Dr. Joshua Karlip, assistant professor of Jewish history at Yeshiva College, received the Harry Starr Fellowship in Judaica at the Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard University. Karlip will spend the entire academic year of 2009-2010 engaged in the research fellowship, whose theme this year is Jewish Political Tradition.

He will work on his book-in-progress, a study of the cultural and political careers of three Yiddishist, Diaspora Nationalist intellectuals from 1905-1945. The book will trace their ideological journey from their youths in Tsarist Russia, through the Russian Revolution and Civil War, the interwar years, the rise of Nazism and Stalinism, and the Holocaust. "The book studies their move from political militancy and affirmation of the Diaspora to political retreat and despair regarding Jewish life in Europe," Karlip said. "It also will analyze these men's journey from an embrace of Yiddish secular culture to a negotiated religious return."

Karlip specializes in 19th and 20th century East European Jewry. He teaches both survey courses in modern and medieval Jewish history as well as advanced seminars in his area of expertise, which includes the cultural and intellectual history of East European Jewry in all its dimensions and Lithuanian rabbinic culture