Jewish Studies has come a long way since Yitzhak Baer confidently proclaimed, in the introduction to his classical study of the Jews in medieval Spain, first publiushed in 1945, that "Jewish History, from its earliest beginnings to our own day, constiutes an organic unit. Each successive stage in its development reveals more fully the nature of the unique force guiding it." Since then, it has become a commonplace to insist on the plurality of Jewish experiences, of understandig Jewish history in its mutliple historical contexts, and Jewish cultures emerging in the myriad contact zones in which Jewish and non-Jewish cultures encountered one another. This, however, has led to a growing compartmentalization of Jewish Studies, where it is often local or national contexts that frame the way that scholars have approached Jewish history and culture, losing sight of the trans-national and trans-regional connections that continued to shape the Jewish experience into the present. 

Research and teching at the Martin-Buber-Institute, therefore, emphasizes both the embeddedness of Jewish cultures in their diverse historical contexts, and at the same time foreground comparative approaches that explore the intersection of different Jewish cultures with one another. The institute also embraces a longue dureé approach to the research and teaching of Jewish Studies, bringing scholarship about different periods of Jewish history into conversation. Where some have critized the non-political antiquarianism of the classical approach of "Judaistik", and others lament the presentism of modern Jewish Studies, the Martin-Buber-Institute is committed to fostering conversations that bridge the divide between different historical periods and different approaches to the stuy of Jewish cultures.