diff --git a/hail/src/main/scala/is/hail/backend/local/LocalBackend.scala b/hail/src/main/scala/is/hail/backend/local/LocalBackend.scala
index 9f8c83195ec..9fe854132f3 100644
--- a/hail/src/main/scala/is/hail/backend/local/LocalBackend.scala
+++ b/hail/src/main/scala/is/hail/backend/local/LocalBackend.scala
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ import scala.reflect.ClassTag
 
 import java.io.PrintWriter
 
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.StreamReadConstraints
 import com.google.common.util.concurrent.MoreExecutors
 import org.apache.hadoop
 import org.json4s._
@@ -46,6 +47,9 @@ object LocalBackend {
     skipLoggingConfiguration: Boolean = false,
   ): LocalBackend = synchronized {
     require(theLocalBackend == null)
+    StreamReadConstraints.overrideDefaultStreamReadConstraints(
+      StreamReadConstraints.builder().maxStringLength(Integer.MAX_VALUE).build()
+    )
 
     if (!skipLoggingConfiguration)
       HailContext.configureLogging(logFile, quiet, append)
diff --git a/hail/src/main/scala/is/hail/backend/spark/SparkBackend.scala b/hail/src/main/scala/is/hail/backend/spark/SparkBackend.scala
index ce02756bdc9..890ef46bbb8 100644
--- a/hail/src/main/scala/is/hail/backend/spark/SparkBackend.scala
+++ b/hail/src/main/scala/is/hail/backend/spark/SparkBackend.scala
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ import scala.util.control.NonFatal
 
 import java.io.{Closeable, PrintWriter}
 
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.StreamReadConstraints
 import org.apache.hadoop
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration
 import org.apache.spark._
@@ -257,6 +258,9 @@ object SparkBackend {
     gcsRequesterPaysBuckets: String = null,
   ): SparkBackend = synchronized {
     require(theSparkBackend == null)
+    StreamReadConstraints.overrideDefaultStreamReadConstraints(
+      StreamReadConstraints.builder().maxStringLength(Integer.MAX_VALUE).build()
+    )
 
     if (!skipLoggingConfiguration)
       HailContext.configureLogging(logFile, quiet, append)