News

The second edition of the topical textbook »Jewish Religious Traditions« is currently in preparation and is expected to be delivered at the end of June 2024. The German-language booklet makes it possible to cover aspects of everyday Jewish culture in the classroom. Pre-orders of print copies in quantities of 30/60/90/120 can be made by e-mail to themenhefte(at)dubnow.de, stating the shipping address and the desired quantity. The topical textbook is also available free of charge in Open Access. On the project website you will find an online view of the booklet, the individual chapters for download as well as all multimedia content and additional materials.

Dr. Caroline Jessen, research associate at the Dubnow Institute, has been appointed to the Young Forum of the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig. The Young Forum gives outstanding young researchers the opportunity to participate in academic dialog, to network with other young researchers across disciplinary boundaries and to help shape the Academy's program.

Two years after its publication, the volume »Geschichtsoptimismus und Katastrophenbewusstsein. Europa nach dem Holocaust« is available free of charge in open access. The publication, edited by Jan Gerber, Philipp Graf, and Anna Pollmann, brings together contributions dedicated to the relationship between historical optimism and catastrophe consciousness and its effects on the perception of the Holocaust in Europe in the first post-war decades, the height of the Cold War.

Dr. des. Sebastian Willert, research associate at the Dubnow Institute, has succeeded in acquiring substantial research funding from the Alfred Landecker Foundation to carry out his habilitation project. From 1 April, he works on his study under the working title »Flight of Knowledge. Forced Migration of Jewish Scholars to Europe, America and the Middle East, 1933–1945« in the framework of the research unit »Law«.

The Dubnow Institute is part of the network of the online portal »Copernico. History and Cultural Heritage in Eastern Europe«. A cooperation agreement was signed in recent weeks. On the Copernico portal, various organizations from the field of science and who work with communication and education around cultural heritage have joined to present information about the common history and the shared cultural heritage in Eastern Europe in a way that is both attractive and scientifically sound

At its meeting on March 19, 2024, the Senate of the Leibniz Association approved funding for the Leibniz Lab »Upheavals and Transformations,« in which the Dubnow Institute is also involved. From April 2024, a total of three Leibniz Labs will run for three years and aim to make the best possible use of the Leibniz Association's interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary experience, expertise and potential to make a strong contribution to solving pressing social issues. The Leibniz Lab »Upheavals and Transformations« shows how politics and society have reacted to fundamental challenges in the recent past. It pools the expertise of a total of 28 Leibniz institutions.

The joint funding of the Dubnow Institute, covered half by the federal government and half by the state government, is to be continued. This is the recommendation of the Senate of the Leibniz Association following the regular scientific evaluation. The statement states that the institute »has set convincing priorities and has embarked on a promising path with innovative projects on Jewish material culture. The Institute has also been extremely successful in communicating its findings to both within and beyond the academic context, for example through public events or the provision of school materials.« Like all Leibniz institutions, the Dubnow Institute is evaluated by the Leibniz Senate every seven years.

On Wednesday, 20 March 2024, Federal Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger mentions the thematic issue »Jewish Religious Traditions« in the German Bundestag. This was realized at the Dubnow Institute as part of the BMBF-funded cooperative project »Turning Object into Subject. Communicating Jewish Everyday Culture in Germany.«

Prof. Dr. Yfaat Weiss, Director of the Dubnow Institute, has published the fifth volume of the history of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem together with Prof. Dr. Uzi Rebhun. The 1000-page publication covers the first two decades after the founding of the State of Israel (1948–1967). Many researchers closely associated with the Dubnow Institute contributed as authors. The publication was published in Hebrew by Magnes Press.

Prof. Dr. Jan Gerber, Head of the Research Unit »Politics« at the Dubnow Institute, has been appointed Honorary Professor of Modern and Contemporary History with a focus on Modern Jewish History at the Leipzig University.

Dr. Yehudit Dori Deston received the Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem Research Award 2023 for her research on Gabriel Bach and the Prosecution of Nazis in the State of Israel.

The Shimon Peres Award 2023 goes to two projects that are outstanding examples of successful cooperation between young people from Germany and Israel. Julia Salomo, academic assistant at the Dubnow Institute, was actively involved in one of these projects: In the cross-generational history project »Finding Romi« the history of Hashomer Hatzair in Germany was researched and a digital archive was built up. The results were also incorporated into a board game and a card game.

Prof. Dr. Viktoriya Sukovata, Full Professor at the V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University since 2012 and since March 2022 Fellow at the Dubnow Institute, has been awarded a Walter Benjamin Fellowship by the German Research Foundation (DFG). Over the next two years, she will be able to conduct research on her project »Perceptions of the Holocaust in Film and Literature: Changes in Jewish-Soviet Holocaust Remembrance in Ukraine (1945 to the 2010s)«.

In the early summer of 2005, the Dubnow Institute was endowed with the private and professional library of the Israeli historian Jacob Toury, who had passed away in 2004. The books often contain unique and rare artifacts, such as letters, notes and bookmarks. Personal dedications and notes can also be found between the pages. As part of a student project by Franziska Weigold and Yehuda Krause, the first digital insights into the collection are now possible. The historical documents that have been found are divided into eight categories, including »Biographical information,« »Aesthetics and Artistics« und »Everyday life«.

The current issue of the Dubnow Institute Newsletter informs about the lecture series »Living in the Land of Death« and also draws attention to two calls for proposals.

The Dubnow Institute Yearbook, Volume 19 (2020/2021) is now also available in classical book format. Since the beginning of July, it has been available as a free open access publication on the website of the publisher Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

Dr. Felix Klein, the Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight against Anti-Semitism, visited the Dubnow Institute on Friday, 30 June 2023. He informed himself about the research focus of the institute, projects of knowledge transfer as well as the cooperative project»Turning Object into Subject. Communicating Jewish Everyday Culture in Germany.« He then visited the exhibition »Jewish Album. Photographs by Rita Ostrovska.«

Dr. Anna Holzer-Kawalko, affiliated researcher at the Dubnow Institute, will receive the Erich and Otto Kulka Prize for her PhD dissertation »Vanishing Heritage. Nation-building, Cultural Restitution and German-Jewish Libraries in Post-war Czechoslovakia,« supervised by Prof. Dr. Yfaat Weiss, on 7 June 2023. The prize is awarded to the outstanding research dealing with the Czech and Central-European Jewry in Modern Period. She will also receive the Alex Berger Prize for outstanding PhD dissertation on Monday, 12 June 2023.

On the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the Alfred Landecker Foundation has published a video - including an interview with Dr. Tom Navon, fellow at the Dubnow Institute.

On 20 March 2023, advance ticket sales began for the Museum Night 2023, to which the cities of Leipzig and Halle (Saale) invite visitors on 6 May 2023 from 6 pm to midnight. The Dubnow Institute is taking part for the first time this year and presenting the exhibition »Jewish Album. Photographs by Rita Ostrovska«.

The publication »Die Überlebenden vor Gericht«, which was published last summer in the series »Studies of the Dubnow Institute«, has appeared in a second revised edition. The study by Katharina Stengel is available free of charge as an open access publication on the website of the publisher Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht and has been available in book form since the same time.

As of today, the Dubnow Institute has an Instagram account. Plese follow us!

The Dubnow Institute will present the web portal »Jewish Scholars at the Leipzig University« at the SPIN 2030 kick-off event on 3 February 2023. The event will take place from 11.30 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Kongreßhalle am Zoo in Leipzig with selected exhibitors from all over Saxony.

In the »hefez. Studies on Jewish History and Material Culture« series, the Hebrew edition of the publication by Anna Holzer-Kawalko has been released. It is published under the title »In Other People's Houses. Poles and Jews in Lower Silesia after 1945« by Magnes Press, Jerusalem (Hebrew; 192 pages, 2 ill., ISBN 978-965-7808-35-1, ISBN ebook 978-965-7808-36-8).

The first volume of the series »hefez. Studies on Jewish History and Material Culture«, Lilah Nethanel 's publication »Hebräische Schreibkultur in Europa,« has been published in Hebrew by Magnes Press. All volumes of the hefez series are published in German and Hebrew as well as in open access publication and as book

Prof. Dr. Giddon Ticotsky from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem won the Alsberg Prize for his book manuscript »The Stitches of Hebrewness: Challenging Canon in the Central Archive of Hebrew Literature.« The publication will be published next year in the Dubnow Institute’s series »hefez. Studies on Jewish History and Material Culture«, edited by Prof. Dr. Yfaat Weiss. The Alsberg Prize is granted by the Association of Israeli Archivists (AIA) in honor of Paul Avraham Alsberg (1919–2006), an Israeli archivist and historian.

For the second time, the Dubnow Institute has been awarded the TOTAL E-QUALITY label for its successful Gender Equality work. Organisations from business, science and administration that successfully implement equal opportunities in their personnel and organisational policies are awarded the TOTAL E-QUALITY label. An independent jury examines the application documents and decides on the award. The award is made for a period of three years.

On 14 September 2022, the Leibniz institutions in Saxony celebrated their 30th anniversary at the International Congress Center Dresden. Speeches of welcome were given by Saxony's Minister President Michael Kretschmer, State Secretary Kornelia Haugg from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Science Minister Sebastian Gemkow, Leibniz President Prof. Dr. Martina Brockmeier and the mayors of Dresden and Leipzig, among others. The Dubnow Institute, a member of the Leibniz Association since 2018, presented itself primarily with its diverse publication program.

Prof. Dr. Yfaat Weiss, will be a guest at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna in July 2022. There, she will be able to continue her current research project »Sovereignty in Miniature«.

Thanks to the agreement, both institutions can conduct closer coordinated research. The Jewish Historical Institute was represented by the director Monika Krawczyk, and the Dubnow Institute by Prof. Dr. Yfaat Weiss.

Dr. Amit Levy, who co-organised the Dubnow Institute's research colloquium this semester and had completed his PhD at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem last year, won the Middle East & Islamic Studies Association of Israel's 2022 Bleiman Prize for best Ph.D. dissertation. The prize was announced at the association's annual conference, which took place on June 9, 2022. The prize committee praised Levy's dissertation, »A New Orient: German-Jewish Oriental Studies in Palestine/Israel, 1926–1963«(supervisors: Prof. Dr. Yfaat Weiss and Dr. Aya Elyada) for being a »groundbreaking study« that carefully and thoroughly analyses a vast corpus of primary sources in German, Arabic, and English.

The brochure »Think Lab« offers a glimpse at the research of the Dubnow Institute as if through the window of a laboratory: In about twenty short articles, it spotlights the processes of our academic work, its underlying our questions and methods. The brochure can be downloaded free of charge as a PDF.

On Wednesday, 25 May 2022, 2.30 p.m., the first two Hebrew-language volumes of the series »hefez. Studies on Jewish History and Material Culture« will be presented. All volumes of the hefez series are published in German and Hebrew, as books as well as in Open Access.

Dr. Elisabeth Gallas will hold a four-month fellowship at the prestigious Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She will spend the time working on her research project »“We Accuse!”: History of Jewish Indictments in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.«

Doctoral candidates and postdoctoral scholars from Yfaat Weiss’ various sites of activity, past and present – especially in Leipzig and Jerusalem – have come together to dedicate their own miniatures to her on the occasion of her sixtieth birthday. This »Festblog« will feature a series of »narrative miniatures« spread in loose succession across the year. Starting from an object or an archival document, the contributions presented here will examine (hi)stories and questions from a micro-perspective, thereby reflecting not least of all the main interests of her own historical research: space and materiality, mobility and transfer, the history of objects and knowledge in the context of German and Central European, Jewish, and Israeli history. Just as Yfaat Weiss herself works in and between different places, so she connects the epistemological traditions and academic cultures of Israel and Germany as well as connecting different languages and mentalities in her work. For this reason, the »Festblog« will feature contributions in three languages: Hebrew, English, and German.

In cooperation with the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig and Brill Deutschland – Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht/Böhlau Verlag, the Dubnow Institute organised a book presentation with the historian Prof. Dr. Yfaat Weiss on 17 March 2022. In conversation with Thomas Sparr, she presented her latest publication »Niemandsland« and used the Mount Scopus in Jerusalem to unfold the history of the city after war and division. A recording of the event is available via the »Virtual Archive« of this website.

On Wednesday, 16 March, 2022, State Secretary Andrea Franke from the Saxon State Ministry of Science, Culture and Tourism visited the Dubnow Institute. In addition to the professional exchange, she learned about the Institute's publication portfolio and visited the exhibition »Jewish Album. Photographs by Rita Ostrovska«, which focuses on Jewish life in the Ukraine and the mass emigration of Jews from the former Soviet Union.

The first two volumes of the series »hefez. Studies on Jewish History and Material Culture«, Lilah Nethanel's publication »Hebräische Schreibkultur in Europa« and Bilha Shilo's publication »Ein Drama in Akten«, have now also been published in book form. Both volumes have already been available as free open access publications since December 2021. »Ein Drama in Akten« has also been published in Hebrew – also as an open access publication as well as in book form.

The second volume of the series »hefez. Studies on Jewish History and Material Culture«, Bilha Shilo's publication »Ein Drama in Akten. Die Restitution der Sammlungen des Wilnaer YIVO«, has been published in Hebrew by Magnes Press. All volumes of the hefez series are published in German and Hebrew as well as in open access publication and as book.

The Dubnow Institute has been a member of the Leipzig Science Network, which includes 15 other scientific institutions from Leipzig, since the beginning of this year. The network increases the visibility of Leipzig as a science location and supports scientists in working creatively, freely and cooperatively.

The Free State of Saxony has set up a collaborative project that aims to network digital cultural data in Saxony. In the DIKUSA project, the non-university humanities research institutions in Saxony will each conduct research on the cultural and social history of Saxony in their own subprojects under the coordination of the KompetenzwerkD working group of the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig. The Dubnow Institute's subproject is focused on research on the possibilities and limits of Jewish participation in Saxon universities from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century.

Yesterday, a jury of scholars and media announced the winners in the DAMALS Book Competition 2021. Dan Diner's publication »Ein anderer Krieg. Das jüdische Palästina und der Zweite Weltkrieg 1935–1942«  was chosen as the Historical Book of the Year. Third place went to the publication»Die vielen Tode des Jud Süß. Justizmord an einem Hofjuden« by Yair Mintzker, published by the Dubnow Institute and translated from American English by Felix Kurz.

The exhibition »Shalom: 1700 Jahre – eine Hörspielreise« opened at the UNIKATUM Kindermuseum Leipzig this weekend. Zarin Aschrafi, Doctoral Candidate at the Dubnow Institute, provided scientific advice for the conception of the station on Jewish life in Frankfurt in the postwar period. The exhibition can be visited in Leipzig until the summer of 2022.

Rachel Salamander, a member of the Dubnow Institute's General Assembly, has been awarded the Heinrich Heine Prize of the City of Düsseldorf. The Prize has been awarded by the city of Düsseldorf every three years since 1972 and is one of the most important literary prizes in Germany.

Dr. Rotem Giladi has been awarded a Senior Lecturer position at the Law School of the University of Roehampton, London. Dr. Yechiel Weizman has been awarded a tenure-track position in Holocaust Studies at The Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at Bar Ilan University. Both scholars spent two years as fellows in the Research Unit »Law« and are now closely associated with the Institute as associate researchers.

From 31 August 2021 to 18 January 2022, the Jewish Museum Frankfurt will show the exhibition »Our Courage – Jews in Europe 1945-48,« which explores Jewish experiences of escape and expulsion in Europe directly after the war. The exhibit will be accompanied by a catalogue available in German and English that features articles based on the conference entitled »Building from Ashes«, which was organized by the Jewish Museum Frankfurt, together with the Dubnow Institute, the Fritz Bauer Institute and the Goethe University of Frankfurt in December 2017. Dr. Elisbath Gallas and Dr. Philipp Graf contribute to the catalog.

The program and registration for the 53rd German Historians' Day are online as of today.

Among others:

Tuesday, 5 October 2021, 4.15–6 p.m.
Michael Brenner, Yfaat Weiss
Die Sprache des Feindes: Deutschsprachige Akten in israelischen Archiven

Wednesday, 6 October 2021, 3.15–6 p.m.
Jan Gerber, Philipp Graf
Erfahrung und Erinnerung. Israel, die deutschsprachige Linke und der Holocaust

From October to December 2021, a series of lectures will be held by the Dubnow Institute in cooperation with Leipzig University Library (UBL) as part of »#2021JLID – Jüdisches Leben in Deutschland.« The starting point is a unique collection of books that the Jewish Community of Leipzig donated to the Leipzig University Library for preservation and research. It consists of hundreds of prints, the oldest of which date back to the 16th century. The collection sheds light on processes of migration, mobility, social inclusion and exclusion, and the consequences of robbery, confiscation, and destruction. In six lectures, the Dubnow Institute and the UBL ask about the conditions under which Jewish book culture is preserved and made accessible today.

From 1 June to 25 July 2021, the Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig is showing a studio exhibition on various Jewish publishers in Leipzig, such as Henri Hinrichsen or Kurt Wolff. Accompanying the exhibition, the publishing house Hentrich & Hentrich published »Uns eint die Liebe zum Buch.« Jüdische Verleger in Leipzig (1815–1938)". Dr. Arndt Engelhardt, Research Assistant at the Dubnow Institute, wrote a article for this publication; he also supported the exhibition concept.

Maya Kreiner received the Rector's Award of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for Master's students. Her currently prepared Master's thesis is entitled »The Campaign against the Legislative Council, 1929–1936: Between Palestine, World Jewry and the British Empire«. In addition to her studies, she is responsible for the research contact point of the Dubnow Institute in Israel.

The jury of the Leipzig Book Fair Prize has nominated Dan Diner's publication »Ein anderer Krieg. Das jüdische Palästina und der Zweite Weltkrieg, 1935–1942«  in the category »Non-Fiction/Essay« alongside four other publications for this year's prize. The Leipzig Book Fair Prize will be awarded on 28 May, 4 p.m. and the award ceremony will be streamed live on the Leipzig Book Fair website. Dan Diner was director of the Dubnow Institute from 1999 to 2014.

Dr. Mohamed A. H. Ahmed has been appointed »Al Maktoum Associate Professor in Middle Eastern Studies« at Trinity College Dublin. He worked at the Dubnow Institute from 2009 to 2016, from 2012 as Doctoral Candidate. He completed his dissertation in 2015; it focuses on Arabic use in nine Hebrew novels written between the 1950s and 2010s by three Iraqi Jewish authors.

The General Assembly of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance was to take place in Leipzig at the beginning of December. Due to the pandemic, it was switched to digital. Prof. Dr. Jörg Deventer, Deputy of the director at the Dubnow Institute, gives a video greeting.

The colloquium of the Leibniz ScienceCampus »Eastern Europe – Global Area« will take place online in the winter semester 2020/2021. The lecture series also includes lectures organised by the Dubnow Institute.

Since Thursday, November 12, 2020, the Dubnow Institute has also been active on Twitter. Anyone interested in news from the Institute can follow @DubnowInstitut.

Due to the current corona situation, the Dubnow Institute and its library will remain closed to the public until further notice. Many of our employees are also currently working from home. Please send your messages or enquiries by email to the contact persons listed on our website. We apologise for any delays in replying.

Moritz Schmeing, Doctoral Candidate at the Dubnow Institute, has been awarded a doctoral fellowship. From January 2021 he will be a fellow of the Hans Böckler Foundation. In his dissertation project he prosopographically examines Jews in the Italian fascist party.

In the series »Europäische Diktaturen und ihre Überwindung. Schriften der Stiftung Ettersberg«, the volume »Jüdisches Leben in Deutschland und Europa nach der Shoah« has been published, which examines the specifics of Jewish life in divided Germany and other European countries after 1945. The volume is based on the 17th International Symposium of the Ettersberg Foundation, which was held in Weimar in October 2018 in cooperation with the Dubnow Institute and the  Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Thüringen. Some of the articles are based on research projects of the Dubnow Institute.

Shaul Marmari, doctoral candidate at the Dubnow Institute, received the Fritz Steppat Prize 2020 for his Master's Thesis »Red Sea Horizons: Palestine and the Jewish-Yemeni Diaspora, 1881–1948«. The prize is awarded every two years by the Gesellschaft zur Förderung des ZMO e.V. for an outstanding scientific text by a young Researcher.

On 16 September 2020, EEGA’s partners signed a new Cooperation Agreement officially extending EEGA’s partnerships up until 2024, after the Leibniz Association approved EEGA’s second funding period earlier this year. The representatives of EEGA’s cooperation partners welcomed the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow as the ninth member of the network.

Carolin Piorun, currently a research assistant at the Dubnow Institute, will receive a research grant from the Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich Studienwerk from October 2020. In her dissertation project, she is focusing on the history and self-image of the Yiddish PEN Club from the 1920s to the 1980s.

Felix Pankonin, Doctoral Candidate at the Dubnow Institute, receives a Research fellowship from the Bundeskanzler-Willy-Brandt-Stiftung. In the context of his dissertation »A Labour Man in Berlin« he is doing research on Richard Löwenthal. The foundation supports his research with 5,000 EUR for archive research and for finishing his dissertation.

The library of the Dubnow Institute has received a rich gift of books. Prof. em. Dr. Klaus Saul gave the Institute several hundred volumes from his private library on topics of Jewish history and culture. Until his retirement in 2004, the historian taught as professor of 19th and 20th century social history at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg and lives in Hamburg.