Program Mixes Management and Culture
Image by Sigrid Estrada
George Washington University will launch a groundbreaking master’s degree program this fall in Jewish cultural arts, the first graduate program in the U.S. to mesh Jewish culture with management training.
The Class of 2015 will include just a handful of students — perhaps 10 or fewer — but the program’s goal is audacious: to ensure that Jewish arts continue to thrive by training the next generation of administrators and cultural entrepreneurs.
“Often people are not well-versed in the cultural stuff but very well-versed in spreadsheets or contracts,” said Jenna Weissman Joselit, the program’s director. “And there’s a flip side, the people with great cultural training but not in the money aspects. So we thought it would be great to bring those two sides together.”
According to Joselit, the new program is unique among the several graduate programs focused on Jewish culture. “GW has the …. distinction of being the only program to combine a focus on Jewish culture with a focus on arts administration,” she said.
Innovator: Jenna Weissman Joselit. Image by Sigrid Estrada
The two-year program is multidisciplinary by definition. It will expose students to a range of subjects, from culture to fiscal management to marketing. And students will have access to faculty from a variety of departments. They’ll take classes in GW’s Judaic Studies Department, its Museum Studies program, law school and business school. Other opportunities for students include courses in history, media affairs, theater, dance and visual arts.
One course of particular interest is a workshop that will focus on the craft of writing about culture. Students will learn to write press releases, annual reports, exhibition texts and feature stories in relation to art and Jewish culture.
Joselit is a respected historian with a particular interest in how Jewish people define themselves through culture. (Full disclosure: She is a columnist for the Forward.) She said that the first class will be tiny so the program can be more “hands-on” and so it will be easier to create a sense of community. With this in mind, Joselit is looking for “smart, curious and passionate” applicants. Some background in Jewish studies would help, but it is not essential: She emphasized that she is looking for students who are “adventurous” and “open.”
The program is not just about creativity and Jewish arts. There is also an element of continuity. With so many Jews forming their identity through culture, a program that works to nurture Jewish forms of artistic expression could have a real impact on the next generation.
Whether we like it or not, religion is in decline among American Jews. This M.A. program in Jewish Cultural Arts will engage with the question of how to maintain a community through culture. Still, this pioneering program intends to have a strongly practical side.
“We want our students to come out with skills,” Joselit said, “not just knowing how to read critically and write papers. We want them to know how to do stuff, how to be up and running.”
Gordon Haber is a frequent contributor to the Forward.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Dive In
-
Culture How an Israeli dance company shaped a Catholic school boy’s life
-
Culture How Abraham Lincoln in a kippah wound up making a $250,000 deal on ‘Shark Tank’
-
Books What is ‘Zionism without Zion?’ New history asks, but can’t answer
-
Culture In the new Fantastic Four trailer, a glimpse of Yancy Street’s Yiddishkeit
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 4
Opinion What Jewish university presidents say: Trump is exploiting campus antisemitism, not fighting it
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Jewish students, alumni decry ‘weaponization of antisemitism’ across country
-
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history
-
Opinion Why can Harvard stand up to Trump? Because it didn’t give in to pro-Palestinian student protests
-
Culture How an Israeli dance company shaped a Catholic school boy’s life
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.