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Hebrew College receives $250,000 grant for interfaith fellowship

Hebrew College in Newton has been awarded a three-year, $250,000 grant to develop and expand a fellowship program for area undergraduate students to serve as interfaith leaders on their campuses and in the broader community, the college said in a statement.

The grant, issued by the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, will support the Boston Interfaith Leadership Initiative at the college’s Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership, the statement said.

The fellowship was launched in August 2017 to provide a space where college student leaders could build a network of peers and mentors, as well as their leadership skills. The Miller Center trains religious and ethical leaders with the skills to serve in a religiously diverse society, the statement said.

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Rabbi Or Rose, who helped launch the fellowship and serves as the Miller Center’s director, said the program provides students with an “opportunity for substantive learning and cooperative programming across multiple traditions.”

The yearlong program includes undergraduate students from Bentley University, Boston University, Brown University, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University, Tufts University, and Wellesley College. The expanded program will include students from four additional schools, the statement said.

“Each cohort includes religious and secular students from an array of spiritual and cultural traditions and a diversity of geographic, racial, and socio-economic backgrounds,” the statement said.

The grant will help support publishing resources to bolster interfaith programming on college campuses. It also will help participants explore the possibility of creating similar interfaith initiatives in other parts of the country.

Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, Hebrew College’s president, said the school is committed to “religious depth and openness” while building a world of dignity and compassion for all.

“We are thrilled that The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations’ grant will enable us to share this commitment with undergraduates throughout Boston and beyond, empowering them to cultivate their own religious lives and their connections with one another,” Anisfeld said.

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John Hilliard can be reached at john.hilliard@globe.com