News and events

Prof. Dr. Matthias Lehmann wins the Jordan Schnitzer Book Award

Once a year, the Association for Jewish Studies presents the Jordan Schnitzler Book Award for outstanding academic publications in the field of Jewish studies. This year, Prof. Dr. Matthias Lehmann received the prize for the best book in the category "Modern Jewish History" for his most recently published monograph "The Baron: Maurice de Hirsch and the Jewish Nineteenth Century".

Baron Maurice de Hirsch was one of the most influential Jewish philanthropists of the late 19th century, who went down in history as the founder of the Orient Express, the first railroad line between "Western Europe" and the Ottoman Empire. In "The Baron", Matthias Lehmann takes the biography of the famous philanthropist as an opportunity to retell the history of Jewish modernity from a transnational perspective. Using the historical figure of Baron Hirsch as an example, he shows how decisive Jewish philanthropy was for the fate of Jews in Europe in the late 19th century and how it contributed to overcoming contemporary challenges. We warmly congratulate Professor Lehmann on this special recognition of his research!

The book has been published by Standford University Press and can be viewed at the following link: https://www.sup.org/books/jewish-studies/baron.

Details of the award ceremony can be found here: https://www.associationforjewishstudies.org/professional-development/fellowships-and-awards/jordan-schnitzer-book-awards/2024-jordan-schnitzer-book-award-recipients.

 

Dr. Andreas Pfützner receives the Austrian State Prize for Historical Sciences

The Austrian State Prize for Historical Sciences is awarded every two years to academics who have made outstanding contributions to the study of Austria's history. This year's prize was presented to Dr. Andreas Pfützner personally by the Austrian Federal Minister of Science on 8 October 2024.

In "The Romanian-Jewish Question. The Emergence of a European Anomaly (ca. 1772-1870)", Andreas Pfützner reconstructs the development of the Romanian-Jewish emancipation question from the last third of the 18th century to the end of the 1860s, which came to a sad end in 1866 with the collective legal exclusion of Romanian Jews as "foreigners". With this development, Romania represents an exceptional case in European Jewish history, which the author describes as an "anomaly". The study makes an important contribution to research into the history of Romanian Jews, which has so far received little attention from historians of modern Jewish history. We warmly congratulate Dr. Andreas Pfützner on this special honor for his research!

The book has been published by Böhlau-Verlag and can be viewed at the following link: https://www.vandenhoeck-ruprecht-verlage.com/themen-entdecken/geschichte/juedische-geschichte/58845/die-rumaenisch-juedische-frage).

Details of the award ceremony can be found here: https://www.bmbwf.gv.at/Ministerium/staatspreise-auszeichnungen/Staatspreise/stpgw.html

 

Festschrift in honor of Prof. Dr. Gerrit Bos

On the occasion of the 75th birthday of Prof. Dr. Gerrit Bos, we are pleased to announce the publication of the commemorative publication "A Key to Locked Doors". The publication was edited by Prof. Bos' colleagues and students and pays tribute to his academic life's work. The volume brings together contributions on topics of Jewish and Islamic philosophy, theology and ancient and medieval studies, reflecting the broad spectrum of research topics in which Prof. Bos has worked over many years. The commemorative publication was published by Brill Verlag and can be accessed via the following link.

 

The Federal President invites Dr. Carlo Gentile to the commemorative event on the 80th anniversary of the Monte Sole massacre

The President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, invites Dr. Carlo Gentile and the staff of the project "The massacres in occupied Italy (1943-45) in the memory of the perpetrators" to participate in a commemorative event on the 80th anniversary of the massacre in Marzabotto/Monte Sole. On September 29, 2024, a small group of selected guests will travel to Italy with the President of the Swiss Confederation to commemorate the victims together with their relatives and survivors. Further information on the Monte Sole massacres can be found here.

 

Dr. Carlo Gentile presents the project "Nazi Perpetrators in Italy" at the Frankfurt Book Fair

Dr. Carlo Gentile will be speaking at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair on 20 October at 1.30 p.m. about his project at the University of Cologne, which is funded by the Federal Foreign Office: 80 years on: Coming to terms with and remembering the massacres in Italy under German occupation. Presentation of the international web project "The massacres in occupied Italy (1943-1945) in the memory of the perpetrators". In an interactive discussion with the journalist and author Christiane Kohl and in the context of the perspective of this year's guest of honor Italy on the German culture of remembrance, topics from the project's website will be presented. In particular, the focus will be on research into perpetrators, the history of the legal processing of Nazi crimes, and the history of memory and experience. With this panel event, the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) would like to encourage dialog and exchange about the crimes and impart knowledge about the German occupation in Italy. Further information on the project can be found here.

 

Bielefeld University invites Dr. Carlo Gentile to give a lecture at the research colloquium

On October 24, 2024, Dr. Carlo Gentile will present the project "The massacres in occupied Italy (1943-45) in the memory of the perpetrators" at Bielefeld University as part of a research colloquium. Organized by the Faculty of History, Philosophy and Theology, Department of History, he will present the multimedia and multilingual project website and introduce the underlying collective profiles of the units involved as well as the backgrounds and motives of the perpetrators responsible for the massacres and their lives in the post-war period. The colloquium is open to the public and is aimed at lecturers, researchers, students and young academics. It will take place in Building X, Room A2-103, between 16:00 and 18:00. Further information on the project can be found here.

 

The Library of Lost Books - Workshop on Jewish provenance research

On 18.11.2024, the Martin Buber Institute for Jewish Studies and the Germania Judaica invite pupils and students to search for Nazi-looted property in their library holdings. As part of a 3.5-hour workshop, which will take place on the premises of the Martin Buber Institute and the Historical Archive of the City of Cologne, participants will first be introduced to provenance research and then begin their research work. The event will conclude with an evening lecture by Prof. Dr. Emile Schrijver on the topic "Provenance research of Jewish
books: What does this mean in practice?", to which all interested parties are cordially invited. Further information on the event can be found here.

 

Research colloquium on Jewish history as part of the advanced seminar "The Jewish Mediterranean"

Summer semester 2024
Wednesdays, 10-11.30 a.m.
Philosophikum, Seminar Room S57
The modern Mediterranean is a "contact zone", a space, as literary scholar Mary Louise Pratt has put it, in which "cultures meet, clash, and engage with each other, often in the context of very asymmetrical power relations". The colloquium takes the Mediterranean region and its interregional connections as a starting point to question simplistic distinctions such as "Europe vs. the Islamic world" or the primacy of nation-state narratives in Jewish history.
A list of the lectures can be found here.

 

Solidarity with Israel after the Simchat Torah massacre

The Martin Buber Institute for Jewish Studies declares its deep shock at the brutal attack by Hamas on Israel. In the face of the indescribable scenes of the worst massacre against Jews since the Second World War, we remember the countless victims and their families and stand in solidarity with Israel. We condemn all attempts to justify the violence. In particular, we also express our solidarity and solidarity with our friends and partners at Israeli universities.

 

Professorship for Modern Jewish Cultural and Social History: Appointment of Prof. Matthias B. Lehmann

We are delighted that Mr. Lehmann has accepted the call to the University of Cologne and will from now on head the Institute and hold the Chair of Modern Jewish Cultural and Social History at the Martin Buber Institute for Jewish Studies.

You can find more information about Prof. Lehmann here.