Center for Jewish Studies (CJS) MA student Adam Strater has been awarded the prestigious Haas/Koshland Memorial Award from the Jewish Community Endowment Fund of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties. The award, in the amount of $20,000, provides the opportunity for a student to spend one year in Israel engaged in study and personal development. The choice of where and what to study is determined by the student; Strater has elected to enroll in a year of graduate study at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, taking intensive Hebrew language courses and other seminars to support his focus on Late Antiquity.
After his undergraduate work in Philosophy and Religion at Buena Vista University in Iowa, Strater began his studies in Early Christian History at the GTU in fall 2007. He transferred into CJS after taking classes with Assistant Professor of Rabbinics and Late Antique Judaism Holger Zellentin. Zellentin’s focus on exploring the Late Antiquity period from many perspectives including Jewish, Christian, Hellenistic and Roman, matches Strater’s interests in the period. He anticipates that his experience in Israel will provide many opportunities to develop his knowledge in this and other related subjects. Strater plans to supplement his classroom study with personal exploration of the country of Israel, the geographic center of much that he has learned. He also hopes to make progress in writing his Master’s thesis on the topic of Jewish and Christian apocalyptic literature of the first and second centuries CE.
Strater is the second student from the CJS MA program to receive the Haas/Koshland Memorial Award, following Luke Noach Dzmura who received the honor in 2006. Dzmura studied at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, a non-denominational center that immerses students in the study of classical Jewish texts. Dzmura and Strater typify the diverse nature of applicants for the Haas/Koshland Memorial Award. The annual award process is open to all interested students, from sophomore through graduate school, of any faith, tradition, and background. The only requirement is that the student be a resident of the Bay Area or attending a Bay Area college or university. For more information on the Haas/Koshland Memorial Award, contact Deborah Cohen at the Center for Jewish Studies, 510/649-2482 or cjs@gtu.edu.