The Jewish Studies Program annually awards prizes for the best essays and projects in the field of Jewish Studies.
Categories include:
Any full-time student who wrote a paper or made a project on a Jewish Studies topic during the past academic year (Fall 2024 – Spring 2025). Students of any class standing are eligible to apply.
You need not be a Jewish Studies student, nor does the paper or project have to have been written for a Jewish Studies class. The important factor is the topic. As long as you wrote a paper or made a project in the field of Jewish Studies, you can submit it for this contest.
To apply, please submit
If you receive a Jewish Studies Essay or Project Award, we will ask you to submit a short bio about yourself to be featured on our website. In addition, you may be asked to write a brief blogpost about your paper and research to publish on the website and social media.
Applications Due: April 4, 2025
Once you submit your application, your information will be emailed to the Jewish Studies committee for review. If you have any questions, including about whether or not your paper fits our eligibility requirements, please contact Director of Jewish Studies Professor Tobias Brinkmann or the Assistant Director Rob Jones.
Students are competing for one of three top places. First place receives an award of $500, second place receives an award of $300, and third place receives an award of $200.
All prizes will be award at the Jewish Studies award ceremony at the end of the academic year. Winners will be notified prior to the ceremony.
If you have questions or would like more information, please contact Rob Jones, the assistant director of Jewish Studies (rej5233@psu.edu).
1st Place
Master’s Director’s Fund Essay Prize Recipient:
“Resurgent Antisemitism: The Threat of Viktor Orban and His Political Arsenal” by Jacob Green
2nd Place
Master’s Director’s Fund Essay Prize Recipient:
“Ugly Jews in the Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man” by Morgan Seiff
3rd Place
Harris and Zelma Freedman Scholarship Essay Prize Recipient:
“Solomon’s Temple: Historical Sources, Accuracy, and Reconstruction” by Dov Gordan
1st Place
“Inside the Minds of Prehistoric Peoples: Plastered Skulls in the Neolithic Levant” by Aimee Thompson
2nd Place
“Judean Pillar Figurines: Typology, Use, and Significance of Judean Pillar Figurines in Iron Age Judah” by David Hay
3rd Place
“Innocent God of Auschwitz” by Jerri Williams
1st Place
“Violent Femininity: An Analysis of Biblical Women and the Canaanite Goddesses in Judges 4–5” by Kristen Kitch
2nd Place
“Jay Ipson: A Testimony of Survival” by Josh Reiff
3rd Place
“Linda Schwab: A Holocaust Survivor’s Story” by Sophie Seigel
1st Place
“Farhud: Disaster and Resilience in Baghdad” by Laura Roncancio
2nd Place
“Something Old, Something New: Middle-class Jewish Women’s Experience during the Interwar Period in the Middle East and North Africa” by Zan Dyreson
1st Place
“The collective impact of private memories: self-representations of Jewish-Mexican identities in family photographs (1930–1955)” by Ana Sofía Semo
2nd Place
“Abjection, Body, and the Collapse of Institutions in Peter Weiss’ Die Ermittlung” by Suchitra Harnahalli
3rd Place
“Addressing Antisemitism at American Universities: Three-fold Policy Brief for the United States Department of Education” by Rayna Alexander
Winner
“Phoenicia and Philistia: Economic and Cultural Resilience Following the Late Bronze Age” by Grace Blaha