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Centers of Jewish Studies
C. Hall

In mid-19th century Europe, particularly in Germany, Judaics was developed as a recognizable discipline. With the founding of Wissenschaft des Judentums, the scientific inquiry into Jewish history, literature and religion, Jewish scholars dreamed that their field would be worth a university chair, but it is only in the 20th century that Jewish studies have become generally accepted as an academic discipline. During the last few years there has been an amazing development on both sides of the Atlantic, due partly to the impact of the holocaust and the State of Israel, but also because Judaism in the university world is now considered intellectually respectable. The phenomenon of the growth of Jewish studies is both cause and effect of this.

EUROPE

A survey of West German universities in June 1965 showed that seven regularly offer lectures on Jewish history, sociology and religion. Berlin had a tradition of Judaics, for in 1883 Hermann Strack, a Protestant, founded the Institutum Judaicum, which later became part of the theological faculty. In 1965 one of the two Berlin instructors was Eva Cassirer, daughter of Ernst Cassirer, noted German philosopher and member of a brilliant Jewish family whose Berlin salon was a center for the art world. Similar to Strack's was one founded in Leipzig by Franz Delitsch, and in 1966 it was reopened in Munster, directed by K. H. Rengstorf. Both Delitsch and Strack, despite their missionary objectives, were first-rate scholars and actively fought antisemitism. In May 1966 the Catholic Institutum Judaicum was reopened in Munich, with Franz Rodel as director, a 75-year-old priest who in 1964 won the Leo Baeck award for his long opposition to Nazi antisemitism.

Part of the theological faculty, the Institutum Judaicum at Tubingen is headed by Otto Michel, noted Protestant theologian. 1966 also saw the opening of the Institute for the History of German Jewry at Hamburg, and the Martin Buber Institute at Cologne, a university chair held by L. S. Maier, a Protestant who studied Judaics at Vienna under Kurt Schubert. Through Schubert's influence, Christian interest in Jewish studies has grown in both Austria and Germany. A Catholic, he studied oriental languages at Vienna, and after the war built up the Judaics faculty, a separate institute since 1966.

French universities now have eleven chairs in modern Hebrew, result of a cultural agreement between France and Israel. Generally the non-Jewish students for these courses outnumber the Jewish. A chair of Yiddish and Yiddish literature at the Paris School of Oriental Languages is held by Alex Dorczanski, who is also professor of philosophy at a lycee. But outside of Strasbourg, where Andre Neher has the permanent chair of Jewish studies, and Nancy, where recently opened an Institute of Semitic Studies, the Paris Centre Universitaire d'Etudes Juives, directed by Leon Askenazi, has the most complete program. Besides offering to its 75 students courses in Talmudic exegesis, Hebrew philology, Midrash, Jewish mysticism and contemporary Jewish sociology, it frequently arranges seminars and lectures at the Sorbonne and sponsors lecture series at other university centers. The Institut Superieur d'Etudes Oecumeniques of the Institut Catholique de Paris has added in 1968-69 courses « to give an understanding of contemporary Jewish life and thought », given by Kurt Hruby, a Catholic priest who has been teaching Judaics at the Institut Catholique for a number of years.

In Great Britain the major center is the Institute for Jewish Studies, founded in 1953 and in 1964 merged with London's University College Hebrew department. Cambridge has had a long-time readership in Talmud and Rabbinics. Solomon Schechter, who later came to the U.S. as president of Jewish Theological Seminary, greatly enlarged the university Judaics collection, most importantly by the famous Cairo Genizah, while Reader (18 90-1901 ). Cecil Roth, well-known Jewish historian, was Reader in Jewish Studies at Oxford, 1939-64, when he emigrated to Israel. The Wiener Library Institute of Contemporary history, founded in 1934 in Amsterdam and moved to London in 1939, is a center for research in modern European and Jewish history, especially of fascism, racial and minority questions, and antisemitism. The Parkes Library, established by James Parkes, an Anglican priest, is now at Southampton University and specializes in the study of relations 'between the Jewish and non-Jewish worlds.

Since 1946 M. A. Beek has held the University of Amsterdam's chair of Jewish studies, and in 1963 courses in Yiddish and modern Hebrew were added to the program. More recently, in 1968, M. Boertien was offered a new chair to teach Hebrew (and related languages)and its literature of the second century to the present day. Utrecht has had a chair of Judaics since 1962, 'and the Universities of Groningen and Leyden, as well as Tiiburg's Catholic theological faculty, have begun to offer courses on certain parts and periods of Judaism. The Leerhuis (Beth ha-Midrash) in Amsterdam is an inter-faith center for the study of Jewish and Christian biblical traditions. Set up in 1966, its director is Y. Aschkenazi, an Israeli scholar. (In January 1969 Rabbi Aschkenazi was appointed to teach Judaism at the Catholic theological faculties of Amsterdam and Utrecht, the first rabbi to do so.) Orthodox and liberal Jewish scholars give courses as well as Protestant and Catholic. It also sponsors lecture series in the Dutch provinces and university towns.

NORTH AMERICA

Since 1945 the spread of Jewish studies in American liberal-arts colleges and universities has been phenomenal. The development of genuine Jewish studies programs began at the various New York City schools in the '30s and '40s, not with the study of Hebrew in 17th century theologically oriented Harvard, Yale and Princeton, nor in late-19th century oriental language departments.. However, between 18861902 five Judaics scholars were appointed, two at Johns Hopkins, and the others at Columbia, Pennsylvania and Chicago. In 1945 only six universities offered doctoral 'programs in some aspects of Judaics, 'but in 1965 there were twenty-one.

Many of the institutions where there are Jewish studies are in the top fifty, but in 1965 highly-rated Notre Dame, Georgetown and Catholic University had none. Since then all three have begun to offer courses in Judaism. (Notre Dame bas recently announced a grant from the .Rosenstiel Foundation to establish a fellowship in Jewish theology at the new Institute for Advanced Religious Studies.) The big problem is finding teachers. Georgetown's theology department head, Father William 'McFadden, noted that "there is a rabbi gap". The University of Dayton is the first American Catholic college to offer a program of Judaic studies. Begun in 1965, it now projects for the future the possibility of granting it degree status and founding a chair to bring eminent Jewish scholars to the campus. In Canada, Manitoba is the only university to have a full program, while Toronto considers Judaics to fall under cultural studies. Temple University has developed a remarkably well balanced religion department where all religions are taught as far as possible by scholars professing them (cf. Robert A. McDermott, "Religion as an Academic Discipliner', Cross Currents, Winter 1968, pp. 11-33).

The first summer Institute of Jewish Studies under the auspices of the Committee of Catholic-Jewish Institutes was at Jesuit Wheeling College (W. Va.) in 1967. There were three in 1968, at Wheeling, Marymount (Tarrytown, N.Y.) and Barat College (Chicago). Financed by both Christian and Jewish organizations, they are two weeks of intensive work, attended by 30 to 40 teachers, graduate students, and those active in ecumenical work. The projected expansion for 1969 is to hold six — at Marymount for high-school teachers of the New York archdiocese, at Wheeling for alumni of previous ones, at Seton Hall University for a specialized group(possibly catechetic teachers), at Grailville (Ohio) for laymen, and at Kansas City and Mount Kisco (N.Y.) for mixed groups. The Chicago Catholic Adult Education Center, one of the sponsors of the Barat College institute, has held two sessions of 8-week courses on Jewish-Christian relations in 1967-68 for teachers of religion. Among the lecturers were conservative Rabbi Eliezar Berkovits, Protestant scholars J. Coert Rylaarsdam and Andre Lacocque, and Father John Pawlikowski. Two ecumenical associations, Packard Manse in Boston and Wellsprings in Germantown (Philadelphia), both deeply engaged in inner-city problems, have branched out to give courses in Jewish studies. Michael Zeik, Jewish professor of his religious tradition at Catholic Marymount, says straightforwardly that learning on all levels will help Christians and Jews "to go beyond the sentimental hand-holding stage".

(For an extensive analytical survey see Arnold J. Band, "Jewish Studies in America Liberal-Arts Colleges and Universities, 19451965", American Jewish Year Book, 1966.)