Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
	The Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania is the only institution in the world devoted exclusively to post-doctoral research on Jewish civilization in all its historical and cultural manifestations. Located in its award-winning building on Philadelphia's Independence Mall, the Center was created in the fall of 1993 by the merger of the Annenberg Research Institute and the University of Pennsylvania. The combining of the Center's distinguished scholars and superb library holdings with Penn's outstanding and substantial faculty and library resources in Judaic Studies has established the University of Pennsylvania as one of the world's major centers for the study of Jewish civilization.

 

An Illustrious History
	From its inception in 1907 as the Dropsie College of Hebrew and Cognate Learning, the Center has played a central role in advancing the study of Judaism in the United States. Originally chartered as a degree-granting institution, Dropsie College awarded more than 200 Ph.D. degrees, becoming a primary educator for the country's Judaic scholars. When Dropsie College became the Annenberg Research Institute in 1986, it stopped granting degrees and turned its focus to a post-doctoral fellowship program. Today, as the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, the program continues to attract preeminent scholars from around the world and to shape a new scholarly discourse on a wide range of themes critical to the study of Jewish culture. Supporting the Center's unique research effort is a remarkable library that houses over 180,000 titles on Judaica, a collection of manuscripts, rare early prints, and genizah fragments. A sophisticated computer system offers instant access to the latest scholarly tools of contemporary Judaic research.

 

A Unique Program
	The Center provides a unique forum for interaction and dialogue among scholars of the international community in all aspects of Judaic learning from antiquity to the present. Annually, some 20 fellows from leading universities in Israel, the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, are chosen from a large pool of applicants. Comparative and interdisciplinary in its approach, the Center seeks to enhance intellectual conversation across a broad spectrum of scholarly disciplines and methodological perspectives. Center fellows conduct their own research within the general rubric of a previously announced research topic. They come together in weekly seminars, for an annual public colloquium, and to contribute to a published volume that reflects and preserves the results of their year-long collective scholarly encounter.

 

The Center and the Community
	As an integral part of the larger intellectual community at the University of Pennsylvania, the Center is deeply committed to encouraging interaction among its fellows and Penn's community of scholars and students. Penn faculty and graduate students in related fields of study are regularly invited to join the Center's weekly seminar. Some fellows are invited to teach graduate and undergraduate courses. In addition, each year certain fellows teach small tutorials to advanced graduate students in intense month-long modular courses. These courses offer Penn’s graduate students an unparalleled opportunity to work closely with some of the most important scholars in their field. All fellows engage with students and faculty and participate in the intellectual life of the larger community. As part of its commitment to a broader public understanding of Judaic studies, the Center sponsors public programs in Philadelphia and in several other cities. In joining the University, the Center strengthens its links to the faculty and students of Penn's Jewish Studies Program, one of the oldest and most distinguished interdisciplinary programs in the United States. In addition, it provides extraordinary opportunities for creative research in Jewish history and culture in particular and for humanistic learning in general. The unique mission of the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania fosters and enriches the best traditions by which a great university is defined and simultaneously enhances and enlivens the cultural legacy through which Jews have identified themselves through the ages.

 

Supporting CAJS
	If you are interested in supporting the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, please contact Sheila Allen, the assistant to the Director at 215-238-1290.