We invite early-career scholars, who meet the conditions set forth below, to submit a proposal for a prize lecture to be delivered on Ramapo College campus in the second half of the Spring 2026 semester. (Receipt of the award is conditional upon the in-person delivery of the lecture. Accommodations will be made for individuals with disabilities.) The lecture must draw upon original research in either antisemitism or Holocaust studies and from disciplines in the humanities and social sciences.

CHGS and the entire Ramapo Community would like to express our  gratitude to Bonnie Bornstein Fertel for endowing this annual lecture and prize in memory of her husband, Richard E. Fertel, z”l. Mrs. Bornstein Fertel’s gift reminds us of the wonderful and consequential things we can build and accomplish together.

Honors and Privileges

The 2026 Richard E. Fertel Scholar will offer an in-person lecture at Ramapo College at a time of mutual convenience during the months of March, April, or May 2026.

The CHGS Director and a representative from Ramapo College will formally bestow the honor of having been selected as the inaugural Richard E. Fertel Scholar upon the selected applicant. The honoree’s name and the title of their lecture will be listed on the CHGS website.

The Richard E. Fertel Scholar will receive an honorarium of $1,500. CHGS will also cover (reasonable) costs associated with return travel and accommodations in Mahwah, NJ.

The Richard E. Fertel Scholar may be invited to a small dinner in their honor, with Ramapo students, faculty, and staff, as well as members of the Fertel family and the local public.

Eligibility Requirements

This opportunity is open to:

• Graduate students who are ABD in the humanities or social sciences at the time of application (December 1, 2025).
• People who received their PhDs in the humanities or social sciences no earlier than May 2021, excluding tenured and tenure-track professors and academic center directors.
• All applicants must be based in (or traveling from within) North America.

To Apply

Email these materials to holgen@ramapo.edu by 11:59 pm EST on December 1, 2025:

1. Academic CV, not to exceed two pages.
2. Lecture proposal including a title, theme(s), and primary contribution(s)/argument(s). Please also situate your lecture, as outlined, within your broader scholarly work. This proposal should not exceed 500 words.

Important Dates

Applications due by December 1, 2025

Winner announced by January 15, 2026

Lecture to be scheduled for March or April, 2026

Richard E. Fertel, z”l 

Richard E. Fertel z”l (March 29, 1951 – October 22, 2022) was born and raised in the Bronx, where he, his brother, and parents lived in the same walk-up apartment building as his grandparents, Helen and Oscar. Oscar, who immigrated to the United States from the Russian Empire in 1904, had a profound influence on young Richard. He took him, eight-years-old at the time, to the opening of the Guggenheim Museum and to AT&T shareholder meetings; they worshiped together each week at the neighborhood Orthodox synagogue for the Sabbath. Richard’s family never discussed any relatives lost in the Holocaust but he understood what it meant when letters from family members in Europe ceased during the war, forever.

Bonnie Bornstein Fertel, Richard’s wife of fifty years, shared that her husband’s warmth and humor provided the foundation for many loving family tales. Richard and Bonnie married at the young age of twenty-one. In significant ways, they grew up together. Richard studied history and anthropology in college, reflecting his lifelong, insatiable hunger for knowledge and his particular interest in the Second World War. Bonnie recalls that Richard must have seen every Holocaust film multiple times. Richard, blessed with a flair for storytelling, shared what he learned and knew with Bonnie and their two daughters, Pamela and Jill.

To honor Richard’s lifelong interest in the history of the Holocaust and raising awareness about antisemitism, Bonnie has endowed an annual lecture and prize for emerging scholars working in the fields of Holocaust and antisemitism studies. Visit our webpage.