Welcome to the Institute for Jewish Studies
The Institute for Jewish Studies at the University of Hamburg is one of the leading institutions in the German-speaking world for the study of Jewish intellectual and cultural history. With a wide range of courses and regular international workshops and conferences, the Institute offers exciting interdisciplinary insights into the diverse schools of thought and literatures of Judaism.
The thematic focus of Jewish Studies in Hamburg lies in the discipline of “Jewish Thought”, which deals with Jewish philosophy, Jewish mysticism and Jewish moral literature from a philological and cultural studies perspective.
As part of the Department of Religions, a central concern of the Institute is to raise awareness of the relationship between Judaism and other religious traditions, which is characterized by a complex network of reciprocal impulses and influences. The Jewish Studies program in Hamburg cooperates with Alevi, Islamic, Protestant and Catholic theology, the Academy of World Religions and other religion-related subjects and chairs in the Faculty of Humanities. In addition, there is close cooperation with various joint research projects.