Duke University Libraries Announce Research Fellowships in Jewish Studies and the Hebrew Bible

September 2012 to June 2013

The David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library and the Center for Jewish Studies are pleased to announce the availability of new fellowships to support scholars, students, and independent researchers whose work would benefit from access to the Judaica materials held by the Rubenstein Library, the Duke Divinity School Library, and/or Perkins Library. Applicants must live outside of a 100-mile radius from Durham, NC.

• Grants must be used between September 2012 and June 30, 2013
• Grant recipients will receive up to $1500 per week for funding, plus airfare
• Grant recipients will be required to submit a research report, either verbally via an informal luncheon colloquium or via written report

For research during summer 2012

• Complete applications must be received by August 17, 2012
• Recipients will be announced September 1, 2012

For more information and to download a copy of the application form with submission instructions please visit: http://library.duke.edu/specialcollections/services/grants/js.html. Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit their applications electronically.

The Jewish Studies collections at Duke Libraries include a wide variety of resources, from current publications, films and videos to rare and unique manuscripts and archival material. An impressive collection of Pesach Haggadot is hosted in the Rubenstein Library, spanning over 1000 years of history, from five continents, written in several different languages, and created for a variety of specific purposes. Many of these Haggadot are part of the Abram and Frances Pascher Kanof Collection of Jewish Art, Archaelogy and Symbolism, which also has an exceptional collection of unique art books by Jewish and Israeli artists, as well as Jewish ceremonial art pieces.  The Rubenstein’s Southern Jewish History collections include the personal papers of prominent Jewish families and individuals in the region; its Human Rights Archive holds the personal papers of the distinguished Jewish rabbi and human rights activist Marshall T. Meyer.

In addition to these special collections, Duke Libraries also holds a growing collection of modern Hebrew literature, both in the original Hebrew and in translation, as well as modern Jewish history, Zionism, the history and society of Israel, and the Arab-Israeli conflict.  The microform collection includes Testaments to the Holocaust from the Wiener Library, and the Guenzburg Collection of Hebrew Manuscripts in the Russian State Library, as well as Historical Hebrew Newspapers, to name but a few.

The Divinity School Library holds our collections of ancient and medieval Jewish history, as well as Biblical studies, Ancient Near East archeology and cultures, and Rabbinic literature.

For more information regarding these collections and for links to the catalogs, please visit:

http://library.duke.edu/research/subject/guides/jewishstudies/about.html

Applicants are encouraged to contact Jewish Studies Librarian Rachel Ariel before submitting their application. In our experience, those who spoke with a staff member about their projects before submitting an application have produced stronger applications. For detailed inquiries about our holdings, e-mail is the preferred mode of contact. Contact information is listed below:

David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Box 90185

Duke University

Durham, NC  27708-0185

E-mail: rachel.ariel@duke.edu

Website: http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/services/grants/js.html

Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit their applications electronically.

HERBERT D. KATZ CENTER FOR ADVANCED JUDAIC STUDIES

University of Pennsylvania

Post-Doctoral Fellowship 2013–2014

Application Deadline: November 10, 2012

Constructing Borders and Crossing Boundaries:

Social, Cultural and Religious Change in Early Modern Jewish History

Scholars working in a wide variety of disciplines have long identified the late fifteenth through the late eighteenth century as a discrete historical period called “Early Modern.” Among scholars interested in the place of Jews and Jewish culture within this period, however, there has been little attempt to think broadly about early modernity as a whole or to connect the insights of discrete studies in any coherent and meaningful way. This research group will create a conversation that connects these smaller units and so examines those changes in the Jewish world which characterized the Early Modern. We will focus on the issue of borders and boundaries, understood as not only geographical, but also social, cultural, legal, political, and economic. Some divided and connected the Jewish and the non-Jewish, while others functioned within Jewish society, creating internal divisions and conjunctures. Considering, among other things, the breakdown of old social and cultural boundaries and the construction of new ones, the boundary as both a dividing line and a place of meeting and mixing between different groups (Jewish and non-Jewish), and the ambiguities inherent in situations where elites envisioned strong boundaries while others ignored them (and vice versa), will encourage a wide ranging discussion on the very nature of both Jewish Early Modernity and the early modern period in general.

Proposals might address the following questions:

• How did the establishment of new Jewish centers in new places with new legal frameworks affect the development of Jewish society and culture?
• What were the nature and characteristics of Jewish transregional networks in the Early Modern age?
• How did the religious and cultural borders between Ashkenazim and Sephardim change?
• How did the spread of printing affect cultural and intellectual boundaries both inside Jewish society and between Jews and non-Jews?
• To what extent did early modern Jewish society witness shifts in its cultural borders, such as those between men and women, the educated and the uneducated, and the rabbinic and lay elites?
• How did early modern European religious and intellectual life affect the social, cultural and political boundaries between Jew and non-Jew?
• What are the implications of changes in the social, cultural, religious, and political borders of the early modern Jewish world for our understanding of the early modern period in general? and of the modern Jewish experience as well?

The Center invites applications from scholars in the humanities and social sciences at all levels, as well as outstanding graduate students in the final stages of writing their dissertations. Stipend amounts are based on a fellow’s academic standing and financial need with a maximum of $50,000 for the academic year. A contribution also may be made toward travel expenses. The application deadline is November 10, 2012. Fellowship recipients will be notified by February 1, 2013.

Applications are available on our website: katz.sas.upenn.edu

For questions contact: Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies

420 Walnut Street     Philadelphia, PA 19106    Tel: 215-238-1290

email: carrielo@sas.upenn.edu