Krauthammer Fellowship

Josh Appel lives in New York, where he works as a Policy Analyst at the Manhattan Institute. He graduated with a B.A. in in History summa cum laude from Yeshiva University and holds postgraduate ordination in Jewish law from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS). His work explores the intersection of tradition and modernity, the moral underpinnings of free societies, and the necessity of cultural confidence in sustaining a flourishing future.

Kayla Bartsch currently serves as a Program Associate at a private foundation in NY, working to restore American values in our nation’s institutions. She was previously a William F. Buckley, Jr. Fellow in Political Journalism at National Review, where she wrote on education, culture, and American conservatism. She has also worked as a teaching assistant for Hudson Institute Political Studies, guiding undergraduates through the foundations of Western political thought. Kayla graduated from Yale University in 2020 with distinction in Philosophy and Humanities.

Ellie Green is a current PhD student at New York University, with a research focus on the concept of revenge after the Holocaust. Prior to starting at NYU, she earned her master’s at Harvard Divinity School in 2023, where she was a Dahan Fellow and she holds an MA in Theological Studies from the University of St Andrews. Previously, Ellie was External Affairs Manager at Policy Exchange, Chief of Staff at the Henry Jackson Society and a Rapporteur for the Israel Diaspora Trust. She has provided foreign policy analysis for BBC One, BBC World, Sky News and LBC among other outlets. Her work has been published in The Spectator World.

Austen Hufford is currently studying at an Orthodox Jewish Yeshiva in Jerusalem after spending nearly 9 years as a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal, being posted in New York City, Chicago and Washington, D.C.. As a national economics reporter, he wrote deeply-reported features about American manufacturing, labor markets, and supply chains, with dozens of front-page stories. His coverage of pandemic-era supply chains and the N95 mask shortage earned recognition from the New York Press Club and SABEW. Austen holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Michigan and writes about his Yeshiva experience in his newsletter at yomyeshiva.substack.com.

Daniel Lazarev is a husband, father, and rabbi completing his final year of an MD at Stony Brook University and a PhD in mathematics at MIT. Upon graduation, he hopes to begin a clinical pathology residency while continuing his mathematical research as a postdoctoral fellow at MIT and the Broad Institute. His long-term goal is to contribute across the scientific pipeline—from mathematical theorization to computational implementation and biomedical translation—for the betterment of society. Moreover, he seeks to apply his training to deepen his understanding of God and His Torah, and to serve the Jewish community and beyond through teaching, writing, and communal work.

Pedro L. Perez was born in Cuba. At the age of nine, he migrated to the United States with his family in pursuit of freedom. He studied History and Political Science at the University of Florida. After college, he worked for the Peace Corps in Ukraine. Most recently, he completed a M.A. in Political and Economic Development at Columbia University.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Olivia Raykhman is a Knight Hennessey Scholar at Stanford University pursuing an MA in Journalism. She earned a BS in Russian Language with double minors in Terrorism Studies and Cyber Security from the United States Military Academy. She is an active-duty Air Force officer, as well as the founder of Project On Point, a service-minded college counseling service, and Nesharim SJC, the only network solely dedicated to supporting Jewish military students. Her inspiration to serve stems from her parents’ escape from life-threatening antisemitism in the Soviet Union and their subsequent success as immigrants in the US.

Nathan B. Williams is a PhD Candidate in Computational Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Siemens Technology Fellow at the Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory. His research focuses on integrating graph neural networks with deep reinforcement learning to improve agent decision-making. Nathan holds a B.S. in Physics from Oglethorpe University and an M.S. in Computational Science and Engineering from Georgia Tech, along with a Graduate Certificate in International Security and Aerospace Systems. He previously served as a combat soldier in the Israeli Air Force’s Air Defense Brigade, serving in both the Iron Dome and the Ballistic Picture Management Center.