In aiming to be the premier community resource for Jewish intellectual endeavor in the Queens-Long Island area, the Center for Jewish Studies at Queens College has become one of the best-known in the country. Through its outreach and research exploring the more than three millennia of Jewish civilization, the center bridges QC’s academic Jewish studies program and the community. Its attractive educational and spirited cultural programs on campus—lectures, symposia, conferences, film festivals, and artistic performances—are all open to the public. The center’s Speakers Bureau makes available QC’s internationally recognized faculty who are specialists in Jewish history and many other fields.

For the benefit of scholars and laypeople alike, the center publishes substantive lectures and conference proceedings, as well as the Queens College Journal of Jewish Studies: A Student Publication. Through its fund-raising efforts, the center supports the vitality of the undergraduate Jewish studies program and works in tandem with it to familiarize students and the community with past and present Jewish civilization in the broadest context of world affairs.