Centre for Jewish Studies in Berlin and Brandenburg

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The Centre for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg (ZJS) is a joint project of the Humboldt University Berlin, the FU Berlin, the TU Berlin, Potsdam University, the Abraham Geiger College, and the Moses Mendelssohn Centre for European-Jewish Studies.

Objectives and Tasks

The Centre will pool and network academic activities in both study and teaching. At the same time, visiting professorships and fellows will strengthen international exchanges with researchers - particularly in the United States, Israel, Great Britain, France, and the CIS states. Research positions will also be established for early stage researchers.

The Centre for Jewish Studies will initiate joint inter-university and interdisciplinary research projects which will unfurl the potential of both religious and non-confessional Jewish Studies in this region. Current research in the field of Jewish Studies is mainly focused on non-confessional disciplines such as History, Philosophy, Law, Religious Sciences, Cultural Sciences, History of Art, Studies of Literature, and Musicology. The combination of religious and non-confessional Jewish Studies at the ZJS means that future rabbis will also work at the Centre.

The Partners

The partners in the Centre are able to provide the best conditions for successful interdisciplinary cooperation in the relevant disciplines. The entire range of scholarly studies into Judaism is to be found in the Berlin/Potsdam region, and certain key areas and divisions of work have emerged. Studies range from historical and cultural science approaches (particularly at the Humboldt University Berlin), philologically critical and dialogistic approaches (particularly at the FU Berlin), and religious history and theological-philosophical approaches (particularly at Potsdam University) to research into the Holocaust and anti-Semitism at the TU Berlin, the study of Zionism at the Moses Mendelssohn Centre, and the provision of academic training for rabbis and cantors at the Abraham Geiger College.

Recommendation of the German Council of Science and Humanities

The concept for the Centre, which was founded in 2011, is based on the recommendations of the German Council of Science and Humanities "on the further development of theologies and religious sciences at German institutions of higher education" of January 2010. The German Council of Science and Humanities recommended "the funding of interdisciplinary cooperation in research and teaching and in this context the establishment of joint centres to conduct theological and religious research."