About The Graduate School

Students from diverse backgrounds, religions, and communities come to The Graduate School of The Jewish Theological Seminary to explore their interests in a world-renowned institution noted for its academic excellence.

Our dedicated faculty represent the full range of Jewish expertise and scholarship, providing unparalled opportunities for students to broaden their scope of knowledge and understanding. Graduates leave with a degree, and the skills and ability to become leaders in their fields.

Our Community


The JTS community attracts top students to learn, live, study, and work together.

Our campus, in the heart of Morningside Heights, is located within a vibrant academic center of the city, with Columbia University, Barnard College, Union Theological Seminary, and the Manhattan School of Music just steps away.

A wide range of dynamic and ongoing academic, social, and cultural opportunites are available at JTS. New York City, with its many cultural offerings, is at your doorstep.

Applying to The Graduate School.

The Graduate School Administration

Shuly Rubin Schwartz is the Irving Lehrman Research Associate Professor of American Jewish History and dean of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies at The Jewish Theological Seminary.

A third-generation JTS graduate and an alumna of The Graduate School, Dr. Schwartz hopes to further strengthen academic Jewish studies at JTS while preparing students at both the graduate and undergraduate levels to take on leadership roles through careers and volunteer work in both in the Jewish and secular realms. Read a letter from Dean Schwartz to prospective Graduate School students.

Shira Kohn is the assistant dean of The Graduate School of JTS and a doctoral candidate in New York University's joint program in History and Hebrew and Judaic Studies. Her dissertation examines Jewish college sororities and their encounters with social and political movements in postwar America. Ms. Kohn is editor—along with Hasia Diner and Rachel Kranson—of the forthcoming A Jewish Feminine Mystique?: Jewish Women in Postwar America (Rutgers University Press, October 2010). An educational consultant in the fields of American Jewish History and Jewish Women's History, she has previously worked with the Center for Online Jewish Studies and Re/Presenting the Jewish Past.

Ms. Kohn, a native of Chicago, received her bachelor's degree, with distinction, in Jewish Studies from the Ohio State University. She is delighted to have this opportunity to return to JTS, after having worked at the circulation desk of The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary from 2002 to 2003.

Sara Reif is the office manager of the Office of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies of JTS. Hailing from Overland Park, Kansas, Ms. Reif attended New York's Stern College for Women after spending a year in Israel studying at Michlelet Esther women's college. At Stern, she participated in a joint program with the Fashion Institute of Technology, earning a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts that focused on computer graphics.

After graduation, Ms. Reif worked in computer graphics for a year before beginning her career in the Jewish nonprofit world. Since then, she has worked for the Sinai Institute and the Jewish Communal Service Association of North America. Ms. Reif joined JTS in March 2010.

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