Emory University's graduate program in Jewish history covers the medieval and modern periods, with special strengths in the history of Jews in the US, Latin America, and the medieval Near East, and in the history of modern Israel. The program also draws on the outstanding strengths of the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies and on the resources of Jewish studies faculty in other departments.

The Ph.D. program in Jewish history provides students with rigorous training in their fields of specialization while encouraging comparative study. Students who focus on Jewish history are encouraged to study its chronological breadth while choosing a geographic area of specialization for coursework and examinations. They may also enroll in a Certificate Program in Jewish Studies (currently in development), which will present them with cross-disciplinary perspectives through coursework and participation in a regular colloquium, the Faculty–Graduate Student Seminar Series in Jewish Studies. The Certificate Program will offer students a credential that strengthens their ability to compete for national fellowships, postdoctoral awards, and tenure-track positions in Jewish history.

Graduate students in Jewish history have a strong group of faculty members with whom to work. Eric Goldstein is a specialist on modern Jewish history and culture, with interests that extend from the United States to Eastern Europe. His work has focused on topics such as the construction of Jewish identities, Jews’ place in America's racial and ethnic mix, the culture of Yiddish-speaking immigrants, and Jews in the American South. Jeffrey Lesser is an authority on race and ethnicity in Latin America. He is interested in the construction of national identity in Brazil, especially in how minority groups understand their own and national space. His work has focused on Jewish-Brazilians, Arab-Brazilians and Japanese-Brazilians; he is currently examining how various minority communities remember the military dictatorship that began in the 1980s. Marina Rustow specializes in medieval Jewish history, the history of the medieval Near East, and the Cairo Geniza. She has worked on the social history of orthodoxy and heresy in medieval Judaism, conversion and reversion to Judaism, and Jewish apostasy. She is currently engaged in projects on elites and states in the Near East, especially the interface between Jews and the caliphal courts at Cairo and Baghdad, and on the Arabic-speaking Jews of Sicily. Kenneth W. Stein specializes in modern Israel, the British Mandate in Palestine, the Arab-Israeli negotiating process, and American foreign policy in the Middle East.

Students may extend their work to draw on other colleagues in the History department or affiliated with it. These include Astrid Eckert (modern Germany; World War II and its aftermath), Deborah E. Lipstadt (history of the Holocaust), Roxani Margariti (maritime history and archaeology, Middle Eastern social and economic history, the Cairo Geniza), and Gordon D. Newby (early Islam, Muslim relations with Jews and Christians, comparative sacred texts). They can also work with faculty in cognate fields, departments, programs, and institutes, including American Studies, the Graduate Division of Religion, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and Middle East and South Asian Studies. Over the past decade, through the Institute for the Study of Modern Israel, Emory has hosted as visiting faculty a steady stream of internationally renowned specialists on the history of modern Israel and the Middle East.

Students also have a wide range of course opportunities for comparative study outside the field, with clusters of scholars at Emory who work on topics such as race and ethnicity, the history of religion, and global migration.

Graduate students in Jewish history in the last few years have won tenure track positions across the United States as well as national and international fellowships and grants.

Craig Perry (medieval Jewish trade and migration)
Jason Schulman (American Jewish history)
Ariel Svarch (modern Argentine ethnicity and politics)

Marni Davis, “‘On the Side of Liquor’: American Jews and the Politics of Alcohol, 1870-1926” (Assistant Professor of History, Georgia State University)

Mollie Lewis, “Con Men, Crooks, and Cinema Kings: Popular Culture and Jewish Identities in Buenos Aires, 1905-1930” (Assistant Professor of History, University of South Alabama)

Caitlin Stewart, “Religious Diplomacy: American Protestants and a Jewish State, 1933-1979” (Assistant Professor of History, Eastern Connecticut State University)