must have an original concept for a community project with an explicitly Jewish theme and an anticipated impact on at least 50 people.
  • Fellows must participate in the program fully, including a three-day weekend retreat and 8 evening workshops, which take place monthly on weeknights.
  • Fellows must implement their community projects within the Fellowship year, including a public launch event.

PROGRAM DETAILS

The BluePrint Fellowship begins with a weekend retreat and is followed by monthly educational workshops,  where fellows meet other talented thinkers and social activists, gain a new perspective on the community’s historical context, and hone their project management skills. BluePrint sessions are designed to inspire and support participants through the development of their projects, while exploring new ways of looking at personal history and identity.

Future Fellowship Sessions: TBA
Location: TBA
Day & Time: TBA
Dates: TBA

Through a guided grant application and reporting process over the course of the program, each fellow is awarded a mini-grant of up to $5,000 for the implementation of their community project. The average grant awarded is $3,000.

Each fellow is paired with a BluePrint alumnus mentor who can offer guidance, support, and advice to a new fellow, having had firsthand experience of participating in this process.

Selection Criteria

Preference will be given to candidates with long-term vision and aspirations for their community project and their personal community involvement. While projects must be implemented within the the program year, the Fellowship should be viewed as a  launching pad for on-going endeavors.

Preference will be given to community project proposals in the following areas:

  • New mediums for informal Jewish education among RSJ (e.g. games, multimedia, animation, etc.)
  • Israel engagement
  • Russian-Israeli community
  • Volunteering, Philanthropy & Fundraising
  • Family & Children educational workshops

Cohort 2019-2021

Blueprint fellows

Current Fellows
Past Fellows

Lara Traum Meaning in Melody

Lara Traum, the daughter of Russian immigrants who came to New York in 1979, grew up in Queens. She graduated from New York University with a BA in Music, Literature, and Judaic Studies and is currently studying for a Juris Doctorate at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Before pursuing a career as a lawyer and mediator, Lara worked with the Zamir Choral Foundation as one of their choral conductors. Lara is a frequent soloist in venues such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.

Masha Pekurovsky The Red Tent

Masha Pekurovsky was born in Kiev Ukraine. She was 9 years old when her family repatriated to Israel in the wave of 1990. Masha holds a Cum Laude Bachelors degree of Arch. from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. She immigrated to California in 2003 and has been calling New York “home” since 2007. Her project “Passageways” is a dance and video tribute to the feminine – An exploration of the Jewish female identity through the eyes of the artist. Building upon her passion for design, video art and tribal belly dance, Masha seeks to bring a multi-disciplinary performance experience to the audience.  Masha is a designer at HOK. She is also a member of the East Coast Tribal dance community and has been performing live video art under the stage name VJ nasha_masha.

Alla Milchtein Musical Journey through the Jewish Diaspora

Alla Milchtein was born in Kurgan, Russia and raised in Guadalajara, Mexico. After winning a second prize at the International piano competition in Netherlands, Alla was granted a scholarship to continue her studies at the Rotterdam Conservatory where she completed her Bachelor and then Master’s degree in Piano solo and Chamber Music. After completing her studies, Alla was offered a position as a staff pianist at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole in Florence, Italy where she worked for several years. In 2010 Alla moved to the United  States where she received a full scholarship to pursue her Professional Studies Diploma in Collaborative piano at the Mannes College of Music (2012). In the US, Alla has served as a staff pianist at Beverly Hills Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Glimmerglass Festival and the International Vocal Arts Institute in Virginia. A collaborative and solo pianist in New York, she has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Lincoln Center, Steinway Hall. Currently she is a staff pianist at the Mannes College of Music. Alla is fluent in Russian, Spanish, English, Italian and Dutch.

Artem Mirolevich Russian Pavilion - Migration

Artem Mirolevich’s multimedia work gives him a unique voice: an urban mix of Surrealism, Impressionism, and Japanese printmaking.  In 2000, Artem debuted his New York show at a foregone Neva Gallery in Greenwich Village, where he humorously proclaimed his relationship with the world as “Post-Apocalyptic Romanticism. America made me the artist that I am.” The scale of his work spans from small-scale objects to large oil canvases and installations, including “Babylon Tower”- the seashell-shaped multimedia project of galvanized wire at the Chelsea Art Museum in 2012.

Artem’s work paints the meticulous deconstruction of the physical earth into its figurative elements, turning to such media as oil, gouache, wire, and ink. He is also occasionally an engraver– like Durer or Piranesi, using a craft that the world has no immediate use for anymore, yet is peacefully nostalgic and ravishing to look at. For his COJECO BluePrint Fellowship community project, Artem will create a separate track of Russian Jewish art as part of his large initiative “Russian Pavilion.”

Alex Pergament Helga and the Life-sized Carl Sagan

Alex Pergament is a Jersey City-based photographer and attorney.  His photographs reflect on the relationship between community and individual identity.  He primarily shoots with Polaroids, and incorporates them into large-scale hand-made books.  Alex is an artist-in-residence at 660 Studios. He has edited and published The Escape Anthology for the Young Photographers Alliance, and received the Young Artists fellowship from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities.  He has exhibited solo and group shows in New York, D.C., Chicago, and New Jersey. Alex is also an intellectual property attorney, serving artists and small businesses in New Jersey and New York.  He served as a law clerk on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and was a Magna Cum Laude graduate of George Washington University Law School.

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Blueprint Fellowship Alumni

“Collective Effort” Documentary Film by COJECO BluePrint Fellow, Leonid Gurevich

Save the Date: To be Announced

“The Collective Effort” is a captivating exploration of immigrant identity, Jewish identity, and the artistic identity of a creative mindset. This documentary, skillfully crafted by designer, editorial stylist, fashion photographer, and educator Leonid Gurevich takes viewers on a journey through the creation of a Dress made from fabric hand-painted by Jewish immigrants of various ages and social backgrounds.

From conception to the runway, the film weaves a narrative of unity, teamwork, and extraordinary results achieved through collaboration, while providing an insider’s look into the enigmatic world of fashion design.

The COLLECTIVE EFFORT Documentary features actress Sophie Van Haselberg, Lauren Ezersky – VOGUE’s iconic journalist, model-actress Marlen Fjeldstad, model and radio host Marina Novikova, Rabbi and author Tobi Rubinstein, and other prominent figures.

Click HERE for more information

The film is created with the support of COJECO as part of the BluePrint Fellowship Program.

Alumni Projects

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The Mountain Jews Cuisine: a cookbook

Yafo Mardakhayeva

Songs of Our Journey

Yaffa Borukhova

The Mountain Jews Cuisine: a cookbook

Lana Shalumova
The BluePrint Fellowship is generously sponsored by

The Genesis Philanthropy Group.

For more information

or if you have any questions, please e-mail
us at:

monicak@cojeco.org

Stay in Touch

COJECO was formed in 2001 as an umbrella organization for grassroots community organizations of Russian-speaking Jewish immigrants in New York to make their voices heard and respected. Today we represent over 30 such network organizations, including young adult leadership groups, Holocaust Survivors, professional associations, arts & culture organizations, and social justice groups.

COJECO was formed in 2001 as an umbrella organization for grassroots community organizations of Russian-speaking Jewish immigrants in New York to make their voices heard and respected. Today we represent over 30 such network organizations, including young adult leadership groups, Holocaust Survivors, professional associations, arts & culture organizations, and social justice groups.

Tel: 212-566-2120 E-mail: info@cojeco.org

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