04/10/2026
๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ถ๐ฐ ๐๐๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ๐ผ๐น๐ผ๐ด๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น ๐ฆ๐ฒ๐บ๐ถ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ ๐ฆ๐๐๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐๐ต๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ป ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐๐๐ฆ๐ฃ๐ ๐๐๐ต๐ถ๐ฐ๐ ๐๐ฒ๐น๐น๐ผ๐๐๐ต๐ถ๐ฝ: Ben Sides Joins Groundbreaking Program for Clergy Students and Early-Career Professionals
New York, NY โ Ben Sides, a student at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, is one of 14 Fellows chosen for the 2026 Clergy Program of the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE).
Now in its sixteenth year, FASPE annually grants 80-90 Fellowships to graduate students and early-career professionals in the fields of Business, Clergy, Design & Technology, Journalism, Law, and Medicine. Fellows participate in a two-week program in Germany and Poland, which uses the conduct of professionals in N**i-occupied Europe as an initial framework for approaching ethical responsibility in the professions today.
The FASPE curriculum takes advantage of the power of place with daily seminars and dialogue at sites of historic importance, often specific to each profession. The experience of the Clergy Fellows is enhanced by traveling alongside the Journalism and Medical Fellows, whoโin formal and informal settingsโconsider together how ethical constructs and norms in their respective professions align and differ.
โWe are living in a fraught moment when professionals face crucial ethical choices that in some instances are reminiscent of choices professionals faced in N**i Germany. FASPEโs emphasis on examining why so many professionals made poor choices, how we might identify with their decision-making, and the horrific consequences of their choices helps to instill in professionals a rigorous and reflective approach that is valuable at any time, but particularly in a perilous moment like this one,โ said Noah Bookbinder, FASPEโs CEO.
The 2026 Fellowship will take place in Germany and Poland over the course of two weeks this summer. The Clergy Program will be led by Rabbi Amy Wallk of Temple Beth El, and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, assistant director for partnerships and fellowships and lecturer at the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School.
Ben will graduate with an MDiv. from Iliff School of Theology in May 2026 and with a Certificate of Advanced Theological Studies from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in May 2027. He is a candidate for ordination in the Lutheran Church (ELCA). Ben received his BA in Music from Luther College in 2017, and has been a church musician and public school teacher.
Thinking ahead to the upcoming fellowship trip, Sides shared, โAs authoritarian regimes continue to rise and consolidate power to wield in increasingly oppressive ways, it is more urgent than ever to learn from the lessons of our past and the dynamic voices of the present. As a future pastor, I want to be as equipped as possible to meet the challenges of the moment, to build and empower communities and individuals in the work of justice, and to have the kinds of difficult conversations that enable real change. I would be profoundly grateful both to learn from the collective wisdom of FASPE how to approach these topics with dignity and grace and to be part of a broad and diverse community that shares that call.โ
Sides joins a diverse group of 84 FASPE Fellows across all six programs who were chosen through a competitive process that drew over 1,400 applicants from across the U.S. and the world. FASPE covers all program costs, including travel, food and lodging.
FASPE Fellows become members of a community of nearly 1,000 alumni. Through an annual reunion conference, leadership-development workshops, ethics symposia hosted in partnership with major academic and industry institutions, continued trips to ethically significant historical sites, and alumni writing, including in the Auschwitz Memorial and Museumโs Memoria Magazine, FASPE maintains long-term relationships with its Fellows in order to sustain a commitment to ethical behavior and to provide a forum for continued dialogue. Through FASPEโs Ethical Tensions Conversations, for example, alumni reflect upon and discuss the vital professional ethical issues of our own day in the spirit of open inquiry.
To learn more about FASPE and its programs, visit www.faspe-ethics.org.
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Please join us in congratulating Ben!! ๐ฅณ
