Fellowship awards at the Center for Jewish History support cutting-edge research in the rich collections of the Center's partners - American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum, and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. More than 150 humanities scholars at various stages of their careers and research projects have taken up residence at the Center and profited from opportunities to share their work with leading scholars in their fields. Support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and other funders has been critical in helping to build an interdisciplinary community of scholars.
While in residence at the Center on year-long or short-term fellowships, fellows are invited to participate in a vibrant academic community that engages students and scholars from North America, Europe, and Israel and creates space of intellectual exchanges and public scholarship. Comprised of 16 leading scholars in Jewish Studies, the Center's Academic Advisory Council provides oversight and offers an additional professional resource to fellows. Fellows are additionally invited to take part in regularly scheduled Scholars Working Groups that bring together expert faculty to discuss new Jewish Studies research.
For a complete list of available fellowship programs, please click below to view descriptions and application guidelines. Questions about the fellowship program may be directed to Malgorzata Bakalarz-Duverger, Director of Academic Programs.
The application deadline for the NEH Scholar in Residence starting in Fall 2021 is December 1, 2020.
Through the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) the Center for Jewish History (the Center) invites applications for an NEH Scholar in Residence that will support original research conducted at the Center. Applications are welcome from scholars working in a broad range of fields within the humanities and social sciences. The application deadline is December 1, 2020 for a residency beginning in September 2021.
Applications are welcome from scholars in any field who have completed a PhD more than six years prior to the start of the fellowship and whose research will benefit considerably from consultation with materials in the collections of the Center’s partners – American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum, and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
Fellowships carry a stipend of $60,000 for a period of 12 months. Fellows are expected to conduct original research at the Center, deliver at least one public program based on the research conducted, actively participate in the scholarly community at the Center, and be a mentor to the graduate student and postdoctoral fellows also in residence. Fellows must acknowledge the Center and the National Endowment for the Humanities in all publications resulting from research completed during the fellowship, and submit a report upon completion of the fellowship describing the experience.
Download the Application Guidelines
The NEH Scholar in Residence will join a larger cohort of long- and short-term fellows within the Center’s Fellowship Program. The Center seeks to build a fellowship cohort that is diverse in race, ethnicity, and gender as well as academic rank, geographic location, and field of study. Qualified individuals who would bring diverse perspectives and experiences to the fellowship are especially encouraged to apply.
Malgorzata Bakalarz-Duverger, Ph.D.
Director of Academic Programs
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
United States of America
Email: fellowships@cjh.org
The application deadline for Graduate Research Fellowships starting in Fall 2020 is December 20, 2019.
The Center for Jewish History offers ten-month fellowships to doctoral candidates to support original research using the collections of the Center’s partners - American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum, and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Preference is given to those candidates who draw on the library and archival resources of more than one partner institution. Fellows must be in residence at the Center from September 2020 through June 2021 and applicants should have completed all requirements (i.e., coursework, exams, dissertation proposal) for the doctoral degree except for the dissertation. It is required that each fellow spend a minimum of three days per week in residence in the Lillian Goldman Reading Room using the archival and library resources. Fellows must also participate in the Center for Jewish History Fellowship Seminar Program, attend bi-weekly meetings of the fellowship program cohort, deliver a minimum of one lecture based on research conducted at Center, and submit a report upon completion of the Fellowship describing her/his experience as a Center Fellow. Fellowships carry a stipend of $22,500 for a period of one academic year.
Download the Application Guidelines
Malgorzata Bakalarz-Duverger, Ph.D.
Director of Academic Programs
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
United States of America
Email: fellowships@cjh.org
The application deadline for the CJH-Fordham University Research Fellowship is February 1, 2020.
Fordham University's Center for Jewish Studies and the Center for Jewish History offer a joint short-term research fellowship in Jewish Studies for scholars outside the New York City metropolitan area whose research focuses on Jewish-Christian relations and who wish to conduct research based on materials housed at the Center for Jewish History and Fordham University.
The fellow is expected to spend at least a month at the two host institutions, but may stay as long as five months. The fellow's stay must coincide with either the fall or spring Fordham University academic semesters. The stipend for this fellowship is $5,000.
The fellow will receive affiliation with Fordham University, and will be required to offer a faculty seminar, and a public lecture, which would be a joint event of Fordham and CJH with alternate venues. The fellow is also expected to participate in scholarly seminars and other meetings at the Center for Jewish History and Fordham University.
The CJH-Fordham Research Fellowship in Jewish-Christian Relations is made possible by funds from the Center for Jewish History, the Eugene Shvidler Gift Fund at Fordham University, and additional gift funds to Jewish Studies at Fordham University.
Download the Application Guidelines
Malgorzata Bakalarz-Duverger, Ph.D.
Director of Academic Programs
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
United States of America
Email: fellowships@cjh.org
The Center for Jewish History offers a Spring 2020 Teaching Fellowship for scholars/educators to prepare and present primary sources-based workshops to college and high school students, drawing from the collections of the Center’s partner institutions: The American Jewish Historical Society, The American Sephardi Federation, The Leo Baeck Institute, The Yeshiva University Museum, and The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. The stipend for the teaching fellowship is $8,000.
The Center has been developing educational workshops with primary sources for both high schools and universities – customized in response to specific educational and/or thematic requests from the faculty and students’ needs. Examples of our workshops in the fall semester include Antisemitism in the 1930s, Introduction to Research Methods, Europe at the Turn of 20th Century, Art and Social Movements, Issues of Immigration in the 19th and 20th Centuries, Jews in 19th Century America, Fashion Designers’ Creative Process, etc.
Workshops usually take between 60 and 90 minutes, and their formula includes student small-group hands-on activities with primary sources based on a worksheet, followed by short presentations student groups, facilitated by the Center’s educator.
The Teaching Fellow is expected to spend up to 10 hours a week at the Center during the spring semester (February 10-June 30), researching materials to be used in an educational context in response to the needs and requests of various groups, selecting primary sources and preparing worksheets (in collaboration with the Center’s educator), and leading workshops at the Center.
The Fellow will be encouraged to use the time at the Center as a research/learning project and will be provided with mentorship and intellectual support.
Download the Application Guidelines
Malgorzata Bakalarz-Duverger, Ph.D.
Director of Academic Programs
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
United States of America
Email: fellowships@cjh.org
The Center for Jewish History offers three short-term research fellowships for scholars outside the New York City metropolitan area who wish to conduct research based on the collections of the Center’s partner institutions: American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum, and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Priority will be given to projects drawing from collections of more than one partner institution.
The fellow is expected to spend at least three months at the Center between May 1, 2020 and May 31,2021. If summer months are considered, the fellow's stay must cover at least one month of an academic semester (e.g. May-July, August-October, December-February, etc). The stipend for the short-term fellowships is $6,500.
The fellow is expected to spend at least three days a week at the Center and participate in scholarly seminars and other meetings at the Center for Jewish History. The fellow is also required to deliver a talk presenting their research project and to submit a short final report regarding their time at the Center.Download the Application Guidelines
Malgorzata Bakalarz-Duverger, Ph.D.
Director of Academic Programs
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
United States of America
Email: fellowships@cjh.org
The Center for Jewish History is delighted to announce the Sid Lapidus Curatorial Fellowship — a new, three-month fellowship for curators to support their original research and conceptualization of exhibition projects that draw from the collections of the Center’s partner institutions: American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum, and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
The fellows will be able to consult the collections a) to inform and shape their new or in-process exhibition projects; b) to further contextualize in-process exhibitions with primary sources from the collections ; and c) to present and reference the collections in exhibition catalogues and accompanying materials, including digital components of exhibitions.
Please note that the conditions of usage and loans of any objects would be subject to separate agreements negotiated directly with the Center’s partner institutions.
Fellows must be in residence at the Center for a period of three consecutive months, chosen between May and December of 2020, with at least one month falling during the academic year (i.e. May or September).
During their residency, fellows will deliver at least one Master Class/workshop to students of curatorial studies. They are also expected to deliver a presentation about the project of their choice to a broader audience. The fellowship will conclude with a report on the fellow’s activity (an exhibition proposal and/or conceptualization of use of the collections in proposed exhibitions).
The successful applicants for the fellowship are late-junior to mid-career curators with experience in curating shows at diverse venues, such as museums and/or galleries, for at least 3 years. In reviewing the portfolio of exhibitions, preference will be given to those candidates whose projects are formally and/or conceptually interdisciplinary. Fellowships carry a stipend of $10,000 for a period of 3 months.
Download the Application Guidelines
Malgorzata Bakalarz-Duverger, Ph.D.
Director of Academic Programs
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
United States of America
Email: fellowships@cjh.org
The Center for Jewish History's Visiting Scholar Program invites scholars who have completed their doctorate or its equivalent to apply for an affiliation with the Center and to work in the collections of one or more of its partner institutions: American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum, and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. For their period of affiliation, Visiting Scholars will receive workspace at the Center and access to the collections housed at the Center for Jewish History. The Visiting Scholar Program does not provide a stipend or financial support.
Visiting Scholars will be expected to commit to a regular presence at the Center for a minimum of three months, working at the Center at least two days per week. Visiting Scholars are expected to play an active role in the Center's Fellowship Program activities by attending meetings with other fellows and either presenting an academic seminar on their work or participating in a public program. Scholars may apply to be affiliated with the Center for a full academic year (September - May), the fall semester (September - December) or spring semester (mid-January - May), or for the summer (June - August).
Junior and senior scholars, including those who are on leave from their home institutions, are encouraged to apply, as are independent scholars and scholars who are between academic appointments.
Download the Application Guidelines
Malgorzata Bakalarz-Duverger, Ph.D.
Director of Academic Programs
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
United States of America
Email: fellowships@cjh.org
The Center for Jewish History is happy to announce the Vivian J. Prins Foundation Artistic Residency — a new, three-month residency for non-US artists to support their original research and conceptualization of their projects that draw from the collections of the Center’s partner institutions: American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum, and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
We invite non-US artists whose artistic practice is research-informed, including, but not limited to the ideas around archives, gender, migration and displacement, and changemaking.
Artist must be in residence at the Center for a period of three consecutive months, chosen between May 1, 2020 and May 31, 2021, with at least one month falling during the academic year (i.e., May or September).
During their residency, artist will deliver at least one Master Class/workshop open to students of New York universities. The residency will conclude with an intervention, open to the public.
The successful applicants for the residency are junior to mid-career artists who are not US citizens, whose practice is research-informed. In reviewing the portfolio of artists, preference will be given to those candidates whose projects are formally and/or conceptually interdisciplinary.
Fellowships carry a stipend of $7,000 for a period of 3 months.Malgorzata Bakalarz-Duverger, Ph.D.
Director of Academic Programs
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
United States of America
Email: fellowships@cjh.org
The Center for Jewish History welcomes a new cohort of outstanding fellows to spend the 2019-2020 academic year engaged in their cutting-edge research. They will be working with the Center’s Partners’ archives on their original projects. Varying in their disciplinary and chronological scope, the fellows’ scholarship weaves a fascinating and complex picture of the field of Jewish studies today.
Each year the Center for Jewish History hosts a cohort of scholars as well as a distinguished senior scholar.
This year we are pleased to announce that Prof. Brian Ogren, Anna Smith Fine Associate Professor of Judaic Studies, Department of Religion at Rice University, joins us as the National Endowment for the Humanities Senior Scholar.
Prof. Ogren’s project, Kabbalah and the Founding of America: Christian Uses of Jewish Thought in the Nascent Republic explores the understudied area of exchange between early American Protestantism and Jewish thought. It will seek to broaden the understanding of the role that Jewish esoteric lore known as kabbalah and corresponding intellectual exchanges between Jews and Protestants played in the shaping of American notions of religious liberty, tolerance, and the formation of individual identity.
The 2019-20 CJH-Fordham University Fellow in Jewish-Christian Relations is Jessica Cooperman, Associate Professor at Religion Studies Department and Director of Jewish Studies Program at Muhlenberg College. Her project, called Jewish and Christian Passover Seders as Sites of Interfaith Engagement explores the proliferation of Christian and interfaith seders in the United States as a means of considering the ways that the Jewish holiday of Passover has been reinterpreted in modern American contexts. The project posits that Jews and Christians often enter into these interfaith encounters with different, at times opposing, social, political, and theological goals in mind.
Joining Prof. Ogren and prof. Cooperman will be doctoral students pursuing diverse research in Jewish studies:
Graduate Fellow
Displaying Art and Exhibiting Philanthropy: Jews, Genders, and Museums in the United States, 1888 -1958
Ari Cohen’s dissertation offers a gendered history of Jewish cultural philanthropy in United States museums. Beginning in 1888 with Cyrus Adler’s tenure as curator of Judaica at the Smithsonian National Museum in D.C. and ending in 1958 with New York Jewish Museum benefactor Frieda Warburg’s death, this project examines the individuals and networks that donated their time, talent, and treasure to Jewish exhibitions in American museums and thereby altered the course of American Jewish life. During the period between 1888 and 1958, Jewish Americans attempted to secure places for themselves in a new, expanding country. Focusing on five key female cultural philanthropists, Cohen examines how women in Jewish museums proved essential yet remained only partially visible, pioneered new forms of public culture yet faced limitations on their power.
Graduate Fellow
Yiddish Anarchist Press and Literature 1890-1918
Binyamin Hunyadi’s research explores literary and polemical output of the Yiddish Anarchist movement at the turn of the 20th century. He focuses in particular on the under-discussed aspect of the cultural influences of this political movement in American and English Yiddish millieux; he analyzes the cultural and social, local and transnational contexts of Yiddish Anarchism that helped shape Jewish cultural production in the US for years to come. Hunyadi explores Yiddish anarchist press, further analyzes the reception and long-lasting influence of Yiddish literary figures, among them Yosef Bovshover and David Edelshtadt.
Graduate Fellow
Jews in Cross-Confessional Legal Cultures in Germany ,1500-1700
Tamar Menasche explores the legal culture of German Jewry during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Her research thus far shows that despite the rabbinic ban on litigation in non-Jewish courts, Jewish women and men litigated vigorously in Germany’s Imperial Supreme Court. The research highlights legal cases involving German-Ashkenazi converts to Christianity and Iberian conversos who fled to Germany and reverted to Judaism, as a particularly valuable lens for the study of the intersection of law and religion.
Through an integrative examination of internal Jewish sources, German legal records, and Supreme Court dossiers, Menashe’s project uncovers how competing legal and religious institutions fashioned German-Jews’ early modern legal culture and civil consciousness.
Graduate Fellow
Keyner iz nit fargesn: Soviet Yiddish culture and the Holocaust in the Jewish Cold War, 1941– 1991
Miriam Schulz attempts to provide a first comprehensive picture of how Soviet Jews reckoned with the Holocaust and the “Great Patriotic War” as interrelated phenomena in Yiddish. She lays open Soviet Yiddish’s uniquely diverse modes of literary, scholarly, political, and ritual responses to the Holocaust and examines them in the context of the sociopolitical landscape and psychopolitical reality of the wartime and postwar Soviet Union. This analysis considers both this corpus’s complex, symbiotic relation to hegemonic Soviet memorial cultures at home and the intra- Jewish Holocaust historiography and commemoration abroad.