The American Academy for Jewish Research is a scholarly association founded in 1919 with

Louis Ginzberg Louis Ginzberg (, ''Levy Gintzburg''; , ''Levy Ginzberg''; November 28, 1873 – November 11, 1953) was a Russian-born American rabbi and Talmudic scholar of Lithuanian-Jewish descent, contributing editor to numerous articles of '' The Jewis ...

serving as its first president. The historical context for the group's founding was the aftermath of

World War One World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in Europe and th ...

that saw the destruction of many centers of Jewish learning in Eastern Europe. And the group's activities began in 1920. The group's members included scholars from the

Jewish Theological Seminary of America The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) is a Conservative Jewish education organization in New York City, New York. It is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism as well as a hub for academic scholarship in Jewish studies ...

, the

Hebrew Union College Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language until ...

, Dropsie College and the

Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS ) is the rabbinical seminary of Yeshiva University (YU). It is located along Amsterdam Avenue in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Named after Yitzchak Elchanan S ...

. Originally, Israel Friedlander was designated to serve as the inaugural president, however, Friedlander traveled to Europe on a relief mission and was killed in Ukraine. The death of several early members within the first decade of the group's founding resulted in the association significantly reducing its ambition to organise activities beyond the publication of scholarly articles.Zeitlin, S. (1955). Jewish learning in America. The Jewish Quarterly Review, 45(4), 582–616.

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* Jewish organizations established in 1919 1919 establishments in New York City Organizations based in Ann Arbor, Michigan Jewish organizations based in the United States Learned societies of the United States Judaic studies {{US-culture-org-stub