In the months following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Katz Center joined with the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture and other research centers in an initiative to support colleagues in Ukraine—Jewish studies scholars, archivists, and others—who were seeking to continue their work under dangerous, unpredictable, and under-resourced conditions. 

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the Katz Center and other institutions have been collaboratively figuring out how to support their Jewish studies colleagues in Ukraine. One form this support has taken is an initiative sponsoring mini-grants to Jewish studies scholars in Ukraine. Katz Center director Steven Weitzman reflects with other leaders of this initiative in this piece on a year of supporting scholars amidst war.

In April 2022, a few months after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a group of Jewish studies scholars came together to determine how to support Jewish studies scholars and students impacted by the war.  What emerged from these conversations was a collaboration between the Katz Center, the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, and a host of other academic partners—among them Penn’s Jewish Studies Program—that was meant to provide a modicum of support for Ukrainian scholars impacted by the war.

Working together with the Tanenbaum Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto, the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, Penn's Jewish Studies Program, and partners from other leading Jewish studies programs, the Katz Center has launched a small grant initiative to support colleagues in Jewish studies caught in the war in Ukraine.