Jonathan Sarna. Photo: Courtesy Jonathan Sarna.

JNS.org – Brandeis University Professor of American Jewish Studies Jonathan Sarna has been elected as the next president of the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS).

Founded in 1969, the AJS is an academic organization that focuses on research and teaching in Jewish studies and has nearly 1,800 members worldwide. Sarna’s father, Nahum Sarna, was president of the association from 1984-85. “I consider myself, for that reason, the ‘John Quincy Adams’ of the AJS,” Jonathan Sarna told JNS.org, referring to the sixth U.S. president, whose father, John Adams, was the second president.

Sarna, one of the foremost experts on American Judaism, said his main goals as AJS president would be “one, to strengthen the financial base of the association; two, to raise fellowship funds for graduate students and to promote research; three, to survey the field so as to better understand the needs of our members; four, to work with the Jewish Book Council to help promote our members’ books.”