KIVUNIM Gap-Year Program Director - Job Description
The Kivunim Institute is seeking a Director for our Gap-Year Program based in Jerusalem, Israel. This is a senior on-the-ground educational leadership role for someone who can combine mentorship, intellectual seriousness, operational discipline, and mature judgment in a complex international setting. The KIVUNIM Gap-Year Program Director should comfortably identify with Kivunim’s Mission and the broader values it represents for Jewish life.
The position of KIVUNIM Gap-Year Program Director offers a unique opportunity to shape the future of Jewish leadership through deep, meaningful relationships with the next generation. It is a position that fosters both personal and professional growth through continual learning, exposure to new ideas and perspectives, and transformative experiences. Former Directors have described it as one of the most powerful and rewarding experiences of their lives—work that is meaningful, impactful, enriching, and deeply fulfilling.
The Ideal Candidate is a mature, emotionally intelligent educational leader who can build trust with young adults, handle ambiguity while encouraging nuanced understandings, exercise sound judgment under pressure, effectively manage and collaborate with faculty and staff, and represent the institution with parents, partners, and communities abroad. The ideal Candidate has broad intellectual and aesthetic interests and an authentic openness to diversity and complexity that accompanies it. The Candidate must reside in and have permission to work in Israel.
The KIVUNIM Gap-Year Program Director is the operational and educational leader of the Gap Year Program. Responsibilities include, although are not limited to:
Student Life, Mentorship & Academic Progress
- Imagine, encourage, supervise, and support the full student experience throughout the program year, including student life, academic progress, personal welfare, community culture, discipline, mental health, safety, and personal development.
- Serve as a visible and accessible presence for students, building trust while maintaining appropriate boundaries, expectations, and accountability.
Academic Program Integration & Design
- Advance the integration of Kivunim’s academic curriculum with travel, field-based education, site visits, guest speakers, and the broader goals of the program.
- Work with faculty and senior leadership to ensure the Kivunim experience is intellectually rigorous, coherent, and meaningfully connected to the program’s mission, values, and educational themes.
- Lead the ongoing development and expansion of Kivunim’s academic curriculum and integrated pedagogical approaches.
Staff Leadership & Program Operations
- Provide staff leadership, direction, and supervision for full-time staff, part-time educators, consultants, vendors, and other program contributors.
- Promote a healthy, accountable, collaborative, and mission-aligned staff culture while overseeing day-to-day program execution and administrative coordination that include managing the budget and hiring staff.
Travel, Safety & Risk Management
- Lead and oversee local and international educational travel, including logistics, vendors, itineraries, safety protocols, emergency response, crisis management, and risk mitigation.
- Manage risk exposure in coordination with senior leadership, relevant professionals, and local partners, with particular attention to student welfare, staff preparedness, travel conditions, and institutional responsibility.
Institutional Representation
- Represent Kivunim in local and international forums, including with parents, alumni, partner organizations, guest educators, host communities, vendors, and external stakeholders.
- Serve as a key public-facing representative of the program, coordinating with senior leadership on communications, public inquiries, sensitive issues, and matters affecting the reputation and standing of the institution.
The initial year will include significant orientation, support and supervision from the Founder and from former Directors in a consulting capacity. The expectation is for this position to evolve into a highly independent and creative professional opportunity.
Professional Qualifications
- Educational Background: The KIVUNIM Gap-Year Program Director should have a minimum of a MA in a humanities-based field of study. Advanced degrees and/or certifications preferred, although not required. A degree in Jewish Studies, History or Rabbinic ordination is a plus.
- Experience:
- Experience working with North American upper high school and/or college youth in both formal and informal educational settings.
- Experience managing a small team of full-time employees with varying levels of experience, as well as managing part-time teachers, consultants and vendors.
- Experience in leading groups and managing complex travel logistics in Israel and abroad.
- Experience determining the direction and core objectives of an educational organization’s mission and building a framework to execute the strategy.
- Experience in managing a budget.
- Specific skills:
- Outstanding leadership and organizational skills.
- Fluency in Hebrew and English. Proficiency or fluency in Arabic is a plus.
- Computer competency in Google Drive, Google Classroom, Word, Excel and other relevant programs, apps, and software.
- Skills in Shabbat observance and practice, holiday customs and ceremonies and other traditional aspects of Jewish life are essential.
- Ability to teach within either humanities-based course of the Kivunim curriculum.
- Exceptional communication and public speaking skills.
Personal and Leadership qualities we are seeking include:
The candidate should model a Jewish lifestyle that embodies a universalism within a Jewish particularism, a commitment to issues of social justice, human rights and civil rights as being critical to the Jewish experience, and a love of, and fascination with, the historic and contemporary experience of the Jewish people across the world.
The candidate must be intellectually, ideologically and operationally flexible, interested in new ideas and challenging thought, unafraid of the controversial and fascinated by nuance.
The candidate should have experience in program and institutional operations management.
Salary is paid in Israeli Shekalim (ILS) and is commensurate with experience. The KIVUNIM Gap-Year Program Director has a one month summer vacation and time off during student Winter break and Passover break, in addition to at least 10 “free Shabbatot” during the Israel-based portion of the program year. The KIVUNIM Gap-Year Program Director has the ability to live and work outside of Israel during the summer months – mid-June through late-August.
To apply please send a resume and cover letter to [email protected] with the subject line: “LAST NAME, FIRST NAME - “Kivunim Gap-Year Director.” Applicants should carefully review the Kivunim website and job description before applying and reflect that in their resume and cover letter.
Start date: Ideally the start date is September 1st, 2026. However, we will make adjustments and accommodations for the desired candidate.