As part of the Vic ’63 and Bobbi Samuels ’63 Center for Community Partnerships and Civic Transformation (COMPACT), undergraduate and graduate students are now able to apply to the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism’s fellowship program (FCAS).

According to an email sent to Waltham Group members by Francesca Panorese, the Department of Student Engagement’s Program Specialist Community Engagement and Leadership, “the FCAS Fellowship Program offers an exciting opportunity to learn how to combat contemporary antisemitism and engage diverse communities in addressing hate.” This paid fellowship will last for 12 weeks, and students will work “with FCAS for 10 hours/week and [participate] in co-curricular programming at COMPACT.”

According to FCAS’s section of COMPACT’s website, “Antisemitism is on the rise globally, in the United States, and on social media. As an FCAS Fellow, you can make a difference. Over the course of this program, you will gain important skills, deepen your understanding of strategies to challenge hate online and around the world, and develop a professional network that will support you in becoming an agent of transformative social change.”

Students who participate in this fellowship will help FCAS expand their antisemitism work to a “broader audience,” while also supporting “new advertising, events and convenings, social media campaigns, and additional engagement with partners.” The program’s website states that “first preference will be given” to applications that were received by Aug. 4. There will be another FCAS Fellowship cohort in spring 2024.

COMPACT’s mission is to “make ethical and respectful community engagement a central pillar of a Brandeis education, to establish engaged scholarship and pedagogy as signature strengths of the university, and to create transformative social change through collective action.” Recently, in addition to the FCAS fellowship, COMPACT has aided with the production of a zine as a community resource for new Waltham families.