Deadline for Pitches: May 12, 2026
Publication Date: Winter 2026
The editors of AJS Perspectives, Dr. Laura Auketayeva (Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center) and Dr. Jonathan Skolnik (University of Massachusetts Amherst), invite proposals for short, accessible essays on the theme of archives in Jewish studies.
We invite submissions from anyone who considers themselves part of the field of Jewish studies. This includes scholars working across the many areas that make up the field, from ancient Jewish history, theology, and philosophy to literature, cultural studies, modern Jewish history, art history, and digital humanities, as well as archivists, librarians, curators, artists, educators, and community practitioners working both within and beyond the academy. If you know someone whose work or perspective would benefit from sharing their ideas with a broader audience, we warmly encourage you to forward this call to them.
Archives shape how we understand the Jewish past and how we imagine Jewish futures. From state archives and communal collections to family papers, oral histories, and digital repositories, archives preserve traces of lives, communities, and cultural production across centuries and continents. At the same time, archives are not neutral spaces. They reflect choices about preservation, access, power, and memory.
Across Jewish history, archival materials have been created, hidden, lost, rediscovered, and reinterpreted. Jewish communities have preserved documents in times of stability and in moments of crisis, from medieval communal records to clandestine wartime archives and contemporary digital collections. Scholars today increasingly grapple with questions about archival absence, fragmented sources, displaced collections, and the ethical responsibilities of working with sensitive materials.
For the Winter 2026 issue of AJS Perspectives, we invite contributors to reflect on archives as sites of discovery, interpretation, preservation, and debate. What do archives reveal and conceal? How do archival practices shape the stories we tell about Jewish history and culture? What challenges and opportunities face archivists and scholars working with Jewish collections today?
Because Jewish studies spans such a wide range of disciplines, we encourage contributors to interpret the theme of archives broadly. Archives may include manuscript collections, historical records, personal and family archives, communal and institutional collections, oral histories, digital repositories, artistic engagement with archival materials, community memory projects, or other forms of preserving and engaging with Jewish pasts.
We welcome short, engaging pieces (maximum 1,500 words) written for a broad audience.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
April 1, 2026 – CFP posted
May 12, 2026 – Pitches due
Late May / Early June 2026 – Decisions sent
June 30, 2026 – Final essays due
August 1, 2026 – Edited essays to Managing Editor Karin Kugel
Winter
2026 – Publication
Email both editors with:
Submit proposals to:
Laura Auketayeva, Ph.D.
Director of Education and Programs
Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center
lauraa@hercri.org
