The Olam
Bend the Arc's Selah Pipeline: 400 Leaders, Zero Transparency
Global Jewish Philanthropy

Bend the Arc's Selah Pipeline: 400 Leaders, Zero Transparency

The Olam Editorial Team
The Olam Editorial Team
Editorial Team
Aug 26, 2026

Bend the Arc says its Selah Leadership Program has trained 400+ leaders across 200+ Jewish and secular organizations since 2002. There is no public alumni directory. Olam maps the network from public records — and finds how little the Jewish community can see.

Spielberg Foundation Investigation Series:

How Bend the Arc Trained 400+ Jewish Leaders — and Where They Went

Since 2002, Bend the Arc — the Soros-chaired, Spielberg-funded progressive Jewish organization — has run what may be the most consequential leadership training program in American Jewish life. The Selah Leadership Program has trained more than 400 leaders across 200+ Jewish and secular organizations. They sit on boards. They run programs. They shape institutional policy. They hire staff.

And Bend the Arc does not publish the alumni list.

This is an organization that rallied for Mahmoud Khalil, endorsed Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York, demanded an arms embargo against Israel, and opposed the IHRA definition of antisemitism. It has been training Jewish communal leaders for more than two decades — yet no investigative outlet has mapped the alumni network. No Jewish institution has asked where these graduates ended up.

Olam tried to map the network from publicly available sources. What follows is what we found — and what we could not find.

What Is Selah: A 22-Year Training Program With No Public Alumni Directory

The Selah Leadership Program was created in 2002 as a partnership between Bend the Arc (then Jewish Funds for Justice) and the Rockwood Leadership Institute. It is described as the first leadership training program designed specifically for Jewish leaders working across the social change field.

The structure: Each cohort brings 20 leaders together for seven days of intensive training over a six-month period. Training operates on three levels: the individual, the institution, and the field. Upon completion, alumni join the Selah Network — a permanent, internal alumni community for ongoing coordination and relationship-building.

The scale: Over 400 alumni from 200+ organizations. At least 17 cohorts over 22 years. 90 alumni from dedicated Jews of Color cohorts (launched in 2015 with Cohort 14). Cost per participant exceeds $7,000 — subsidized by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, Jim Joseph Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Joyce and Irving Goldman Family Foundation, Grossberg Abrams Foundation, Mandel-Rodis Fund, and the Jews of Color Field-Building Fund.

The current phase: Bend the Arc describes Selah's latest evolution as building "a multiracial alumni Community of Praxis focused on anti-racist, pro-Black praxis." The language is specific: not leadership training, but praxis — the application of ideology to institutional action.

The transparency gap: Bend the Arc does not publish a Selah alumni directory. The Selah Network is internal. No searchable database exists. The organization — which has no active dues-paying members shaping its agenda, according to Tablet Magazine — has trained hundreds of leaders inside Jewish communal life and does not publicly disclose who they are or where they work.

How the Pipeline Was Built: Simon Greer, Stosh Cotler, and the Rockwood Takeover

Tablet Magazine's May 2020 investigation "Bending the Jews" — the only investigative piece ever published on the Selah pipeline — documented the program's origins and internal mechanics.

In 2005, Simon Greer became CEO of Jewish Fund for Justice (JFJ). Within six months, he installed four participants from a Rockwood Leadership Institute training retreat onto his executive staff — including Stosh Cotler. The existing leadership network was renamed the Selah Leadership Program and brought under Greer's control at JFJ, with Cotler directly overseeing day-to-day operations.

The Nathan Cummings Foundation — endowed by the founder of Sara Lee Corp. — administered the Selah funding through Jennie Rosenn, head of its Jewish Life program. Bend the Arc received approximately one-sixth of its annual $6 million budget from Cummings. Tablet noted that the foundation's operational involvement with Selah was unusual — it did not otherwise involve itself this way with the organizations it financed.

Cotler went on to become Bend the Arc CEO (2014–2022), running the Selah program for nearly two decades. Before her Jewish communal career, Cotler was an activist in Portland, Oregon, where she founded Open Hand (self-defense training for women), participated in the Jewish Radical Action Project and Jews for Global Justice, protested Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's visit during the Second Intifada, and staged a mock Israeli checkpoint in downtown Portland. She was named one of the Forward's 14 Jewish Women to Watch (2014) and Center for American Progress's 15 Progressive Faith Leaders to Watch (2015).

Greer later became head of Bend the Arc Jewish Action — and then joined the Nathan Cummings Foundation itself. The architect of the Selah pipeline moved into the foundation that funded it.

The Selah Network: Who Olam Can Identify From Public Records

Despite the absence of a public directory, organizational bios, conference programs, fellowship directories, and media coverage identify a number of confirmed Selah participants and key program figures. Olam has separated graduates from program personnel and institutional affiliates.

Confirmed Selah Alumni

Yoshi Silverstein — Selah alumnus. Senior Schusterman Fellow. Board member of Repair the World. Former Director of the JOFEE Fellowship at Hazon. Alumnus of the Dorot Fellowship and Jewish Pedagogies Fellowship with M2: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education. Awarded the Pomegranate Prize. Named a 2021 "Grist 50 Fixer." Now leads the Mitsui Collective.

Yehudah Webster — Selah alumnus. Also a graduate of JFREJ's Grace Paley Organizing Fellowship. Speaks nationally on racial justice and building space for Jews of Color in Jewish institutional life. Facilitates workshops across the United States.

Anjelica N. Ruiz — Selah Cohort 16 alumna. Director of Libraries and Archives at Temple Emanu-El, Dallas. Previously at the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas (Center for Jewish Education). Sits on the ADL Texoma Regional Board and the grant advisory committee for the Jews of Color Initiative. Also alumna of ADL's Glass Leadership Institute.

Selah Program Directors and Trainers

Stosh Cotler — CEO of Bend the Arc (2014–2022). Built and ran the Selah program. Trained 300+ leaders before stepping down. Now Senior Advisor.

Rabbi Jason Kimelman-Block — Rabbi-in-Residence and Deputy Director of Bend the Arc Jewish Action. Directed the Selah Leadership Program directly.

Yavilah McCoy — Lead consultant and trainer for Selah Cohort 15 (Jews of Color cohort). CEO of VISIONS Inc. Fellow at Auburn Theological Seminary. Previously directed the Ruderman Synagogue Inclusion Project for Combined Jewish Philanthropies in Boston. Founding director of Ayecha.

Sivan Battat — Current Selah Program Manager.

Jennie Rosenn — Former head of the Nathan Cummings Foundation's Jewish Life program. Administered Selah program funding directly.

Bend the Arc Staff With Documented Ties to the Selah Ecosystem

Dove Kent — Executive Director of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) in New York. Also served as Bend the Arc's Senior Strategy Officer. Co-founder of The Tzedek Lab, which provides infrastructure support to IfNotNow.

Michelle Reyf — Bend the Arc's Digital Organizing Manager. Tablet documented Reyf volunteering for IfNotNow and identifying herself as part of IfNotNow's digital strategy team.

Rabbi Aryeh Cohen — Bend the Arc's Rabbi-in-Residence. Appeared alongside Never Again Action protest organizers during 2019 demonstrations at immigrant detention centers.

Simon Greer — Former CEO of Jewish Funds for Justice. Architect of the Selah program takeover. Later joined the Nathan Cummings Foundation.

Where the Alumni Work: Institutional Map From Public Sources

From the confirmed individuals above, Olam can document Selah alumni or close Bend the Arc program affiliates holding current or former leadership positions at the following institutions:

Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ). Repair the World. Hazon. Combined Jewish Philanthropies (Boston). Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas. Temple Emanu-El (Dallas). ADL Texoma Regional Board. Avodah. Bronfman Philanthropies. Auburn Theological Seminary. CLAL. Rabbis Without Borders (Clal). Jews of Color Initiative. Nathan Cummings Foundation. Mitsui Collective.

This is the portion visible from publicly available sources. Olam could not identify the large majority of the 400+ alumni from public records. The Selah Network remains internal.

What Tablet Found in 2020 — and What Has Changed Since

Sean Cooper's "Bending the Jews" ran in Tablet Magazine in May 2020 — the only investigative piece ever published on the Selah pipeline. Tablet found that Bend the Arc has "no active dues-paying members who participate in the shaping of their agenda," and documented the porous boundary between Bend the Arc's institutional pipeline and direct-action groups like IfNotNow and Never Again Action.

That investigation ran before October 7, 2023. Since then, Bend the Arc has expanded from domestic-only advocacy into direct engagement on U.S.–Israel policy. Olam's full Bend the Arc entity profile documents each of these campaigns in detail. Nobody has revisited the Selah pipeline since.

Who Funded Selah Specifically

Selah funders identified by Bend the Arc and public records: Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation. Jim Joseph Foundation. Nathan Cummings Foundation. Joyce and Irving Goldman Family Foundation. Grossberg Abrams Foundation. Mandel-Rodis Fund. Jews of Color Field-Building Fund.

Steven Spielberg's Righteous Persons Foundation gave $1.2 million to Bend the Arc (2020–2024). The RPF grants supported the organization broadly; Olam has not identified grant language specifying Selah as a designated use. For the complete Bend the Arc funding map see Bend the Arc's Money Map.

The Question Every Jewish Board Should Be Asking

400+ people were trained. 200+ organizations were represented. The alumni network continues to operate. Yet there is no public roster allowing Jewish donors, boards, or community members to understand the network's institutional reach.

This is a documented transparency gap. Organizations that train hundreds of leaders who go on to hold decision-making roles across Jewish communal life, and maintain an ongoing alumni network for coordination, should disclose who they trained and where those alumni work.

Olam will continue building the alumni map from public sources. If you are a Selah alumnus, work with one, or have documentation of the program's institutional reach, contact the editorial team.

The question isn't just what Bend the Arc believes. It's who they built.