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The Joint Doctoral Program in Jewish Studies at the University of California at Berkeley and the Graduate Theological Union is an interdisciplinary graduate program that draws upon the rich resources of the two participating institutions as well as the San Francisco Bay Area. Students work with a core group of Jewish Studies faculty at the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union, and a range of departments at the University of California, including Near Eastern Studies, History and Comparative Literature; they may also study with other faculty in related fields at either institution. Upon completion of the program, both schools award the Ph.D.
Students select a primary and secondary period (for instance, rabbinic and modern) and a major field (for instance, history or literature) in which to take their comprehensive examinations, choosing a committee from among the faculty in each period or field. The Program's core faculty are engaged in a wide variety of specializations, and can advice students on such diverse topics as the Hebrew Bible, Judaism in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, Comparative Jewish & Christian History, Midrash, Medieval Jewish History, the Cultural and Intellectual History of Modern Jewry, Yiddish and Modern Hebrew Literature, Cultural Studies, Gender Studies and Literary Theory.
The Joint Doctoral Program accepts students for advanced training in Jewish sources and critical methodologies who can demonstrate facility with Jewish sources, an ability for independent research, and clear conception of their academic goals. Applicants are expected to have majored in Jewish Studies or a related field and to have taken at least two years of college Hebrew. Generous fellowships are available to qualified applicants.
The graduate application to Berkeley is your first step in applying to the program. Please see the online application and instructions at the Berkeley Graduate Program Website.
Applicants must be accepted by both the University of California, Graduate Division and the Graduate Theological Union. Separate admission committees from each institution make recommendations to the Executive Committee for the Joint Doctoral Program. The Executive Committee then makes recommendations to the GTU and UCB Deans, who make final decisions and notify the applicants. The applicants will receive two separate admissions letters, one from UCB and one from GTU.
Applications are considered only once a year for admission to the following fall semester. Separate applications on the appropriate forms must be filed in each school. The applications to both institutions must be postmarked or hand-delivered by December 15.
For more information on applying to Berkeley as a Graduate Student and for an online application:
Berkeley Grad Division and Online Application
Only students who intend to work toward the Ph.D degree will be considered for the Program. Undergraduate preparation must include the following:
An undergraduate major in a related field may also be deemed acceptable at the discretion of the admissions committee. Interested applicants may contact the Program prior to submission of application material to verify if a particular field may be considered in lieu of the above.
Applicants must also submit three letters of recommendation and a 20–page writing sample.
All applicants from a country in which English is the official language are required to take the Graduate Record Examinations (gre) within a five year period prior to submitting an application to the Joint Program. The gre results are but one factor in determining acceptance to the Program, and they are critical in the determination of certain grants and fellowships granted on a competitive university wide basis. All applicants are required to take the gre except for those for whom English is not a native language and who have spent less than one year in schools or universities where English is the language of instruction. Those students are required to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (toefl).
For additional information please contact: