Award and Fellowship Opportunities

David A. Kadish Humanities Scholarship Award
Haas/Koshland Memorial Award
Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Gilda Slifka Undergraduate Internship Program
Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) Scholarship Program
Steiner Summer Yiddish Program
Tikkun Volunteer and Internship Program
Israel Project's Tower Tomorrow Summer Fellowship
The Mollie Cass Sater Memorial Scholarship in Jewish Studies
UCSC Center for Jewish Studies Summer Fellowship with Digital Heritage Mapping
UCSC Jewish Studies Undergraduate Research Awards
Uriel Weinreich Program in Yiddish Language, Literature & Culture
Yiddish Book Center Fellowship Program (Recent Graduates)


The David A. Kadish Humanities Scholarship Award

The David A. Kadish Humanities Scholarship Award recognizes an undergraduate student with financial need who displays a strong interest in the study of the humanities. One scholarship in the amount of $1,000 is given each year in Spring quarter. This scholarship is funded through gift funds from David Kadish (History, ‘73).

Eligible applicants are registered UC Santa Cruz undergraduate students in good standing during the Spring quarter and declared in one of the following majors: Applied Linguistics and Multilingualism, Classical Studies, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Feminist Studies, German Studies, History, Italian Studies, Jewish Studies, Language Studies, Linguistics, Literature, Philosophy, or Spanish Studies.

Haas/Koshland Memorial Award

Each year, young adults are nominated and apply for the Haas/Koshland Memorial Award, a grant that funds up to $20,000 a year of personal exploration or study in Israel. Applicants do not need to be Jewish, can be first-time or return travelers to Israel, and can use the award to study, discover their passion, perform advocacy work, intern, or just explore the land, its complex social and political issues, and its rich history.

Eligibility: The award is open to young adults who are from, or attend school in, the San Francisco Bay Area and wish to broaden their personal life, academic life, or both. The applicant does not need to be enrolled in a course of study to apply.

More information can be found on the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco website.

Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Gilda Slifka Undergraduate Internship Program

The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute accepts six undergraduate and two graduate students with a demonstrated interest in women’s studies, Jewish women’s studies or topics related to Jewish women/Jewish gender issues around the world to participate in a paid residential internship program. Applications are accepted from students attending universities in the U.S. and abroad.

The Gilda Slifka Internship Program at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute provides undergraduate students with a variety of opportunities to learn about the work of Jewish women's studies scholars and centers, and try their hand at research in the field. Interns assist HBI-affiliated scholars and offices, and develop their own individual projects. Weekly outings to research archives and places of Jewish interest, and discussions with Jewish studies and women's studies scholars, expose interns to various methodologies and academic frameworks. Interns live on the Brandeis University campus in housing provided by the HBI and receive a weekly stipend.

More information can be found on the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute website.

Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) Scholarship Program

The JVS Scholarship Program provides qualified Jewish students whose primary residence is in Los Angeles with need-based financial aid, in the belief that education represents the first step to career success. Scholarships are available from $500 to $5,000.

Eligibility Requirements

  • Must be Jewish
  • Minimum age of 16 years
  • Permanent and legal resident of Los Angeles County - for a minimum of three years
  • U.S. citizen or documented legal permanent U.S. resident (green card)
  • Planning to attend an accredited public or private college, university or vocational school in the U.S.
  • Planning to enroll full-time (minimum 12 units per term)
  • Maintain a minimum 2.7 GPA for undergraduate students and a minimum 3.0 GPA for graduate students for every semester or quarter enrolled.
  • Demonstrated and verifiable financial need including FAFSA (student aid report)

More information can be found on the JVS website.

Steiner Summer Yiddish Program

The Steiner Summer Yiddish Program offers motivated students the opportunity to immerse themselves in Yiddish language and culture. Participants study with renowned scholars and build a community of yidishkayt in a supportive residential setting.

In the Steiner Summer Yiddish Program, undergraduate and graduate students ages 18-26:

  • take a full year of language courses in seven weeks, tuition free
  • gain substantive knowledge of Central and Eastern European Jewish history and culture in seminars with leading scholars of literature, film, music, and history
  • earn up to six college credits upon successful completion of the program
  • experience contemporary Yiddish culture during a field trip to New York City, where they tour Yiddish-speaking neighborhoods and attend cultural events
  • attend the Yiddish Book Center’s Yidstock: The Festival of New Yiddish Music
  • participate in paid internships, gaining professional experience working on Yiddish-based projects (intermediate students only)
  • create a community of peers from around the world in a residential environment

More information can be found on the Yiddish Book Center website.

Tikkun Volunteer and Internship Program

Tikkun is a magazine dedicated to healing and transforming the world. We seek writing that gives us insight on how to make that utopian vision a reality. We build bridges between religious and secular progressives by delivering a forceful critique of all forms of exploitation, oppression, and domination while nurturing an interfaith vision of a caring society — one whose institutions are reconstructed on the basis of love, generosity, nonviolence, social justice, caring for nature, and awe and wonder at the grandeur of the universe.

There are many volunteer and internship opportunities at Tikkun. We are looking for students and recent college graduates who would like to work on healing and repairing the world now (tikkun olam).

More information can be found on the Tikkun magazine website.

Israel Project's Tower Tomorrow Summer Fellowship

The Tower Tomorrow Fellowship offers a select group of university students (undergraduate and graduate) a challenging summer aimed at educating future journalists, writers and advocacy professionals in research, analysis, writing for publication, strategic communications and media management.

Working with world-class writers and media professionals, Fellows will learn about coverage of Israel and the region, meet with journalists, scholars, and diplomats, and undertake an intensive eight-week course.

For more information, please visit the Tower Tomorrow Fellowship website.

The Mollie Cass Sater Memorial Scholarship in Jewish Studies

Dr. William F. Sater has been giving back to UC Santa Cruz annually since 1990 in honor of his daughter Rachel Sater (Kresge, ‘93). In 2020, Professor Sater established this scholarship endowment in tribute and memory of his mother, Mollie Cass Sater. The Mollie Cass Sater Memorial Scholarship in Jewish Studies shall be awarded to one or more undergraduate students with financial need who display a strong interest in Jewish Studies.

If you are a UC Santa Cruz undergraduate student with financial need who displays a strong interest in Jewish Studies, you may be eligible for this award. You must be a registered student in good standing during the spring quarter and declared in one of the Humanities Division majors.

Uriel Weinreich Program in Yiddish Language, Literature & Culture

The Uriel Weinreich Program in Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture, established in 1968, is the oldest intensive Yiddish summer program in the world. The 6-week program offers classes from beginner to advanced levels and a wide variety of cultural and enrichment activities. Under the auspices of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and Bard College, the program offers peerless instruction in the Yiddish language and an in-depth exploration of the literature and culture of East European Jewry and its diaspora communities.

More information can be found on the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research website.

Yiddish Book Center Fellowship Program (Recent Graduates)

The Yiddish Book Center Fellowship Program offers recent college graduates a yearlong professional experience in Yiddish language and Jewish cultural work. Fellows spend a year as full-time staff members, learning valuable professional skills and contributing to the Center’s major projects, working closely with colleagues and supervisors.

More information can be found on the Yiddish Book Center website.