Bailey Spitz is a senior at the University of Maryland pursuing a major in government and politics. She is a previous Beren Summer Fellow and founded the UMD Tikvah campus chapter. She has interned and performed research for the Brandeis Center, Becket Fund, and Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty. Outside of her studies, Bailey is involved in Jewish student life across the country and on campus as President of Yavneh on Campus and the multiple positions she has held in the Jewish community at UMD. Her interests include history, Jewish thought, and the intersection of policy and legal analysis. Bailey plans to pursue law upon graduation.
Itamar Gendelman is a student at Reichman University pursuing a degree in the Government, Diplomacy & Strategy Honors Program. Itamar is an alumnus of the Tikvah Beren Summer Fellowship, where he researched strategic frameworks for Israel’s educational system. He currently works in business development at Tara Strategic Consulting and has authored proposals on intelligence reform and information warfare. Outside of his studies, Itamar served as a commander in the IDF Special Forces (Duvdevan), earning multiple Certificates of Excellence, and represented the Israel National Rugby Team. He also served as a counselor at URJ Camp Harlam. Itamar plans to pursue a career in national security and grand strategy.
Tzivia Lutch is an honors political science student at Touro University studying the intersection of appellate jurisprudence, individual rights, and the legislative process. She is currently an intern at the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, working to protect students facing anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism on college campuses. Before joining the Brandeis Center, Tzivia interned at the US Court of Federal Claims (Judge Mathew H. Solomson), the Coalition for Jewish Values, and the Endowment for Middle East Truth. Tzivia has been involved with the Tikvah Fund for over two years, and she is currently a member of the Tikvah Collegiate Forum. After she graduates, Tzivia is looking forward to law school and a career in law and public policy.
Ariane de Gennaro is from New York City and recently graduated from Yale University with a degree in History, specializing in Europe and the Greco-Roman world. In Fall 2026, she will begin studying at Harvard Law School. At Yale, she studied both Latin and Yiddish, wrote for the Yale Daily News, and served as an Officer for the Alexander Hamilton Society. She was also active in Israel-related programs, including Yale Friends of Israel and the Peace and Dialogue Leadership Initiative, a fellowship fostering discourse between Yale and West Point students. Ariane has interned for the U.S. Senate, The New Criterion, The Yale Law Journal, and the Institute for the Study of War, and was a fellow at the Hudson Institute and Hertog Foundation. She spent last summer as Beren Fellow at Tikvah, where she researched the intersecting histories of Yiddish and Zionism with Andrew Koss, senior editor of Mosaic. In her free time, she enjoys drawing, singing, and reading fantasy and historical fiction.
Juliana Castillo is a junior at Columbia University after taking a year off from college to serve as the Assistant Director of the Solomon Fellowship and Tikvah Scholars Program at the Tikvah Fund. She completed the Beren Summer Fellowship in the summer of 2022, looking at alternative options for Jewish education in a post-COVID era. She was a Eugene du Pont Memorial Scholar at the University of Delaware Honors College, which she attended prior to Columbia; she was also a Research and Communications Intern at the Caesar Rodney Institute, Delaware’s only State Policy Network affiliate. She was a Hertog Institute Summer Fellow in 2021 and is an alumna of the Perlman Music Program and Juilliard School Pre-College Division.
Joshua Shapiro grew up in West Orange, New Jersey, and attended Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School in Livingston. At Kushner, Shapiro was captain of the varsity basketball and baseball teams and senior editor of the school newspaper. In recent summers, Shapiro worked as a counselor at Camp Moshava, Indian Orchard, and the Tikvah Scholars Program. Shapiro spent two years prior to entering college studying in Israel at Yeshivat Orayta, where he founded and managed the Orayta Food Bank and participated in the Tikvah Overseas Student Institute. Now a Straus Scholar at Yeshiva University, Shapiro writes for The Commentator and is pursuing a major in English. Shapiro also serves as the Co-President of Yeshiva University’s Tikvah Campus Chapter along with Shai Kohn.
Benji Elkins is a senior at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in history, with a concentration in intellectual history, and classical studies. Benji has previously engaged with Tikvah as a Beren Summer Fellow where he worked as a personal research assistant to Dr. Michael Doran, investigating U.S.-Israeli relations. On campus, he has served as president of the foreign policy club, The Alexander Hamilton Society, co-President of the legal society, JLAW, senior editor of Penn’s satire magazine, Under the Button, and is active in Hillel, Meor, and Chabad. This past semester, he was also honored to be a National Defense Fellow at the 2025 Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California. His paper, “Practical Just War: St. Augustine & His Framing of Just War Theory” was awarded first place for the Mandell Prize for Distinguished Critical Writing, considered from all feature-length articles published in a Penn undergraduate journal. Benji has strong interests in Zionism, Judaism, comedy, and hacky-sack. He plans to make aliyah after college with an eventual goal of working for the Knesset.
