From the Academy to a Learned Society: Reflections of an Executive Director

Long before there was a "crisis in the humanities" -- or at least before the most recent "crisis" -- Jewish Studies PhDs have found opportunities outside of the university setting to use their humanities and social scientific training. Numerous Jewish cultural institutions, such as museums, archives, historical societies and the like, have created hospitable settings for Jewish Studies scholars qua Jewish Studies scholars. Up until the past decade or two, several major Jewish communal organizations also housed sizable research departments, which allowed historians and social scientists to produce significant works on the history and sociology of the American Jewish community. Foundations and Jewish think-tanks, as well, have turned to the pool of highly-trained critical thinkers coming out of PhD programs to staff their leadership and program officer positions. What lessons can the experience of Jewish Studies PhDs offer other fields in the humanities? What special challenges can arise when PhDs go to work for institutions whose primary mission is ethnic identity-building? And given the broader challenges facing non-profit art and cultural organizations, will this hospitality continue much more into the twenty-first century?