Mission Statement

Iggrot Ha’Ari is an open-access, undergraduate research-based journal that publishes interdisciplinary articles related to Jewish scholarship and religious thought. Iggrot Ha’Ari translates to “The Lion’s Letters”— “lion” reflects Columbia University’s mascot, Roar-ree, while “letters” refers to the rabbinic tradition of Responsa. Together under advisory from the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, Iggrot Ha’Ari aims to promote Jewish knowledge and to provide students with the ability to academically master topics relevant to Jewish identity and Jewish religion.

Iggrot Ha’Ari hopes to provide readers with opportunities to create networks of scholars among authors and editors and foster relationships founded on Jewish scholarship. 

Aim and Scope

Iggrot Ha’Ari aims to foster discourse surrounding topics that are relevant to 21st-century Jewry, primarily through the publication of our jounral, which is published annually, during Columbia's spring semester. Readers of our journal can expect to encounter a diverse set of Jewish topics currently being studied by our writers. Our journal encourages the use of a wide variety of academic approaches and sources, regardless of religious basis, although all texts, in some form, directly engage with Jewish tradition. Our board’s goal is to make writing an academic article on a Jewish topic accessible while giving writers the resources they need to create a high-quality piece that engages with and furthers the existing corpus of Jewish academia.

Open Access Policy

Iggrot Ha’Ari is an open-access journal, which means that all content is freely available without charge to users or institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publishers.

We do not charge article processing nor article submission charges to authors. Authors retain their copyright and agree to license their articles with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Archiving Policy

Iggrot Ha’Ari is archived in Columbia University’s Academic Commons. Academic Commons is Columbia University’s institutional repository, offering long-term public access to research shared by the Columbia community. A program of the Columbia University Libraries, Academic Commons provides secure, replicated storage for files in multiple formats. Academic Commons assigns a DOI and accurate metadata to each work to enhance discoverability.

Policy on Diversity and Inclusion

Iggrot Ha’Ari is committed to fostering, cultivating and preserving a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion of voices surrounding the discourse of Jewish academia. 

Iggrot Ha’Ari is committed to increasing the diversity of voices that is represented in the scholarly record and encourages diversity and inclusiveness in the field of sampling. As a journal that discusses the fundamental elements of what composes Judaism in a modern context, Iggrot Ha’Ari champions individual expression through the research, writing, and editing of its articles. Drawing on one’s own relationship to Judaism is an essential pillar of Iggrot Ha’Ari’s mission. Particularly as a collegiate journal, Iggrot Ha’Ari desires that all authors have a space in which Jewish topics can be explored and mastered through an academic framework. 

Diversity refers to differences in race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, country of origin, ability, and social and economic class, and is applicable in all aspects of the journal submission process. 

Iggrot Ha’Ari accepts all applicants irrespective of their religious or spiritual beliefs. Iggrot Ha’Ari understands that, like our readers, our authors may have a diverse foreknowledge of topics such as Jewish history, theology, Judaic texts, or Judaic language comprehension, and welcomes authors to explore these interests further through the writing process. 

Ethics Statement 

Iggrot Ha’Ari is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and to supporting ethical research practices. We mandate that journal editors follow the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Code of Conduct for Journal Editors and to refer reviewers to the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers as appropriate. Allegations of misconduct will be investigated in accordance with the COPE Best Practice Guidelines.

The editors of each journal are responsible for selecting which articles will be accepted for publication. The journal editors, with assistance from their editorial board, create the policies and guidelines for the journal while abiding by legal requirements regarding plagiarism, libel, and copyright infringement. The editors may request assistance from other journal editors or reviewers when making their decisions.

The Submission Editor evaluates the content of each submission for appropriateness for the journal. Each submission is also evaluated for its intellectual content without regard to the author(s)'s sex, gender identity, race, ethnic origin, religious beliefs, or political philosophy.

Each author listed on the submission should be limited to only those who have made a significant contribution to the article. Every person who has made a significant contribution to the paper should be listed as co-author. Each author must consent to being listed on the submission.

Authors must guarantee that their submitted work contains no content that may be considered as libelous or as infringing in any way on the copyright of another party. If the authors have used the work and/or words of others, it must be appropriately cited.

Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently without written consent from both journals constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. The journal editor will make every effort to process and evaluate submissions in a timely fashion. Should an author decide to submit the manuscript to another journal, he/she must request the journal editor to withdraw their manuscript from consideration.

Authors must properly acknowledge the work of others and should cite all publications that have been influential in determining their scholarly understanding of the subject of their paper.

Authors must sign a publication agreement in order for their article to be published in the journal.