AJL Conference: Celebrating Our Graduates 

July 23, 2026

At the recent Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) conference in Evanston, Illinois, we celebrated the graduation of 13 participants in the Certificate in Judaica and Hebraica librarianship program. Featuring more than 90 participants from across the United States, Canada, and 12 European countries, this international online program between JTS and AJL is designed for librarians hoping to further careers in Judaica librarianship. Participants complete 5 courses and a 100-hour in-person internship, bringing their schoolwork outside the classroom.

In a session entitled “Your Future Colleagues and Their Work: Graduates of the JTS/AJL Certificate in Judaica and Hebraica Librarianship Program,” our recent graduates and others nearing graduation presented on their internship projects from leading research libraries and collections of Judaica across the globe. One participant described the history of collecting Judaica at the newly formed, post-unification University of Potsdam in Germany, and among the graduates who weren’t at the conference was an intern at the Danish National Library in Copenhagen. In the United States, a graduate created a geospatial map of 18th-century Jewish Philadelphia businesses based on business cards in the University of Pennsylvania’s collection, and another processed the digital archival collection of Hanoch Levi, an Israeli playwright whose plays were featured at a Stanford University program.

Several participants also interned at The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary. Their projects included cataloging kabbalistic manuscripts and co-curating an online exhibition of secular and religious work in different languages.

A few treasures from The JTS Library that our participants encountered during their internships

After the presentation, participants, lecturers, and internship supervisors had the opportunity to connect socially (many for the first time in person!) at a happy hour.

It was gratifying to gather and to meet so many members of the certificate program community, and we are excited about their future contributions to the field of Judaica librarianship.

For more information about the program, click here.