All Jewish young adults – age 18 through 39 – are eligible to apply to be a mentee. While the program primarily focuses on those who live and work in the San Francisco Bay Area, we invite those outside of the area to apply with an understanding that their mentorship would most likely be held virtually.

• Mentors promote growth and are excellent guides for personal and professional development.
• Mentors are a source of knowledge. Based on their experience, mentors can provide advice on the proper path to success.
• Mentors can influence goal setting and play a role in setting personal or professional development goals.
• Mentors can support progress and help mentees stay focused on their goals.
• Mentors motivate and instill confidence in their mentees. They provide encouragement to keep their mentees motivated. They also support mentees in getting over obstacles that hold them back.
• Mentors could help in building professional networks by connecting mentees to experienced individuals.
• Mentors are good sounding boards. They can provide unbiased advice by using their knowledge and experience to help the mentee evaluate potential ideas.
• Mentors are trusted advisors. Trust is earned and is the core element of the relationships between the mentor and mentee. Trust is a two-way street. In a good relationship where trust is established, information is shared freely and ideas have a better chance in being fully evaluated.
• Mentors can offer honest and unbiased feedback. They can identify strengths and weaknesses in a strategy or a plan and offer unbiased and objective remedies.
• Mentors can help in setting guidelines to establish focus, purpose or direction.
• Mentors can share successes and failures from their own journey and provide examples for the mentee to consider if they are following a similar path.
• Mentors are valuable resources who guide mentees toward a meaningful and successful life. A mentor’s only motivation is their mentee’s success.

Mentorship is a long-term commitment designed to help an individual navigate their personal and professional journey. A mentor shares their knowledge, skills and experience, to guide a mentee and help them develop and grow on a personal and professional level.

Coaching is a defined engagement to meet a specific need. A coach provides guidance to help an individual reach a defined goal and maximize their potential in a specific area.

Experienced, values-driven, ethical, and successful Jewish business and community leaders are encouraged to apply to be mentors. While we expect most mentors to live or work in the San Francisco Bay, we welcome all qualified potential mentors to apply, regardless of your physical location. The increased capability of Zoom and other virtual meeting technologies allows for effective mentorship matches that span distance.

• Build rapport with a young adult while improving your interpersonal and communication skills
• Improve your leadership and management skills
• Share and expand your knowledge and learn new perspectives
• Expand your network
• Feel accomplished and build positive recognition
• Add to your resume and get a sense of fulfillment
• Participate in a fantastic learning opportunity
• Learn new perspectives and increase your confidence

JMentors is facilitating mentor and mentee communities that provide a platform for socializing, creating new connections, sharing experiences and discussing topics of common interest and concern. The community strengthens the bond between participants, provides a learning platform for special interest groups and for exploring the history of mentorship in the Jewish culture. Together we evaluate the impact, efficiency and quality of the program and explore new avenues to interact and make an impact.

J Leaders uses a J Leaders-developed and proprietary algorithm in determining optimal matches that as closely as possible aligns the interests, expertise, and goals of both the mentee and mentor. Before match pairs are finalized, we will ask the pair to hold a short initial exploratory meeting to meet their mentorship partner and determine if they want to move forward with this match. In the event that either the mentee and mentor do not want to move forward with this match, another match might be possible.

J Leaders was founded on the principle of “Impactful Leadership Development Illuminated by Jewish Wisdom”. While this mentorship program is not intended to be religious in nature, it is fundamentally based on the importance of using Jewish values and wisdom as guiding lights to living a successful and ethical life. Mentors are encouraged to bring in Jewish ethics as appropriate in support of the mentorship relationship.

The program is offered at no cost to either mentees or mentors. In the spirit of Tikkun Olam (Repairing the World), a voluntary donation to J Leaders would be gratefully appreciated to allow us to continue to offer this program, grow the program, and elevate other J Leaders programs.

Mentees and mentors can expect to spend between 3 to 5 hours a month, depending on the expectations and preferences of each pair.

We advise – whenever possible – that the first meeting of mentorship pairs be in-person and at a public location. After the initial meeting, mentor pairs can choose to talk in-person or virtually. Most pairs decide to hold their conversations on a monthly or bi-monthly basis.

JHTC has run mentorship programs primarily to the Silicon Valley community for the past 7 years, and have provided a life-changing mentorship program to hundreds of Jewish young adults and experiences Jewish business and community leaders. Now, J Leaders and JHTC are working together to expand and deliver this mentorship program to the San Francisco Bay Area community.