Deadline Extended to 3/27! CFA: Jewish Heritage Center’s Research Fellowships

The application deadline for both of the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center’s research fellowships has been extended to Friday, March 27

The Genevieve Geller Wyner Research Fellowship offers the opportunity for a scholar to conduct research in the JHC’s archives, which contain the records of Jewish institutions and businesses and the papers of families and individuals in Greater Boston and New England. To be eligible, scholars must hold a PhD at the time of application. Applications are now open for the 2026 Fellowship. The fellowship will be offered in the amount of $2,500.

The Professor Ronald C. Curhan and Joan Pokross Curhan Research Fellowship supports scholars in Jewish History or Jewish Studies, especially, but not limited to, those at the beginning of their academic careers. Graduate, undergraduate, or predoctoral students will be given preference, although the annual scholarship may also be awarded to postdoctoral scholars. Applications are now open for the 2026 Fellowship. The fellowship will be offered in the amount of $1,000.

Researcher of the Week

Reed O’Mara

Ph.D. candidate, Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) (dir. Professor Elina Gertsman) and 2025–27 Samuel H. Kress Institutional Fellow in the History of Art at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte (ZI) 

In my research, I focus on the art of medieval Ashkenaz, with a special interest in Hebrew illuminated manuscripts and incunabula. My dissertation examines word and image relationships in manuscripts and printed works in order to better understand the ever-changing perceptions of the Hebrew language in the late Middle Ages, ca. 1200–1500, by Jewish and Christian communities alike. From examples of visual-verbal wordplay to the material splendor of word panels in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Mahzorim all the way to the weaponization of Hebrew in fifteenth-century broadsides and anti-Jewish polemics, my work aims to contribute to our appreciation of how language and art operated in tandem in medieval visual culture.

Continue reading Researcher of the Week

Kollektivintentionalität u. Kollektivkommunikation im Mittelalter. Das Judenpogrom und der Einzug der Pest in Straßburg im Jahr 1349

You can now read the new article by Harald Haferland about “Kollektivintentionalität u. Kollektivkommunikation im Mittelalter. Das Judenpogrom und der Einzug der Pest in Straßburg im Jahr 1349” in the new issue of Das Mittelalter. Perspektiven mediävistischer Forschung. Beihefte focussing on Fake News im Mittelalter? Zur kulturellen Aushandlung von Falschheit in politischen, religiösen und literarischen Diskursen, ed. Marcel Bubert and Pia Claudia Doering.

The Wandering Jew and other myths: a special issue of Patterns of Prejudice

According to their call, the welcome “submissions discussing legends and mythic figures exclusively through the lens of reclamation responding to racial, national, ethnic or religious exclusion. These narratives emerge out of harmful contexts, disseminating derogatory and divisive storytelling about the misunderstood ‘stranger’. Be it a warrior, supernatural guide, or everyman, how is this type removed from such origins, and reshaped by indigenous (or other) cultural actors? We are especially interested in non-formal methods of knowledge as transmitted through folklore or oral tradition, and representations in the visual arts, literature and music. Submissions may explore the difference between Israeli and diasporic approaches to the Wandering Jews; its resonance amongst other traditionally nomadic peoples, such as Roma; or relevance for other postcolonial cultures.”

Deadline: 12 June 2026.