Applications Now Being Accepted for Milstein Family Research Fellowships on New York and the American Jewish Experience for 2008-2009.

Application Deadline: May 16, 2008

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted for Milstein Family Research Fellowships, supported by a grant from the Milstein Family Foundation and the Howard and Abby Milstein Foundation. The Milstein Family Jewish Communal Archive Project is a three year pilot project focusing on the preservation and exploration of the Jewish communal archival heritage in the New York region. The project is being carried out by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in collaboration with the 92nd Street Y, The Educational Alliance, FEGS Health & Human Services, NYANA [New York Association for New Americans] and Surprise Lake Camp.

The fellowships are open to faculty, post-doctoral scholars, independent scholars and doctoral students researching the history of Jews in the New York region as well as those researching the general American Jewish experience with focus on New York. Six research fellowships, ranging from $3500 to $5000, will be awarded by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in conjunction with the Milstein Project Fellowship Committee.

The fellowships will run from June 2008 through the Fall of 2009. Milstein Family Research Fellows will be required to present papers at a major conference on New York and the American Jewish Experience to take place at the Center for Jewish History in the Fall of 2009.

Appointed fellows will conduct research on New York and the American Jewish Experience, from the 1880s to the present, including but not limited to the following topics:

The Jewish migration experience

Social welfare and philanthropy in Jewish communal organizations

Americanization and acculturation

Culture, intellectual life and the arts

Youth education and camping

Jewish life in New York during and after World War II: GIs, DPs, and the organized Jewish community

Jews of New York in the McCarthy period

Jews of New York and the civil rights movement

Studying and preserving archival resources on Jewish life in New York

During the fellowship period Milstein Family Research Fellows will be expected to explore all available resources relevant to their projects, including but not limited to those at the Center for Jewish History (YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, American Jewish Historical Society, Leo Baeck Institute, American Sephardi Federation). They will also have access to the Archives of the 92nd Street Y, the Archives of the Educational Alliance, the Archives of FEGS Health & Human Services and the Archives of Surprise Lake Camp.

Application instructions: Applicants should send a cover letter, curriculum vitae, and a two to three page description of their research project. Applicants should also provide names and contact information of three individuals familiar with their scholarship and with their proposed project. Graduate students should include, as one of the three names, the name of their doctoral advisor. Applications by mail must be postmarked no later than May 16. Applications by email must be sent by May 16. Successful candidates will be announced by June 17, 2008.

Send applications to:

Milstein Family Research Fellowship Committee

c/o Fruma Mohrer, Project Director

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011

Applications by email should be sent to: fmohrer@yivo.cjh.org