Summer 2026 Internship

The Jerusalem Fund for Education and Community Development

Washington, D.C. | June 1, 2026 – August 14, 2026 | 30 hours per week

About The Jerusalem Fund

The Jerusalem Fund for Education and Community Development is an independent, registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. Our mission is to foster greater awareness about Palestine—both in the United States and abroad—and to ameliorate the lives of Palestinians in Palestine and in the diaspora.

We pursue this mission through three main programs: The Palestine Center, our educational and policy-analysis arm; The Humanitarian Link, our humanitarian and community development arm; and Gallery Al-Quds, our cultural arm. Together, these three strands reinforce one another in telling the Palestinian story, supporting Palestinian life, and deepening public understanding of the broader political, cultural, and humanitarian dynamics shaping the Middle East and America’s role in the region.

Position Overview

The Jerusalem Fund is seeking Summer 2026 interns for a structured, portfolio-based internship program in Washington, D.C. This is an intensive 11-week opportunity for college students with a serious interest in Palestine, the Middle East, and the role of the United States in the region, including questions related to U.S.–Palestine, U.S.–Israel, and wider U.S.–Middle East relations.

The program is designed for students who want to contribute to research, public education, cultural programming, and humanitarian storytelling while gaining mentorship, professional experience, and exposure to Washington’s policy and media ecosystem. Interns will be treated not as extra hands, but as junior colleagues. Each intern will be placed in one primary portfolio and will contribute to the broader work of the Fund through research, writing, event support, archiving, outreach, and related projects.

Portfolio Placement

Summer 2026 interns will be placed in one primary portfolio. Applicants should indicate their top three portfolio preferences and rank them from 1 to 3 in their application materials. Final placement will depend on applicant fit, portfolio availability, and the needs of the Fund.

Available portfolios include:

War, Conflict, and Politics

This portfolio focuses on the political, diplomatic, and military dimensions of Palestine today, including Israel’s war on Gaza, the intensifying realities of occupation in the West Bank, and the broader structures of colonization, military control, and settler violence shaping Palestinian life. It also gives significant attention to U.S.–Palestine, U.S.–Israel, and wider U.S.–Middle East relations, including U.S. foreign policy, military and economic aid, domestic political debates in the United States, congressional and media discourse, lobbying and public opinion, and ongoing arguments over intervention, alliance commitments, and whether U.S. policy in the region is being defined around American priorities or unconditional support for Israel. Palestine is approached here not in isolation, but as a central question within broader regional and international politics.

Tech Policy

This portfolio examines technology, data, AI, surveillance, and digital infrastructure in relation to Palestine, while also exploring the role of U.S. technology firms, cloud providers, defense contractors, and digital platforms in shaping the present and future of the Middle East. Interns in this portfolio may work on questions at the intersection of Palestine, American power, emerging technology, and public policy.

Arts and Culture

This portfolio is anchored in Gallery Al-Quds and focuses on Palestinian arts and culture in Palestine and across the diaspora, with attention to memory, erasure, and cultural storytelling. It also invites reflection on how Palestinian cultural production travels across the United States, the Arab world, and the wider Middle East, and how art, film, music, and literature shape public understanding of Palestine in American and international contexts.

Humanitarian and Community Resilience

This portfolio centers on the human cost of war, occupation, siege, and displacement, and on stories of resilience, mutual aid, and Palestinian-led initiatives that sustain life and community. It also encourages attention to the broader humanitarian landscape of the Middle East, including the role of U.S. policy, international aid systems, nonprofit institutions, and regional civil society networks in shaping conditions on the ground.

Key Responsibilities

Intern responsibilities may include research and writing in support of the Palestine Center and other arms of the Fund; portfolio-based written or digital work such as backgrounders, short essays, interviews, explainers, storytelling pieces, and simple visual content; archiving, cataloguing, and digitization projects; event planning and staffing; outreach and social media support; and limited administrative support where needed.

Interns will also participate in cohort meetings, guest sessions, and selected professional exposure opportunities in Washington, D.C. Over the course of the internship, they will be expected to produce meaningful work that reflects strong research, clear writing, and thoughtful engagement with Palestine and the wider region.

Required Skills

• Strong writing, research, and analytical ability
• Demonstrated interest in Palestine, the Middle East, and related U.S. foreign policy, cultural, or humanitarian questions
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail
• Professionalism, reliability, and the ability to manage deadlines
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a fast-moving nonprofit environment
• Arabic language skills
• Basic visual communication skills, including familiarity with Canva and/or Adobe tools
• Clear interest in emerging technologies and AI, and their growing role in public life, media, policy, culture, and the Middle East
• Practical AI fluency and the ability to use AI tools productively and responsibly for research, writing support, summarization, brainstorming, workflow improvement, and content development while exercising human judgment, fact-checking, and source awareness

Preferred Skills

• Prior experience with research, student journalism, publications, archives, oral history, digital communications, event planning, or multimedia storytelling
• Stronger design skills in Adobe Creative Suite, Canva, or similar platforms, especially for applicants interested in outreach, social media, cultural programming, or digital storytelling
• Familiarity with AI, digital policy, vibe coding, data, platform governance, or AI ethics, especially for applicants interested in the Tech Policy portfolio
• Completion of Anthropic’s AI Fluency for Nonprofits course or similar structured AI training for mission-driven organizations
• Experience working across disciplines such as policy, media, culture, or nonprofit programming

Required Education

Current undergraduate student, or recent graduate, with a serious interest in Palestine, the Middle East, and related public affairs, technology, cultural, or humanitarian issues.

Preferred Education

Academic background in one or more of the following fields is especially welcome: Middle East Studies, History, Political Science, International Affairs, Journalism, Anthropology, Sociology, Human Rights, Public Health, Cultural Studies, Media Studies, Computer Science, Data Science, Information Science, or related fields.

What Interns Will Gain

Interns can expect a structured summer experience that includes direct mentorship and feedback from senior staff, experience in research and writing, exposure to the work of a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., and opportunities to engage with public events, guest speakers, and selected D.C.-based visits or conversations. Interns will also have the opportunity to produce a body of professional work that can support future academic and career goals in fields such as policy, media, academia, culture, nonprofit work, and international affairs.

A central part of the internship is professional development. Interns will receive academic and career coaching support throughout the summer, including guidance on research, writing, presenting ideas publicly, and thinking through next steps in graduate study, internships, fellowships, or longer-term career paths. The program is designed not only to help interns contribute meaningful work to The Jerusalem Fund, but also to help them grow as thinkers, writers, and emerging professionals.

Throughout the internship, interns will participate in regular cohort sessions and receive one-on-one guidance. At the end of the term, each intern may nominate one research-based piece for the Hisham Sharabi Prize for Best Writing, and one winner will receive a $250 honorarium.

The internship will also culminate in an end-of-summer Interns’ Conference at The Jerusalem Fund. Over the course of the program, interns will develop original projects through research, writing, mentorship, and public-facing work. This closing event will bring those strands together through student presentations, discussion, and Q&A, and will give interns the opportunity to share their work with staff, invited guests, and members of the wider community.

Stipend

Each summer intern will receive a $1,200 stipend for successful completion of the program.

Schedule and Location

Dates: June 1, 2026 – August 14, 2026

Duration: 11 weeks

Hours: 30 hours per week

Location: Primarily in person at The Jerusalem Fund office in Washington, D.C., within walking distance of the U.S. Department of State, Embassy Row, historic Georgetown, Dupont Circle, and the K Street corridor.

Application Instructions

Applications for the Summer 2026 Internship Program are due by Friday, May 1, 2026.

Applicants will be asked to complete an application form and upload the following materials:

• A cover letter
• A resume
• A transcript
• A writing sample
• Their top three portfolio preferences, ranked from 1 to 3
• The names and contact information of two professional references (or signed letters of recommendations)

If you have questions or have trouble filling the form, please send your application to info@thejerusalemfund.org