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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ChaiLighter

Biana Lupa

Meaning in Melody

Lara Traum

Our Suitcase (Nash Chemodan)

Anna Loshkin

Shmata

Elena Zaveleva

Cultural Tips for New Americans

Alina Bliumis

New York Jewish Music Festival

Eugene Plotkin

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

Veronica Price We|Come To America

Veronica was born in Kharkov and raised in Khmelnitsky Ukraine. She immigrated to the US during the early 1988 wave and settled in Brooklyn with her family where she found herself as the only Russian immigrant in a junior high school class full of tough Italian-American kids.  Veronica reconnected with her immigrant roots in high school and college inside a group of diverse and friendly nerds, one that may only be found in NY, a welcoming immigrant capital. Veronica has taken part in and chaired many Russian-Jewish initiatives in NYC and looks forward to helping create stronger identities in creative ways.

Alina Bliumis Cultural Tips for New Americans

Alina Bliumis is a New York based artist, working in collaboration with Jeff Bliumis since 2000. Alina and Jeff Bliumis's body of work explores cultural standards, foreignness and national identity through sculptural installations-often placed in public sphere and incorporative of public dialogue. They were both born abroad, but have been living in the United States for over twenty years. Alina received a BFA from the School of Visual Art, New York and Jeff received a BA from the Columbia University, New York.Their early projects were predominantly based on their own experiences of immigration. Over last ten years, their interest has gradually shifted into processing communal experience-defining social structures, considering cultural standards/norms and exploring foreignness as a condition that gives a new perspective to the familiar.To see her works please visit www.bliumis.com

Anna Loshkin Our Suitcase (Nash Chemodan)

Anna Loshkin was born in Odessa, Ukraine, and immigrated with her family to Boston in 1988. She worked in the internet field for ten years before pursuing photography and journalism. Her work has been featured in BBC Russia, VICE, Grazia, Tablet Mag and others. Her photographs have been exhibited in the US and UK, as well at the on-line International Museum of Women. Anna’s project on influential Afghan women will be featured in the Other One Hundred, an upcoming book and travelling exhibition, and received an honorable mention in the 2014 International Photography Awards. You can see more of her work at www.annaloshkin.com.

Laura Vladimirova Resilience Garden

Laura Vladimirova was born in Kiev, Ukraine. Her family, like many others, immigrated to the United States in the late 80’s. The transience of her youth created an insatiable wanderlust in Laura, which she has tried to fill by traveling and living abroad for most of her young adult life. Then, after her grandmother was diagnosed with cancer and passed away, Laura realized that planting roots was the next phase of her growth. Thus, she now works with plants and people in community gardens, rooftops, and anywhere else community can be created around the more natural concepts of life.

Anna Rozhdestvenskaya Ancestor Blueprint

Anya Roz is an artist, photographer and designer residing in New York on the Spanish side of Harlem, was born and raised in Moscow in an eclectic family of artists, musicians and photographers, learning to live in the middle of a self generated art scene – visual material being the source of both self exploration and collaboration.
Anya says, “Although I have worked in mediums ranging from oil to video, and had made a living as a graphic designer for the past ten years in New York, my work has focused on photography and painting, and finding a unique visual link between the two mediums. I have also explored lots of antique archival photographs, using their digital replicas in my collage and mixed media work.”

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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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