Executive Ph.D. in Jewish Studies

Q: What is an Executive Ph.D.?

An executive Ph.D. is a doctoral program built for working professionals who complete advanced research while continuing in their careers. Gratz College's Executive Ph.D. in Jewish Studies is a 48-credit online doctorate designed for communal leaders and other professionals who study on a schedule that fits their work and family obligations.

Q: How is Gratz College's Executive Ph.D. in Jewish Studies different from a traditional Ph.D.?

Gratz College's Executive Ph.D. in Jewish Studies is built to prepare public scholars and communal leaders, which sets it apart from a traditional research doctorate. Students complete it online while continuing to work. Its doctoral project can also take forms beyond a written dissertation, tying the research to a professional field.

Q: Is Gratz College's Executive Ph.D. in Jewish Studies offered online?

Yes. Gratz College's Executive Ph.D. in Jewish Studies is offered online, so working professionals and communal leaders can earn the doctorate without leaving their positions.

Q: Does Gratz College's Executive Ph.D. in Jewish Studies have a Hebrew requirement?

Yes. Every student in Gratz College's Executive Ph.D. in Jewish Studies must reach academic reading proficiency in Hebrew by the end of the second year, meaning the ability to read an academic text in Hebrew with the aid of a dictionary.

Q: When is the application deadline?

Applications are due each year by February 1. Coursework begins in May.

Gratz College’s Executive Ph.D. in Jewish Studies is the first doctoral program in the discipline designed specifically to prepare public scholars and leaders for rabbinic, educational, nonprofit, and public policy roles in the Jewish community and beyond.

The 48-credit program builds on Gratz College’s experience in online education and is designed for busy professionals seeking serious academic study alongside advanced professional development.

Beyond the Ivory Tower

In the aftermath of the October 7 terror attacks in Israel, rising antisemitism has inspired many Jewish communal professionals to take on more public roles as thought leaders. That work requires more than a general understanding of Jewish life. It calls for profound depth of knowledge of Jewish history, culture, religious practice, contemporary Israel, and Jewish communities around the world.

There is a growing need for doctoral-level training that helps leaders apply Jewish knowledge and wisdom in the work they already do while opening new opportunities for professional and academic growth and advancement.

Gratz College’s Executive Ph.D. in Jewish Studies addresses that need through a core curriculum of seven seminars and colloquia. These courses help students develop essential knowledge of the discipline, interpretive skills, and public voice required for serious Jewish leadership.

Doctoral students then choose five electives, or four electives and one professional externship, to supplement their core training. These electives may include courses from other Gratz college departments, including Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Antisemitism Studies, Nonprofit Management and Education. These courses fall broadly into three categories:

Public Scholarship
Executive Leadership
Applied Scholarship and Education

Walder Fellowship for Orthodox Women

The Walder Fellowship for Orthodox Women is a fully funded track within the Gratz College Executive Ph.D. program, created for those preparing to take on leadership in their communities.

Fully funded!
Leadership focus
Creating a community of practice
Seminar in Orthodoxy, Gender, and Leadership
In-person leadership training institute
Space is limited
Deadline February 1st

Learn more. Ask the admissions staff how to apply at admissions@gratz.edu.
For questions about the Executive Ph.D. program, contact Lindsay Katzir.

Inquire/begin application

FINANCE YOUR EDUCATION

ADMISSIONS REQUIREMENTS

Meet the Program Director

Brendan Goldman, Ph.D.

As a scholar, I have always believed that ahavat Yisra'el (a love of the Jewish people) is an asset when studying the Jewish experience. I similarly reject the notion that Jewish Studies must be an abstract discipline unmoored from the practical demands of Jewish communal leadership. Our Executive PhD seeks to inculcate Jewish wisdom for the purpose of elevating Jewish leadership in a post-10/7 professional world.

Academics

Degree Requirements (48 credits)

PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS (48 credits)

3 required Seminars (9 credits)
4 required Colloquia (12 credits)
5 Electives OR 4 Electives and an Externship (15 credits)
Masterclass with defense (6 credits)
Proposal (3 credits)
Doctoral Project (3 credits)

In addition to core requirements and electives, students pursue a masterclass of guided readings with an expert in a subfield of their choice (e.g., Soviet Jewry; Pedagogy in Jewish Day Schools; Jews and Non-Jews in Modern Israel, etc.) concluding with an oral or written defense demonstrating their mastery of that field.

Electives may be chosen from approved coursework in the following Gratz College programs, including: Jewish Studies, Antisemitism Studies, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Nonprofit Management, and Education Leadership. An Externship is an unpaid placement outside of your regular workplace that has been approved by the program director for the purpose of honing applied Jewish Studies skills and building professional relationships with leaders in your field of interest. (Walder Fellows are required to use six elective credits for the Seminar in Orthodoxy, Gender and Leadership.)

After completing coursework, students collaborate with a dedicated team of advisors and faculty to apply the knowledge and skills they have attained to complete a doctoral project that offers a unique contribution to the field of Jewish Studies. Doctoral candidates are encouraged to be creative. Students' projects can be molded in any modality that contributes to their professional advancement if it reflects doctoral-caliber work. Examples include a classical dissertation; two publishable articles; a podcast series; a series of video-essays; a historical fiction novel; a museum installation; etc.

Language Requirements

All PhD students are required to have academic reading proficiency in Hebrew by the end of their second year of study, meaning they should be able to read an academic text in Hebrew with the aid of a dictionary.

Application Deadline

Applications, inclusive of all supporting materials, are due by February 1st.

Concentrations

CONCENTRATIONS

Students may choose electives that cultivate skills in three broad categories.

Public Scholarship

Courses in Public Scholarship foster academic research training in pressing issues like Israel and the Near East, interfaith relations and American Jewish history. Students may choose from Gratz's extensive course offerings in antisemitism advocacy work and genocide education to empower thought leaders seeking policy positions at thinktanks, non-profit advocacy organizations and educational institutions.

Executive Leadership

Courses in Executive Leadership cultivate the application of students' Jewish knowledge and wisdom to the everyday tasks of nonprofit leadership. Students leverage Gratz's existing curricular strengths in nonprofit management to attain instruction that enriches their administrative skills and deepens their applied Jewish literacy.

Applied Scholarship and Education

Courses in Applied Scholarship and Education Concentration train clergy, instructors and school administrators to communicate the knowledge they have attained in their core training to develop their roles as educators and speakers vested in strengthening the foundations of Jewish community. Students may take courses in Gratz's education program that cultivate skills for excellence in communal education leadership.

Course Descriptions

REQUIRED CORE COURSES

Seminars

Students take three seminars that expose them to the breadth of Jewish wisdom, Jewish scholarly debates and the practical application of Jewish Studies knowledge. They also cultivate written and oral methods of sharing their knowledge with others.

Seminar A: Seminal Works of Jewish Studies

This seminar surveys field-defining academic and popular works in the fields of Jewish law, mysticism, philosophy, liturgy, theology, literature and social science. Each class focuses on a different book and its critical reception, providing a foundation for appreciating the breadth of Jewish Studies and exposing students to the variety of research opportunities they can pursue.

Seminar B: Applied Doctoral Research Methods

This seminar introduces students to the methodological foundations of research in Jewish Studies and its application in various genres of academic writing, with particular attention to the interpretive challenges posed by diverse source types, disciplinary traditions, and scholarly and general audiences. Students develop the analytical tools necessary to design and articulate rigorous research projects, composing a preliminary academic conference paper.

Seminar C: Public Scholarship and Education

This seminar focuses on how scholars of Jewish Studies may apply their trade to write popular histories, religious works, policy papers and social-scientific analyses. Each class will take a different discipline and subject in turn, exploring issues like reforming Jewish day school education, responding to assimilation, delivering divrei torah (sermons), confronting antisemitism, explaining the US-Israel relationship, etc.

Colloquia

Students enroll in four colloquia taught by a rotating group of experts in essential areas of Jewish Studies, offering an introduction to each scholar's field and a deep dive into the scholar's area of expertise. Students may choose to take each colloquium (A, B, C and D) OR select one type, multiple times (e.g., 2x Colloquium A, 1x CB, 1x CD).

Colloquium A

Colloquium A: Foundational Texts and Figures. Maimonides and his Mediterranean world; the Ba'al Shem Tov and the rise of Hasidism; (the biblical) Dinah and conceptions of Jewish womanhood; etc.

Colloquium B

Colloquium B: The Lives of Premodern Jews. Medieval Jewish gossip in the Cairo Geniza; Crypto-Jews at the courts of the Inquisition; Jewish motherhood in medieval responsa; etc.

Colloquium C

Colloquium C: Judaism and Modernity. Jews and Whiteness in America; Jewish responses to Marxism; Everyday Jewish life in the Shtetl; etc.

Colloquium D

Colloquium D: Contemporary Israel and the Near East. Race in Israeli literature and film; Rav Kook and Religious Zionist thought; the Jew in Islamist Thought; etc.

Leslie Ginsparg Klein, Ph.D.

expert Faculty

Faculty in the Executive Ph.D. in Jewish Studies program bring expertise in fields ranging from classical rabbinic texts to modern Jewish history and contemporary Israel. Their scholarship gives doctoral students access to advanced study with researchers who work deeply in the subjects they teach.

The program’s four doctoral colloquia, masterclass, and doctoral project are all shaped by that faculty expertise. Together, these elements connect broad doctoral training with focused guidance from scholars in the candidate’s chosen area of study.

Meet the faculty who teach and advise in the Executive Ph.D. program at Gratz College.

jewish studies Faculty

EXECUTIVE PHD LECTURE SERIES LAUNCH

Poetic Blackness: Contemporary Yemenite & Ethiopian Israeli Jewish Poetry (opens in new window/tab)

March 27, 2025

This talk examines how the framework of global Blackness continues to serve as a useful category for self-expression and identity amongst Mizrahi and Ethiopian Israeli Jews.

The Hebrew Teacher (opens in new window/tab)

April 17, 2025

Through three stirring novellas, celebrated Israeli author Maya Arad probes the demise of idealism and the generation gap that her heroines must confront. This program is the second in a series of lectures to launch our newly created Executive PhD in Jewish Studies degree program.

Death and everyday piety in the Cairo Geniza documents (opens in new window/tab)

May 15, 2025

This talk will discuss the dual cultural response (indignation and resignation) to death as a window onto everyday piety among Jews (and likely others) in medieval Egypt.

Investiture of Dr. Brendan Goldman as the Dr. Saul Philip Wachs Chair of Jewish Life and Learning (opens in new window/tab)

June 4, 2025

Join us for the formal investiture of Dr. Brendan Goldman, Program Director of Jewish Studies, as the inaugural Dr. Saul Philip Wachs Chair of Jewish Life and Learning.

It’s wonderful to learn with people who represent so many different cross-sections of the Jewish world; it feels like we have the voices of many different communities contributing to our learning together. It's so clear how motivated everyone is to make vital contributions to the field of Jewish Studies, to our particular communities, and to the Jewish people as a whole.

— Jen Bailey-Guerra, Jewish Studies student

frequently asked questions

What is an Executive Ph.D.?

How is Gratz College's Executive Ph.D. in Jewish Studies different from a traditional Ph.D.?

What is the doctoral project in Gratz College's Executive Ph.D. in Jewish Studies?

The doctoral project is the original contribution to the field that each candidate completes in Gratz College's Executive Ph.D. in Jewish Studies. It can take any form that meets doctoral standards and advances the candidate's work, including a traditional dissertation, two publishable articles, a podcast series, a set of video essays, a historical novel, or a museum installation.