Dissertation Grant Musher Subvention Prize Jewish Studies Expansion Project

Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Fund for Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships in Jewish Studies

Overview

PLEASE NOTE: Due to market conditions, the Foundation's Board of Directors has determined that we must reduce both the number and amount of fellowships. While we encourage applications and will be awarding fellowships for 2009-2010, we will not be in a position to announce either the number of fellowships or the level of funding until grants are officially announced, around June 15, 2009.

The Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Fund for Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships in Jewish Studies encourages scholarly research, publication and teaching in the various disciplines of Jewish studies. Established in 1960, we have awarded fellowships to nearly 600 scholars, including many leaders in the field.

The Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships in Jewish Studies are made for one academic year and are given for the final stages of completing a dissertation, typically in the fifth year of study. Applicants should be completed all doctoral requirements, except for the completion of their thesis, and must show evidence of being able to complete their thesis within the fellowship year.

To begin your application please click here.

To download a copy of the 2009-2010 Guidelines please click here.

Eligibility

Applicants should:

Be citizens or permanent residents of the United States or Canada;
Have completed all academic requirements for the Ph.D., except dissertation, by the date of application;
Demonstrate significant course work in Jewish studies at the graduate level;
Provide evidence of proficiency in a Jewish language (i.e. Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, Aramaic, etc.);
Be in a reasonable position to complete the work of their thesis during their fellowship year ;
Have a proposal or prospectus that has been approved by a thesis committee;
Complete online application in full. Partially completed applications cannot accepted. It is the responsibility of the student to ensure that applications are complete by the deadline.

A strong preference is given to individuals preparing for academic careers in Jewish studies, and to those who indicate that they will pursue a career in the United States.

To enable recipients to devote themselves fully to completing the dissertation, it is expected that they will not hold a full-time job or equivalent academic workload during the fellowship year. We request that grantees inform us of any other fellowships or grants they may receive during their fellowship year.

Fellowships cannot be postponed or deferred to another year. Grantees who defer their awards will not receive special consideration upon reapplication.

For reapplicants only: Because we are transitioning to online application system, you'll be required to resubmit a full and completed application online . This will include transcripts and references, as well as a 2-page statement outlining how the project has developed or changed from a previous submission.

Previous grantees of the Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Fund for the Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships in Jewish Studies may not reapply.

Deadlines/Application

To begin your application please click here

To download a copy of the 2009-2010 Guidelines please click here.

You must be using one of the following browsers to access our application. For Mac users: Mozilla Firefox (recommended), Safari, or Netscape Navigator. For PC users: Mozilla FireFox (recommended), Internet Explorer, or Netscape Navigator. Please check this list carefully as our online application is not accessible by all browsers.

Please note that original GRE scores must be sent to the Foundation through ETS. Our reporting code is 2514.

Please note that applicants must upload their Disseration Prospectus and Bibliography in order to complete their applications. These documents should be saved in Microsoft Word 2003 or earlier versions.

Applicants are also strongly encouraged to upload PDF versions of their Thesis Status Letter and undergraduate/graduate transcripts. If you are not able to upload these materials, you may have originals sent to Doctoral Dissertation Grant, c/o Foundation for Jewish Culture, 330 Seventh Avenue, 21st Floor, New York, NY 10001. Please note that our evaluators may not be able to fully evaluate your application without an electronic version of these materials.

Applicants should use the "Report a Bug" feature to resolve any technical problems that may arise once an application has been opened on the CueRate system.

All application materials are due on or before 4 PM on Friday, December 12, 2008. Late or incomplete applications will not be accepted.

Please contact grants@jewishculture.org with questions.

Criteria for Selection

Each application is reviewed according to the following criteria:

Academic promise and ability of candidate as judged by previous performance and recommendations;
Potential of project to significantly impact understanding of Jewish life, culture or thought ;
Clarity, originality, breadth, and depth of the thesis proposal;
Qualifications and academic record of applicant's advisors and references;
Likelihood that an applicant will go on to teach Jewish Studies at an American college or university.

Recent Panelists

The 2008–2009 academic advisory panel was co-chaired by Dr. Elisheva Carlebach of Queens College and Dr. Raymond Scheindlin of the Jewish Theological Seminary.

In addition to Drs. Carlebach and Scheindlin, the panel consisted of: Dr. Barry Holtz of the Jewish Theological Seminary; Dr. Richard Kalmin of the Jewish Theological Seminary; Dr. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett of the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University; Dr. Alan Mittleman of the Jewish Theological Seminary; Dr. Pamela Nadell of American University; Dr. Marsha Rozenblit of the University of Maryland; Dr. Nancy Sinkoff of Rutgers University; Dr. David Sperling of Hebrew Union College

Current Grantees

We awarded four grants in 2008–2009, recognizing the work of:

David Koffman (The Jews' Indians: Native Americans in the Jewish Imagination and Experience, 1824-1945, New York University), Lucius N. Littauer Fellowship

Elisha Russ-Fishbane (Between Sufi Piety and Rabbinic Law: The Leadership Strategies of R. Abraham Maimonides, Harvard University), The Rabbi Daniel Jeremy Silver Memorial Fellowship

Loren Spielman (Concilium Vanitatis: Roman Spectacle Entertainment and the Jews from the Herodian Period through the Muslim Conquest, Jewish Theological Seminary), Beverly and Arnold C. Greenberg Fellowship

Itay Zutra (Inzikh (1920-1940): Yiddish Modernism in Search of Jewish Self-Consciousness, Jewish Theological Seminary), The Joy Gottesman Ungerleider - Dorot Foundation Fellowship

We recognized as a runner-up:

Rachel Kranson (Grappling with the Good Life: Anxieties of Jewish Affluence in Postwar America, 1945-1967, New York University)

For a complete list of past grantees, click here.

For further information, please contact us at grants@jewishculture.org.

Program Funders

The Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Fund for Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships in Jewish Studies has received generous major support from Mr. and Mrs. Robert Arnow, Mrs. Harry August, Mr. Richard Baron, Mr. and Mrs. Bill Berman, Mr. Joshua Bruner, Maurice and Marilyn Cohen, Mrs. Susan Crown, the Dorot Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Everett, Mr. and Mrs. Saul D. Freedman, Mr. Paul Goldberg, Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Greenberg, Mr. and Mrs. H. James Horvitz, Mr. and Mrs. Michael Jesselson, Mr. Jay Kogan, Mr. and Mrs. Jules Kroll, Mr. Peter Lewis, Mr. and Mrs. Robert N. Mayer, Ms. Betty Milgrim, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Mr. and Mrs. Sanford Nobel, Mr. and Mrs. Richard J. Scheuer, Prof. Avi Seidmann, Mr. Ernest Siegler, Mrs. Marjory C. Slavin, Mr. Michael Victor, Mr. and Mrs. Murry Waldman, and Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Wornick.