Correspondence
Exchange with Allan Cutler about Creation of National Jewish Studies Organization (1967)
Dear Colleague: Can I get your personal reaction to this proposal? Would you be willing to support this idea? "On the Creation of a National Organization of Scholars in the Field of Jewish Studies." The time has come for us to think of joining hands to create a national organization of scholars in the field of Jewish Studies, an American Association for Jewish Studies (AAJS), similar to the American Historical Association, the American Oriental Society, the Society of Biblical Literature, the American Academy of Religion, etc., with a large, enthusiastic and active membership and an ambitious, dynamic and aggressive program of activities on a nationwide scale.In order to achieve this goal, I suggest that over the next five years we work together to bring about the following:The creation of local organizations of scholars in the field of Jewish Studies in at least the following key cities where there are concentrations of such scholars: New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, Cincinnati. These local organizations of Jewish scholars would hold regular monthly meetings during the academic year, preferably in private homes, at which the members in turn would be able to deliver learned papers on Jewish subjects, historical and theological, followed by discussion and fellowship.The members of these local organizations of Jewish scholars, plus other Jewish scholars from across the land, would then meet together once a year in a national meeting, the site of which would rotate in a six-year cycle between New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Cincinnati. This national meeting would last 2–3 days and would feature papers, panel discussions, special learned addresses, luncheons and dinners, quality Jewish music, dance, drama and art, special motion pictures and slides, book exhibits by the relevant publishers, etc., similar to the national meeting of the American Historical Association and the other national scholarly organizations mentioned …
