The winner will be awarded two years to develop his or her idea as the Charles R. Bronfman Visiting Chair in Jewish Communal Innovation at Brandeis. Competitive salary, benefits, and research assistance will be awarded to the winner of the competition. The winner of our competition will be expected to teach one course each semester at Brandeis, and to deliver lectures or seminars based on his/her project. The bulk of the chair holder’s time, however, is set aside for research and writing. The book that results from the chair holder’s project will be published and promoted by Brandeis University Press.

This competition is inspired, in part, by a similar competition conducted in 1929, offering a ten thousand dollar prize for the winning entry to the question, “how can Judaism best adjust itself to and influence modern life.” The winner (out of 62 entries) was Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, whose work, submitted anonymously, was entitled Judaism As A Civilization. Published in 1934, with help from the prize money, it quickly became the most influential Jewish book of its time, spawning new ways of thinking about Jews, Jewish institutions, the Jewish religion, and Jewish life as a whole. It remains in print and continues to generate creative debate more than seven decades later.