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This scholarship is given yearly and rewards those students excelling in their pursuit of Jewish Studies. It is open to currently enrolled students who are minoring in Jewish Studies or doing a Combined or Independent Major in Jewish Studies and another discipline.

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Ruderman Family Foundation, whose generosity makes these scholarships possible.  Guided by Jewish values, the Ruderman Family Foundation believes that inclusion and understanding of all people is essential to a fair and flourishing community. Its mission is to support effective programs, innovative partnerships and a dynamic approach to philanthropy in the following areas: advocating for and advancing the inclusion of people with disabilities throughout the Jewish community; fostering a more nuanced understanding of the American Jewish community among Israeli leaders; and modeling the practice of strategic philanthropy worldwide.

Application Materials:

  1. A 3-5 page proposal discussing your academic and professional interests in Jewish Studies
  2. Curriculum vitae
  3. One letter of recommendation

Interviews with finalists may be conducted. Selection will be dependent on overall academic achievement and the quality of the student’s proposal.

Applications for 2024 due March 15, 2024.

All materials can be emailed to Lori Lefkovitz at l.lefkovitz@northeastern.edu or mailed to:

Jewish Studies Program
450B Renaissance Park
Northeastern University
360 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02115

Current and Previous Ruderman Scholars

2022 Owen Kasmin is a History and Political Science combined major with a minor in Jewish Studies and concentration in Law and Legal Studies. He is interested in Judaism’s place in the development of law and politics. He plans to pursue a career in human rights law. At Northeastern, Owen is involved with student government, mock trial, and Hillel.

2021 Morgan Knight majored in Political Science and minored in Jewish Studies, Law & Public Policy, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She is interested in the intersection of Jewish thought, feminism, and social justice, and hopes to work toward a nation-wide mandate for Holocaust Education in high schools.

2020 Deanna Schwartz majored in Journalism and minored in Jewish Studies. She wrote a number of papers and newspaper articles combining her two interests.

2019 Jessie Sigler majored in Computer Engineering and minored in Jewish Studies and History. She went to Israel on a Northeastern co-op and hoped to spend 2020-21 there, after graduating from Northeastern. For her Jewish Studies capstone project, she worked with the Northeastern Library on making the survivor testimonies, archived at the Holocaust Awareness Committee archives, more accessible to researchers and the public.

2018 Zachary Gershman majored in International Affairs and minored in Jewish Studies. He was actively involved in many Jewish organizations while at Northeastern and spent the year following graduation in Israel pursuing further educational opportunities.         

2017 Marie Schulte-Bockum and Danielle Wagner

Marie majored in International Affairs and minored in Jewish Studies, Political Science and History. Growing up in Germany, she used her coursework at Northeastern to understand the confluence of German and Jewish history. She entered Columbia’s School of Journalism in the fall of 2020.

Danielle majored in Environmental Science and International Affairs and minored in Jewish Studies and Environmental Studies. She was particularly interested in environmentalism as a Jewish value, and in environmental cooperation as a path towards peace.

2016 Noah Lapidus majored in International Affairs and minored in Jewish Studies. Very involved with Jewish student organizations while at Northeastern, Noah spent the year following graduation at Vilnius University in Lithuania, allowing him to continue researching his family’s genealogy, and fulfill a life-long dream to visit the places from which they came. Noah earned a law degree at Northeastern.

2015 Nadav David majored in Finance and minored in Jewish Studies and Entrepreneurship. He valued his Jewish Studies classes at Northeastern for deepening his understanding of Jewish history and his own identity. He is interested in using his business degree for social good, and finds that Jewish values help inform that model.

2014 Anna Meyers Anna pursued an Independent Major in Jewish Studies.  Following graduation, she began rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College.

2013 Michael Silverman majored in Engineering. With an abiding dedication to Judaism, Jewish learning, and Jewish life, he desired to integrate his work aspirations with his Jewish knowledge.

2012 Margolit Sands majored in Environmental Science and minored in Jewish Studies and Environmental Studies. Her interests lay in how Jewish values, texts, and traditions could be made to support efforts to sustain a healthy planet.

Brudnick Scholarship Winners

From 2011 to 2015, the Jewish Studies program also awarded the following Brudnick Scholarship in Jewish Studies:

2015 Zach Corenblum, a History major and Jewish Studies minor.

2014 Molly Paul, a sociology major and Jewish studies minor

2013 Marlena Lurie, a psychology major and Jewish studies minor.

2012 Naomi Mitchell, a Jewish studies and religion combined major, and Kelly Ganon, a sociology major and literature minor.

2011 Jillian Hinderliter, a history major and Jewish studies minor.