These are some of the most frequently asked questions relating to Academic Jewish Studies.
For FAQs relating to Archives & Libraries, Museums or Jewish Education please see Grants FAQs.
Doctoral applicants must be European citizens enrolled or planning to enrol at a European university for their PhD. They must also have been resident in Europe for a minimum of 2 years prior to the award commencing. Universities where candidates are eligible to pursue their doctorate may be located anywhere in Europe, in EU and non-EU states alike, except for Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.
Post-doctoral applications must either have received their PhD no more than 7 years before the application deadline or be planning to submit their dissertation by June 2025. They must also be based in Europe when they apply, i.e., have European citizenship or be the holder of a valid European residency permit.
Individuals who have already received a post-doctoral fellowship from the Foundation may not apply for another one, even at a different host institution.
As it is the host institution that applies on behalf of the post-doctoral candidate, there are also additional institutional eligibility requirements (read below).
We welcome applications from universities based in Europe, EU and non-EU states alike, except for Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.
The organisation’s activities must be deemed charitable under UK charity law. This includes organisations which are either not-for-profit or publicly funded, such as universities. For more information, please consult the UK’s Charity Commission website and its list of Charitable Purposes.
Jewish Studies is the study of both Judaism and the Jews. It encompasses the study of many different aspects of Jewish civilization, including but not limited to architecture, languages, literature, liturgy and ritual, philosophy and theology, as well as the history and sociology of the Jewish people. Jewish Studies draws on methodologies from a variety of disciplines, but some of the key skills Jewish Studies scholars rely on include facility with Jewish languages, textual analysis and hermeneutics, archival research, palaeography, and, when relevant, social science methodologies such as ethnographic research and linguistic analysis.
All topics within the broad field of Jewish Studies are considered eligible for the Foundation’s Jewish Studies grants. The Foundation particularly welcomes applications from within the social sciences that investigate Jewish life in contemporary Europe.
In principle, projects only tangentially related to Jewish Studies are unlikely to be successful, nor will projects devoted to an individual or individuals who happen to be Jewish, but whose historical importance is not significantly contingent on that biographical fact. Secondary school education, informal education and documentary films will not be funded within the context of the Academic Jewish Studies grant programme.
Topics that fall within the realm of Jewish Studies are often based in other departments (for instance, a Jewish history project may be based in a university history department). All topics that could reasonably be classified as Jewish Studies, regardless of which department they are based in, are eligible.
This grant programme does not discriminate (either positively or negatively) on the basis of religious affiliation.
Perspective applicants with extenuating circumstances which have led to pauses in their academic career are encouraged to contact the Foundation directly to discuss their situation.
At this stage, there are no changes to our programmes, and we are continuing to make grants to UK based and European institutions and organisations.
We currently have three grant programmes (Academic Jewish Studies, European Jewish Heritage and Jewish Communal Life). Each programme is slightly different and has its own grant categories. Some of the categories are by invitation only.
Initiatives are mostly ongoing projects set up by the Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe, often in cooperation with other institutions or other funders.
We are not able to make funding decisions outside of our grant rounds. While waiting for grants programmes to open, you can register on our website to receive email notification of when grants are available and other information relating to the type of projects we support.
Please get in touch before you send a letter of enquiry. We would encourage you to carefully review our website before making any enquiry so that you fully understand our funding priorities and the grant making process. We respond to all enquiries in as timely a manner as possible.
We have moved to a fully online application system which enables us to retrieve your application and any details related to your application in a secure way.
If you have not previously registered for the online application system you will need to do so when you login in for the first time.
If you have previously registered for an online account (since 2017), you will be able to access it with your existing login details. As of October 2022 the password policy has changed, and you may be asked to reset your password to meet the new password requirements.
Access the online account page, click ‘Forgot Password’ and follow the instructions.
You will receive an email with a temporary password that needs to be reset immediately. If you cannot find this email, check your spam folder.
Your browser may not accept cookies which stops the online application form from launching. You need to adjust your browser to accept cookies.
Please contact us at info@rothschildfoundation.eu with the relevant email address and we can transfer the account to the new email account.
Samples of the application forms are available to download on the relevant grant category pages. Please note these are for guidance only and we can only accept applications submitted via the online application process.
The questions in the online application form may have been updated since the sample documents were produced.
No, you can save and come back to your application at a later time by clicking the ‘Save & Finish Later’ button at the bottom of each screen.
To continue, you need to access your online account via the account login page.
Please note: If your application form is left inactive for more than 50 minutes your changes won’t be saved. In order to keep the form ‘active’ when completing your application, you must either click ‘Next’ or ‘Save and Finish Later’, which will take you to your account dashboard.
To move to the next page, please click the ‘Next’ button at the bottom of the page. You can also navigate between sections by clicking on the page title which appears as a ribbon at the top of the application form.
Do not use the ‘Back’ or ‘Forward’ buttons on your browser to navigate through your application.
Before copying text into the form, first paste the text into either Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Mac) to remove unwanted formatting. We strongly suggest that you avoid using bullet points and other similar design elements.
We can only see an application once it’s been submitted. If you have any questions regarding the application form please contact the respective Grant Programme Manager.
Once you have submitted an application you will receive a confirmation email. It will give you a number for your application and will provide a full overview of the details you provided. A copy of your application will also be available via your online account. We recommend that you keep this email for your records.
Please contact info@rothschildfoundation.eu to discuss your options.