Graduate Admissions Personal Statement Instructions

To view the admissions requirements for all Wurzweiler programs (including personal statement prompts), please click here. 

Please describe your interest and detail any experience in Jewish Education. Personal statements should be 3-5 pages double spaced.  

Jewish Education Leadership and Innovation (Ed.D.) Applicants:

You may include both essays in one PDF document to upload within your application.

1. In an essay of 2 – 4 pages (double-spaced) please address the following questions:

• How have your previous research, work, and life experiences prepared you for the Azrieli doctoral program? Are there ways that your experiences will benefit other students?
• What are the knowledge, skills, and dispositions you hope to acquire from the Azrieli doctoral program?
• What do you consider to be the most important issue (or issues) in Jewish education today? Is there a particular problem that you would be interested in studying? Why?

2. Zoom in on your own professional context as a Jewish educator. Describe a persistent challenge or recurring phenomenon you have personally observed in your work—something concrete you’ve seen, experienced, or grappled with in your particular educational setting—that you believe could be better understood or addressed through research. Rather than offering a field-wide overview, focus on an issue that emerges from your lived professional reality and has direct relevance to your practice. Then explain how researching this challenge could contribute to Jewish education more broadly. In your response, address one or more of the following:
   • Practical implications: How might findings inform or improve educational practice in Jewish settings?
   • Policy implications: How could this research influence institutional, communal, or organizational policy?
   • Future research: What new questions or directions for further study might emerge?
   • Community impact: How could addressing this challenge benefit Jewish educational institutions, professionals, and learners?

The personal statement should describe your life or educational experiences that led you to pursue graduate education in Holocaust and Genocide Studies. It should be a maximum of 500 words.  

The personal statement should describe your academic and professional goals, your interest in our program at Katz, and how you plan to complete the program. 

Your Personal Statement should be 2-3 pages maximum.

Please write about yourself and your experiences that you believe make you a suitable applicant. Additionally, please tell us what draws you to the field, and to our program in particular. (For Doctoral Applicants only: If there are specific faculty whose research area is of interest to you, please indicate.)