Association for Jewish Studies

Last updated

Association for Jewish Studies
FormationDecember 1968;55 years ago (1968-12)
Founder Leon Jick
President
Robin Judd
Website associationforjewishstudies.org

The Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) is a scholarly organization in the United States that promotes academic Jewish Studies.

Contents

History

The Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) was founded in December 1968 by a small group of scholars at Brandeis University seeking a forum for exploring methodological and pedagogical issues in the merging field of Jewish studies. AJS held where it held its first annual conference that year at Brandeis. [1] [2] [3] [4]

In 1976, the AJS began to publish a scholarly journal, the AJS Review . In 1986, the new Women's Caucus of AJS spearheaded the introduction of women's studies into Jewish studies. [3]

AJS celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2018, by when it had grown to over 2,000 members from 26 countries, the largest academic Jewish studies organization in the world. The group's membership was nearly equal between men and women. [1]

In 2023, the AJS's executive committee signed a statement authored by the American Council of Learned Societies against HB 999 in Florida. [5]

In 2023, Professor Steven Fine of Yeshiva University, the founding editor of AJS Perspectives: The Magazine of the Association for Jewish Studies, criticized the AJS for becoming politicized and "taken over by the progressive left" and renounced his membership in AJS. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brandeis University</span> Private university in Massachusetts, US

Brandeis University is a private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts. It is located within the Boston City Metropolitan Area. Founded in 1948 as a non-sectarian, coeducational University, Brandeis was established on the site of the former Middlesex University. The university is named after Louis Brandeis, a former Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a civil rights group and Jewish advocacy group established on November 11, 1906. It is one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations and, according to The New York Times, is "widely regarded as the dean of American Jewish organizations".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish Voice for Peace</span> American anti-Zionist advocacy group

Jewish Voice for Peace is an American anti-Zionist left-wing Jewish advocacy organization that is critical of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, and supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.

Lawrence Harvey Schiffman is a professor at New York University ; he was formerly Vice-Provost of Undergraduate Education at Yeshiva University and Professor of Jewish Studies. He had previously been Chair of New York University's Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and served as the Ethel and Irvin A. Edelman Professor in Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University (NYU). He is currently the Judge Abraham Lieberman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University and Director of the Global Institute for Advanced Research in Jewish Studies. He is a specialist in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Judaism in Late Antiquity, the history of Jewish law, and Talmudic literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Jewish Congress</span> Nonprofit organization

The American Jewish Congress (AJCongress) is an association of American Jews organized to defend Jewish interests at home and abroad through public policy advocacy, using diplomacy, legislation, and the courts.

The Schechter Day School Network, formerly the Solomon Schechter Day School Association, located at 820 Second Avenue, New York, New York, is an organization of Jewish day schools that identify with Conservative Judaism. The network provides guidance and resources for its member schools in the United States and Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish Book Council</span> Jewish organization

The Jewish Book Council, founded in 1944, is an American organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature. The goal of the council, as stated on its website, is "to promote the reading, writing and publishing of quality English language books of Jewish content in North America". The council sponsors the National Jewish Book Awards, the JBC Network, JBC Book Clubs, the Visiting Scribe series, and Jewish Book Month. It previously sponsored the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature. It publishes an annual literary journal called Paper Brigade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hebrew College</span> American religious college

Hebrew College is a private college of Jewish studies in Newton Centre, Massachusetts. Founded in 1921, the college conducts Jewish scholarship in a pluralistic, trans-denominational academic environment. Its president is Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld. Hebrew College offers undergraduate completion and graduate degrees, Hebrew-language training, a rabbinical school, a cantorial program and adult-learning and youth-education programs.

Antisemitism at universities has been reported and supported since the medieval period and, more recently, resisted and studied. Antisemitism has been manifested in various policies and practices, such as restricting the admission of Jewish students by a Jewish quota, or ostracism, intimidation, or violence against Jewish students, as well as in the hiring, retention and treatment of Jewish faculty and staff. In some instances, universities have been accused of condoning the development of antisemitic cultures on campus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Altmann</span> Orthodox Jewish scholar

Alexander Altmann was an Orthodox Jewish scholar and rabbi born in Kassa, Austria-Hungary. He emigrated to England in 1938 and later settled in the United States, working productively for a decade and a half as a professor within the Philosophy Department at Brandeis University. He is best known for his studies of the thought of Moses Mendelssohn, and was indeed the leading Mendelssohn scholar since the time of Mendelssohn himself. He also made important contributions to the study of Jewish mysticism, and for a large part of his career he was the only scholar in the United States working on this subject in a purely academic setting. Among the many Brandeis students whose work he supervised in this area were Elliot Wolfson, Arthur Green, Heidi Ravven, Paul Mendes-Flohr, Lawrence Fine, and Daniel Matt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Sarna</span> American historian

Jonathan D. Sarna is the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History in the department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Center for Jewish History</span> Nonprofit organization in New York City

The Center for Jewish History is a partnership of five Jewish history, scholarship, and art organizations in New York City: American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute New York, Yeshiva University Museum, and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Together, housed in one location, the partners have separate governing bodies and finances, but collocate resources. The partners' collections make up the biggest repository of Jewish history in the United States. The Center for Jewish History also serves as a centralized place of scholarly research, events, exhibitions, and performances. Located within the center are the Lillian Goldman Reading Room, Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute and a Collection Management & Conservation Wing. The Center for Jewish History is also an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.

Gender and Jewish Studies is an emerging subfield at the intersection of gender studies, queer studies, and Jewish studies. Gender studies centers on interdisciplinary research on the phenomenon of gender. It focuses on cultural representations of gender and people's lived experience. Similarly, queer studies focuses on the cultural representations and lived experiences of queer identities to critique hetero-normative values of sex and sexuality. Jewish studies is a field that looks at Jews and Judaism, through such disciplines as history, anthropology, literary studies, linguistics, and sociology. As such, scholars of gender and Jewish studies are considering gender as the basis for understanding historical and contemporary Jewish societies. This field recognizes that much of recorded Jewish history and academic writing is told from the perspective of “the male Jew” and fails to accurately represent the diverse experiences of Jews with non-dominant gender identities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Israel Policy Forum</span> American Jewish organization

The Israel Policy Forum is an American Jewish organization that works for a negotiated two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict though advocacy, education and policy research. The organization appeals to American policymakers in support of this goal and writes opinion pieces that have appeared in many Jewish and non-Jewish newspapers. The organization was founded in 1993.

Tablet is an online magazine focused on Jewish news and culture. The magazine was founded in 2009 and is supported by the Nextbook foundation. Its editor-in-chief is Alana Newhouse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-Defamation League</span> International Jewish organization

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), formerly known as the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, is a New York–based international Jewish non-governmental organization and advocacy group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law</span> Nonprofit organization

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law (LDB) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded by Kenneth L. Marcus in 2012 with the stated purpose of advancing the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and promoting justice for all peoples. LDB is active on American campuses, where it says it combats antisemitism and anti-Zionism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Students for Justice in Palestine</span> Pro-Palestinian BDS activism organization

Students for Justice in Palestine is a pro-Palestinian college student activism organization in the United States, Canada and New Zealand. It has campaigned for boycott and divestment against corporations that deal with Israel and organized events about Israel's human rights violations. In 2011, The New York Times reported that "S.J.P., founded in 2001 at the University of California, Berkeley, has become the leading pro-Palestinian voice on campus."

The Boston Library Consortium (BLC) is a library consortium based in the Boston area with 26 member institutions across New England.

The American Studies Association (ASA) began an ongoing boycott of Israeli educational institutions in December 2013. The ASA's decision to boycott was controversial because it was the first major American scholarly organization to do so. In April 2016, four ASA members aided by the pro-Israeli Brandeis Center sued the ASA, but the lawsuit was dismissed in 2019 when the judge ruled that plaintiffs lacked standing.

References

  1. 1 2 Bolton-Fasman, Judy. "Association for Jewish Studies Returns to Boston for 50th Anniversary". JewishBoston. Retrieved May 28, 2019.
  2. "Jonathan Sarna Elected President of Association for Jewish Studies". Jewish Telegraphic Agency . January 6, 2014. Retrieved May 11, 2024.
  3. 1 2 Shapiro, Edward S. (1995). A Time for Healing: American Jewry Since World War II. JHU Press. p. 80. ISBN   9780801851247.
  4. Loveland, Kristen (2008). "THE ASSOCIATION FOR JEWISH STUDIES: A BRIEF HISTORY" (PDF).
  5. Lapin, Andrew (March 22, 2023). "A Florida bill attacking 'critical theory' in higher education has the state's Jewish academics worried". Jewish Telegraphic Agency . Retrieved November 17, 2023.
  6. Fine, Steven (February 21, 2023). "What has become of the Association for Jewish Studies?". Times of Israel . Retrieved May 7, 2024.