Work of the Center
The Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies is the hub for the University of Chicago’s field-leading scholarship and education in Jewish Studies. This work includes:
- B.A. program in Jewish Studies (Major and Minor)
- Core sequence in Jewish Civilizations
- Lectures, seminars, and conferences
- Visiting Professorships
- Graduate student travel and research grants
- Undergraduate research support
- Undergraduate B.A. and Course Essay Prizes
History of Jewish Studies at Chicago
Jewish Studies scholarship has been an integral part of the University of Chicago since its founding in 1891.
1891 – University of Chicago founding president, William Rainey Harper, was a distinguished scholar of the Hebrew Bible and the first faculty included Emil Gustav Hirsch, a scholar of Rabbinics and classical Hebrew literature.
1919 – Oriental Institute (now the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, West Asia & North Africa) founded, becoming a leading research center for the study of ancient and medieval Near Eastern language, civilization, and archaeology, including Palestine and Israel.
1984 –Jewish Studies Workshop founded among the first cohort of workshops sponsored by the University of Chicago’s Council for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
1991 – University of Chicago Divinity School establishes doctoral program in History of Judaism (in addition to Hebrew Bible)
1993 – Undergraduate Major in Jewish Studies established.
1995 – Senate of the University votes to establish the Committee on Jewish Studies with ability to grant advanced degrees. The Committee on Jewish Studies operates for over a decade. Today, advanced degrees in Jewish Studies are offered within departmental graduate programs. For more information about applying, see http://gradadmissions.uchicago.edu/.
2007 – Undergraduate Minor in Jewish Studies established.
2009 – Chicago Center for Jewish Studies founded.
2017 – Center endowed as the Joyce Z. and Jacob Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies in recognition of College alumna Joyce Zeger Greenberg.
William Rainey Harper's copy of the Hebrew Bible, University of Chicago Library
During the past several decades, the University has appointed eminent scholars in the study of the Hebrew Bible, Midrash, Medieval Jewish Philosophy and Intellectual History, Hebrew Literature, Jewish political thought, Yiddish literature, Modern Jewish Thought, and German Jewish Culture. Presently, there are four endowed professorships in Jewish Studies: the Nathan Cummings Professorship in Jewish Studies in the Divinity School; the Henry Crown Professorship in Hebrew Studies, the Ludwig Rosenberger Professorship of Jewish History and Civilization, and the Harriet and Ulrich E. Meyer Professorship of Modern European Jewish History. Approximately ninety graduate students and thirty faculty members work in different fields relating to Jewish Studies. The University boasts teaching programs in Biblical and Modern Hebrew, Yiddish, and Judaeo-Arabic, as well as in all the modern languages in which Jewish texts are written. Working together, the University has created one of the most comprehensive, distinguished and interdisciplinary programs in Jewish Studies available at any American university.
Library and Archival Resources
The University of Chicago Library is one of the leading research libraries in the United States and boasts a rich holding in Jewish Studies in English, Hebrew, Yiddish, and the European languages. The Yiddish collection in particular is one of the best university library collections in the country. In addition to its regular collection, a rich array of printed and archival sources for research and teaching in Jewish Studies is available in the Special Collections Research Center. Resources for studying nineteenth- and twentieth-century secular Jewish life and thought are especially strong. The Ludwig Rosenberger Library of Judaica consists of over 17,000 titles documenting the social, political, and cultural history of the Jewish people, focusing on the history of Jews in modern Europe and European social movements in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, especially the historical relationship of Jews with modern socialism. The Harry and Branka Sondheim Jewish Heritage Collection of over 400 items focuses on depictions of Jewish life, ceremonies, and customs in printed books, graphic materials, and ephemera. Archival collections such as the papers of Saul Bellow, Morris Raphael Cohen, Louis Gottschalk, Philip M. Klutznick, Michael Polanyi, Julius Rosenwald, Joseph Schwab and Leo Strauss document the work and career of Jewish writers and intellectuals across a broad range of fields.