<p>Could you please help me out here...
I am looking at the following Univ/Div schools:
HDS
Brandeis
BU
Hebrew College
Am I missing something? Are there any good distance learning options? Do you have any suggestions? What would be the best choice decide I to go for a PhD in Jewish Studies?
Thanks!</p>
<p>List College - JTS
And they have a joint program with Columbia.</p>
<p>Oy vey, I’m glad I caught this because I am exactly the person you want 
I’m actually doing Jewish Studies at Michigan for my MA.</p>
<p>NYU is the tops. You can’t beat the resources in NYC with easy access to the archives in DC and Boston. It’s the heart of Jewish culture and history in America. JTS and Columbia are falling because their professors have been retiring, leaving the programs with a group of new assistant professors who aren’t tenured yet and will be extremely busy trying to get tenured to mind any graduate students. I’m sad about that since I know so many people I admired who got their PhD at Columbia. But it is what it is.</p>
<p>Brandeis is still holding strong but its PhD program is much smaller- only about 5 PhD acceptances. They accept upwards of 15-20 people for MA (actually bigger than most other Jewish Studies MA programs). Their program is more orthodox in a sense of just a lot of hurdles to leap because they hold pretty high standards, especially for language training. </p>
<p>Those two are the strongest for Northeast area. There’s also Emory in the South for PhD (not MA… until further notice) and Michigan in the Midwest. My program is fairly heavy on American Jewish studies and Near East Studies as of late in terms of the students’ interests. There’s Berkeley as well but I don’t know too much about the program. Only NYU, Emory, and Brandeis offer the actual “Jewish Studies” PhD (I could be a bit wrong with Hebrew College). With other schools, you’ll have to pick a specific discipline like history or literature or religion and you would be affiliated with the Jewish Studies department. Your funding (not always) or degree wouldn’t come from Jewish Studies, only support, resources, and events to contribute to your graduate school experiences. Penn has a wonderful non-degree program.</p>
<p>There aren’t any distance options unfortunately. </p>
<p>Have you consider getting a MA? A lot of people in Jewish Studies have a MA because of the coursework (they really look for breath, not necessarily depth) and language requirements necessary for the PhD (You’d need to know modern Hebrew and German or French or Yiddish only as basics before all others…). Even if you did your BA in Jewish Studies, it’s still a tough field to be accepted in. I have a friend who did her undergrad at Columbia/JTS and is finishing up her MA. Although she had the coursework and Hebrew, she’s really glad that she did the MA. She’s finishing the admissions season with 3-4 acceptances in hand for the PhD.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your reply.
I am in a MTS program at EDS (Cambridge) right now, doing Bible Studies, but the more I learn, the more I lean towards Jewish Studies. Plus, many other events made my decision to switch pretty much justified. I would like to stay in Boston area though, since it’s not just me in the family:) For the PhD program my only choice so far is Harvard’s NELC, the Center for Jewish Studies, which accept none to 2 students per year. Still, that is what I am shooting for. From what I know now, my primary interests are in formation of Jewish identity and diasporas, as early as the Second Temple period, but modern analysis as well. I am thinking about switching to a MJS, considering that Biblical Studies wouldn’t prepare me enough for a PhD, that is true.
I heard many good things about JTS/Columbia, but can’t move to NYC, unfortunately…
Thank you again! Do you find your program challenging enough?</p>
<p>Thanks, so I heard too. I am aiming for staying in Boston area though…</p>
<p>Oh then maybe you might want to consider adding Princeton to your list.</p>
<p>My program is what you make of it and is also dependent on the professors. I know that the professors who take care of NES students are very demanding. Worked pretty well actually since one of the students got into Princeton, UNC Chapel Hill, and Stanford (as far as I know) and she’s so thrilled. She also does Late Antiquity stuff as well and I think she’s only aiming to be a professor. They don’t make things any easier for their PhD students either but they do get lots of opportunities for TA-ships (whereas English and History students probably have to compete).</p>
<p>So I’m guessing that you want to work with Shayne Cohen at Harvard? That man’s books saved my life when I took a course on Late Antiquity without background knowledge! I agree if that’s the case… Have you read “The Beginnings of Jewishness”?</p>
<p>You got it! He is the best from what I know. I loved “From the Maccabees to the Mishnah” too. My professor in NT recommended me this book as the “opponent’s” point of view and I got hooked… His books are so well written.</p>
<p>Brown, which is almost the Boston area, also has a Judaic Studies department.</p>