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Jewish studies equips students with an understanding of Jewish civilisation from ancient times through the present day and fosters intercultural understanding. The required units provide students with a foundational understanding of the Jewish experience in all its diversity, followed by more specialised electives across a diverse range of disciplines and areas of study including:

The literature and origins of the Bible
Jewish philosophy
Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations throughout history
Modern Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict
Trauma, memory and post-conflict reconciliation
The Holocaust
Contemporary Jewish culture

Modern Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict

Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations throughout history

Trauma, memory and post-conflict reconciliation

The Holocaust

Contemporary Jewish culture

Teaching programs

Our degrees provide a practical skill set, common to the humanities, that is transferable to a wide variety of careers. Our students learn how to read critically, conduct research, write with clarity, and make persuasive evidence-based arguments. Whether in government work or the private sector, employers will value the skills that an Arts degree with a minor in Jewish Studies or Holocaust and Genocide Studies provides. In tandem with our undergraduate offerings, we offer opportunities for community engagement through internships and not-for-credit study of Yiddish language and culture.

Undergraduate studies

The ACJC offers two minors as part of the Bachelor of Arts degree: Jewish Studies and Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Undergraduate students enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts degree can choose to study a single unit or undertake a minor in Jewish Studies or Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Units may also be taken as electives in other degree programs across the University. Our teaching approach creates pathways for students to progress from an undergraduate interest in Jewish Studies or Holocaust and Genocide Studies, to pursuing the discipline through Honours, and then graduate coursework study or research.

Overseas study opportunities

The ACJC is known for its overseas study tours which are offered intensively over the summer and winter holiday periods. Study tours include:

“Final Journey: Remembering the Holocaust” – students travel to centres of interwar Jewish life in Europe, and encounter the diverse heritage of the region's Jewish population. The unit explores the dynamics that shaped interactions between Europe's Jews and their neighbours prior to and during the Holocaust, how Europeans have struggled to come to terms with this difficult past through debates around memorialisation, reconciliation and justice.
“Seeking Justice: South Africa and Rwanda” – brings together students from Monash campuses in Australia and South Africa to study the contemporary histories of post-genocide and post-conflict societies, through two specific cases: The South African approach after apartheid and local and global responses to the Rwandan genocide.

Students enrolled in Jewish studies may also be interested in opportunities to study for a semester at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem or Tel Aviv University. Find details of Monash University’s exchange program and partner universities.

Read more about Global Study Tours and other Arts Learning Abroad opportunities.

Graduate studies

Research degrees in Jewish Studies or Holocaust and Genocide Studies allow you to develop a high degree of expertise in an area of particular interest to you. They entail extensive scholarly research, developing significant expertise and skills in critical reasoning, argument, comprehension, communication, research, and logical analysis, at the highest level.

The ACJC offers opportunities for study at the Master and PhD levels. Our teaching approach creates pathways for students to progress from an undergraduate interest Jewish studies to postgraduate research. Our staff supervise graduate research across disciplines that include: the Eastern European Jewish experience and its heritage; the Holocaust and its aftermath; history and cultures of Israel; Australian Jewish migration; Yiddish literature and culture; and the history of Mizrachi/Sephardi communities.

Master/PhD in Jewish Cultural Practice

The Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation is inviting applications from outstanding candidates for the Master and PhD Arts (Jewish Cultural Practice). This stream offers an opportunity for artists and practitioners to deepen their practice through the scholarly study of Jewish cultures today and throughout history, and is offered in addition to the traditional Master and PhD programs. This Master/PhD stream offers artists and cultural practitioners the opportunity to enhance their careers and create new possibilities by supporting and developing their scholarly training, which in turn will inform their creative works.

In joining the program, candidates will form a cohort of cutting-edge local and international cultural practitioners. Candidates will produce a substantive work in their medium, which will be supported with scholarly training, and industry mentoring. Having created a substantive work, graduates will be supported in disseminating it, either through publication or performance.

Candidates in the program are mentored by an interdisciplinary team of academic supervisors. Additionally, ACJC helps to pair candidates with local industry-based mentors working in their medium, whether it be senior writers, playwrights, composers, or arts professionals. This unique combination of mentoring, professional development, and partnerships in the creative industries is designed to support candidates in broadening their professional networks, furthering their creative careers. Graduates of the Master’s or PhD Arts (Jewish Cultural Practice) will become local and global leaders in developing contemporary Jewish culture.

Project areas may include, among others:

Creative writing, including works of fiction (novels, novellas, short stories), poetry, drama
Translation
Musical composition
Filmmaking
Visual arts
Performance
Museum exhibitions

For more information about the program, entry requirements and the application process, please contact program coordinator Associate Professor David Slucki.

There is an opportunity for financial support for Honours or HDR students (MA or PhD) conducting research in Jewish Studies or Holocaust and Genocide Studies:

Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation Student Enterprise fund

The Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation is committed to providing our undergraduate and postgraduate students with educational and research extension opportunities during their studies. With the generous support of a consortium of generous donors, the ACJC Research Enterprise fund supports Honours and HDR students currently undertaking their program research who are supervised or co-supervised by ACJC staff and/or working in a field related to Jewish Studies or Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Each Honours student may receive up to $2,500 of support in total during the course of their current degree program. Masters/PhD students may receive up to $5,000.

The following are examples of how the funds might be utilized:

Language training related to research activity (e.g. Yiddish, Hebrew, Polish, Arabic, or other) locally or abroad;
Travel for the purposes of research in Australia or abroad (e.g. archival research);
Travel or registration for conferences aligned with the recipients’ research areas and ACJC’s mission and objectives;
Support for projects such as the production of a performance or exhibit, and other areas, for example in the form of space or equipment rentals.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and students will be informed about approval of funds within six weeks of the application. Funds must be spent in full within 12 months of receipt.

To apply to the fund, students are requested to submit the following to the ACJC Director:

A document that includes your name, student ID, program, contact information and 500-700 words about yourself.
A budget and explanation indicating how you intend to utilize the funds.
A letter from your current honours or HDR supervisor or an ACJC faculty member in support of your proposed use of the funds.

Zelman and Diana Elton scholarship in Jewish and Holocaust and Genocide Studies

Zelman and Diana Elton have generously supported research and the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation over many years. The Zelman and Diana Elton scholarship in Jewish and Holocaust and Genocide Studies offer one annual scholarship of $5,000 to support a full-time student engaged in higher degree research (MA or PhD) in Jewish Studies and Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the ACJC.

To be eligible for the scholarship, students must be completing a project in the areas of Jewish Studies or Holocaust and Genocide Studies under the supervision of faculty at the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation. Preference may be given to students who do not currently hold any other scholarship funding at Monash. The scholarship does not include a work requirement.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and students will be informed about approval of funds within six weeks of the application.

To apply to the scholarship, students are requested to submit the following to the ACJC Director:

A document that includes your name, student ID, program, contact information, name of your main and associate supervisors (at least one from ACJC).
A statement of 500-700 words that outlines your plans for your research project.