Jewishness comes home to Jewish Studies: A modern-day Hanukkah story
The schedule for the Association for Jewish Studies annual conference listed Hanukkah candle lighting at 5:00 PM in a modest breakout room designed for fifty people. As the sun set over the Washington DC hotel, it became clear that the organizers had underestimated the draw.
The room was immediately overwhelmed. More than 200 scholars – historians of Medieval Ashkenaz, Ladino poetry experts, and sociologists of modern Israel, to name just a few of the specialized disciplines represented – stood shoulder to shoulder, spilling beyond the entranceway.
The gathering was moved to an adjacent large, open atrium. When the crowd began singing “Maoz Tzur,” the sound filled the multi-story space, echoing with a resonance that felt both ageless and urgent. By the second night, the group had grown to nearly 300, requiring a move to a major ballroom.
Having attended the AJS for three decades, I found the scene remarkable. Only a few years ago in Boston, the communal candle lighting was a peripheral affair, unlisted in the official schedule and attended by fewer than ten people. For years, the trend in the field was toward a cool, detached universalism. This year’s turnout suggests that detachment is melting.
The value and cost of the universal
The “universalist” push of the last few decades had real merit. By relocating Jewish Studies out of its own parochial silo, the field expanded its scope and attracted a diverse array of scholars from all backgrounds. At its best, this approach fostered rigorous analysis that moved beyond political or ideological differences. It integrated Jewish history and thought into the broader human story, creating a sophisticated cross-cultural dialogue.
Yet, this progress came at a price. Too often, the push for universalism sidelined the existentially meaningful foundations of Jewish scholarship. For many Jewish researchers across the religious and political spectrum, the effort to downplay “particular” Jewish identity felt like a dilution of the very subjects we study. In the pursuit of academic legibility to the outside world, the beating heart of the discipline was often lost.
A program in crisis
The shift back toward the particular was evident not just at the Hanukkah candles, but in the program itself. Across three days and eleven time slots, new and urgent themes dominated. In almost every block, panels grappled with the raw, lived experience of Jewish life today: The rise of antisemitism in the American academy; Debates over anti-Zionism and BDS on home campuses; The challenges of teaching Jewish Studies in an increasingly hostile environment; The role of the professor when students express discomfort due to biases regarding their Jewish involvement or support for Israel.
These sessions were often heated, and opinions varied widely. But the underlying current was clear: many Jewish Studies professionals who came of age in an academic environment where Jews were fully accepted are now in a state of high tension. They are reevaluating the universalist assumptions that once defined their careers.
The Hanukkah lighting was a warm, positive manifestation of this turn. It wasn’t about being insular; it was about the simple need for community. Even for those whose social and ideological views remain unchanged, the atmosphere on their home campuses has shifted. Many arrived in D.C. feeling ostracized and lonely, viewing the conference as a rare opportunity to be among people who understand their specific vulnerability.
To see hundreds of colleagues singing together in that atrium was a reminder that we are more than a collection of bibliographies; we are a community facing a shared reality.
We cannot ignore the dark backdrop of this year’s gathering. The horrific shootings in Sydney, Australia, which claimed 15 lives at a Hanukkah celebration on the first day of the conference, sharpened these feelings. While this tragedy undoubtedly contributed to the massive turnout for the lighting, the violence only exacerbated a shift that was already underway.
Particular Jewish identity is moving back to the center of the organization in a way that can still coexist with the benefits of universal scholarship. After decades of trying to be “just another academic field,” Jewish Studies is reasserting its role as a vital, living conversation about a particular people. At a moment when many Jewish scholars feel increasingly isolated, there is no substitute for the strength found in standing together.