The Tam Institute for Jewish Studies (TIJS) at Emory University, established in 1999 to bring together students and scholars in the interdisciplinary exploration of Jewish civilization and culture, is the largest Jewish Studies program in the southern United States. The Institute’s core endowment was generously provided by the Arthur M. The Blank family named the Institute in honor of its beloved spiritual leader, Rabbi Donald A. Tam, the founding rabbi of Atlanta’s Temple Beth Tikvah and a community leader known for his wisdom, compassion, and public service. TIJS boasts nineteen core faculty members in seven departments across the Emory College of Arts and Sciences, plus one each in the Law School and the Candler School of Theology. In addition, seventeen affiliated faculty members offer occasional courses. Strengths of the program include modern and American Jewish history, Jews in Eastern Europe and in Islamic Civilizations, the Jewish textual tradition, modern Judaism, Jewish ethnography, Holocaust Studies, Hebrew and Yiddish literatures and cultures, and Israel Studies. TIJS offers an undergraduate major and minor, graduate fellowships and a graduate certificate program. The Institute also supports undergraduate and graduate students with a wide range of grants for travel and research, study abroad, and intensive language study. In addition to its robust academic program, TIJS engages with the broader community through public events, most notably the Tenenbaum Family Lecture Series in Jewish Studies and the Rabbi Jacob M. Rothschild Memorial Lecture, which bring distinguished visiting scholars to campus.
