In the 30 years during which he served as UW Hillel Director, “Rabbi J” consistently sought to create a better understanding of the Jewish religion and Jewish people among both Jews and non-Jews with whom he came in contact. He also founded the Washington State rabbinic group and received countless awards for his service to various Jewish organizations and communities.

Thanks to the generosity of the Rabbi Arthur A. Jacobovitz Foundation, the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies is delighted to be able to offer an annual $5,000 grant to one full-time undergraduate student at the University of Washington who has demonstrated exceptional commitment to Jewish Studies. We will consider applicants who:

• Have demonstrated progress towards a Jewish Studies Major or Minor
• OR have taken at least eight units of Jewish Studies courses (Hebrew language classes included)
• OR will be attending an academic program in Israel (including Ulpan) AND will complete at least 1 Jewish Studies course at UW (Hebrew language classes included).

The grant funds may be used at the student’s discretion towards tuition or other needs.

Applications for the 2023-24 grant will be due March 31, 2023. Graduate students may also be eligible but priority is given to undergraduates.

Apply for the Jacobovitz scholarship here.

Thanks to the generosity of community supporters, the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies offers grants of $4,000 to support graduate research related to Jewish studies at the University of Washington.

Every year, a cohort of graduate fellows participate in a series of workshops offering professional development, research advice, and mentorship from faculty and staff. Fellows present their research publicly, through a research presentation and an online article. Learn more about the program and the current cohort of graduate fellows, and apply, on the graduate fellows portal.

Applications for 2023-2024 fellowships will be due on April 30, 2023.

Please contact the graduate fellowship coordinator, Brendan Goldman, with any questions related to the application process, eligibility, or requirements.

Stroum Center opportunity grants of up to $1,500 are offered to support current UW undergraduate and graduate student experiences with language study, research, and conference travel related to Jewish studies.

Grants are offered in two cycles: grants for experiences in winter/spring, and grants for experiences in summer/autumn.

*For academic year 2022-2023, applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Apply when funding is needed.*

For UW undergraduate students, the primary goal of the Stroum Center opportunity grants is to support undergraduate experiences in Jewish studies through UW-approved study abroad experiences. Priority is given to candidates studying a language of historical or contemporary importance to Jewish Studies. Accredited academic domestic opportunities will also be considered (e.g., Middlebury Language Schools). Students can also apply funding towards MODHEB 105: Intensive Elementary Modern Hebrew, taught at the UW during the summer full-term.

For UW graduate students, Stroum Center opportunity grants are intended to help support research, conference attendance, and further study in topics related to Jewish Studies. This research and study can be done domestically or abroad.

Students may apply for opportunity grant funding multiple times.

Read about past recipients’ experiences >

Apply for an opportunity grant >

The Stroum Center for Jewish Studies Paper Prize for Excellence in Holocaust Scholarship is given annually for an outstanding UW undergraduate student paper related to Holocaust studies. The paper must be a work that critically engages with the central themes, lessons and ideas of the Holocaust in the time period leading up to, during, or in the aftermath of the Second World War.

We welcome papers that examine other cases of genocide, but the Holocaust and/or scholarship on the Holocaust must figure centrally in the argument. The paper may have been written for a UW class, for a UW-approved study abroad class, or for a UW independent study. Papers must have been written during the current or immediately past academic year.

Papers are accepted on a rolling basis. Submissions for the 2023-2024 year will close in late spring 2023.

Submit a paper or read about past paper prize winners.

The Hazel D. Cole Fellowship provides financial assistance to a deserving doctoral or postdoctoral fellow in Jewish studies. The two-year, in-residence fellowship is open to doctoral or postdoctoral students affiliated with any institution, and may be used as a dissertation completion fellowship or for post-doctoral work in any field of Jewish studies. It provides a stipend of $62,500, plus benefits, for each of the two academic years.

Applications for the 2024-2026 fellowship will open in fall 2023. Finalists are typically notified in early winter, with final notifications in late winter. Learn more on the Hazel D. Cole Fellowship page.

The Finish Line Fellowship offers a stipend of $24,000, plus benefits, to a current University of Washington Ph.D. candidate who is completing a dissertation in a field or fields related to Jewish studies.

The fellowship is granted to one current UW Ph.D. candidate annually. Students who have previously received the UW Jewish Studies graduate fellowship are allowed to apply for the Finish Line Fellowship, but may not receive both funding sources during the same academic year. Ph.D. candidates may receive the fellowship one time only.

Applications for the 2023-2024 fellowship will reopen in spring 2023. Learn more about the fellowship and apply >

Looking for additional funding sources? Check out the Jackson School’s list of available scholarships and fellowships, its comprehensive database of international studies-related funding, or theWashBoard.org scholarship matching service.

If you are interested in funding for language study be sure to check out the Foreign Language Area Studies fellowships (FLAS fellowships), which are contingent on funding from the U.S. Department of Education and administered by the eight National Resource Centers of the University of Washington. Individuals wishing to receive FLAS funding for Hebrew language study can apply both to the Center for Global Studies and the Middle East Center on their application.

Boren Awards are also available for individuals who wish to study Hebrew. Undergraduate, graduate, and summer fellowship options are available.