The Non-Resident Research Fellowship

In the November 8 meeting between the AAJR Executive Committee and New York rabbis, Louis Ginzberg proposed a plan to sponsor the immigration of several Jewish scholars to locations outside the United States. This plan, Ginzberg believed, might assist older scholars who were less likely to be approved for American visas and to receive funding for immigration to the United States.

After the meeting, AAJR set up a “non-resident research fellowship,” which provided a modest amount of funding for selected fellows, while AAJR members used their personal contacts with foreign-based scholars and institutions to secure positions for fellowship recipients. 

Since the German occupation of Vienna some months before the meeting on November 8, 1938, Salo Baron had already been flooded with requests from Viennese Jewish scholars asking for help. Among those seeking assistance, AAJR selected several to be non-resident research fellows.