Association for Jewish Studies

The Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) is a scholarly organization in the United States that promotes academic Jewish Studies.

History
The Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) was founded in December 1968 by a small group of scholars at Brandeis University seeking a forum for exploring methodological and pedagogical issues in the merging field of Jewish studies. AJS held where it held its first annual conference that year at Brandeis.

In 1976, the AJS began to publish a scholarly journal, the AJS Review. In 1986, the new Women's Caucus of AJS spearheaded the introduction of women's studies into Jewish studies.

AJS celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2018, by when it had grown to over 2,000 members from 26 countries, the largest academic Jewish studies organization in the world. The group's membership was nearly equal between men and women.

In 2023, the AJS's executive committee signed a statement authored by the American Council of Learned Societies against HB 999 in Florida.

In 2023, Professor Steven Fine of Yeshiva University, the founding editor of AJS Perspectives: The Magazine of the Association for Jewish Studies, criticized the AJS for becoming politicized and "taken over by the progressive left" and renounced his membership in AJS.