CEU Jewish Studies

08/09/2026

“Habsburg after the Holocaust” is a two-part research seminar. Using Yizkor memorial books created by Holocaust survivors and former residents of destroyed European-Jewish communities, the course examines how Jews from the former Habsburg Empire remembered the state, its society, and life before 1918 in the wake of the destruction. Interested in taking a research project from source analysis to publication, to co-author an article, and to present at a major international conference? Join JEWS5523 this Fall Term. Part I can be taken independently and is the prerequisite for continuing with JEWS5026 in the Winter Term.

08/09/2026

"Jews and the City” examines the relationships between Jews and urban life, from medieval Europe and North Africa to modern Europe, America, and the Middle East. Moving between the Venetian ghetto, the Moroccan mellah, the Eastern European shtetl, and the cosmopolitan metropolis, the course considers how urbanization transformed religious practice, social relations, and patterns of assimilation. Using documentary sources, literature, and film, students will explore Budapest, New York, Tel Aviv, and more places in greater detail. Register for JEWS5005 this Fall Term.

07/09/2026

"Grand Debates in Jewish History" situates Jewish history within broader historiographical debates. Across two connected courses, students explore Jewish history as a prism for examining majority cultures, a comparative framework for minority histories, and a field shaped by its own internal dynamics. Interested in joining the discussion? Register for JEWS5024 and JEWS4023 this Fall Term.

03/09/2026

Thinking about taking CEU courses in Jewish history and culture? Join us at the presentation of the Jewish Studies Specialization and our 2026/27 courses on Tuesday, September 8 from 15.00 in room A-211. Looking forward to seeing you there!

The info session is organized for the incoming students of the Department of Historical Studies who consider enrolling in the Jewish Studies Specialization.

06/08/2026

📢 Call for Papers: JLA International 2027 "Inside/Outside: Jews, Law, and Jewish Law"
📍 University of Vienna
🗓️ 19–21 July 2027
Delighted to be on the organising committee for next year's Jewish Law Association international conference. We invite proposals engaging with Jewish law's boundaries and entanglements – legal pluralism, the limits of law, questions of universality and exclusivity, and Jewish law's impact on non-Jewish legal systems – across any period, geography, or discipline.
⏰ Deadline: 9 October 2026
Some funding available for graduate students.
Full CfP: below.

Jewish law is often presented as a comprehensive, self-contained, and all-encompassing legal system. Yet beyond the classics on the bookshelf and in the classroom, lived experience and theoretical inquiry challenge this conception. To explore these tensions and their implications, the Jewish Law Ass...

17/07/2026

Call for Papers:
Workshop on sources from the perspective of former (Jewish) prisoners regarding Buchenwald and other displaced persons camps.
For details, please see below:

The workshop “Between Liberation and a new beginning” (February 3—5 2027, Forced Labour Museum Weimar) focuses on sources by former (Jewish) concentration camp prisoners concerning Buchenwald and other displaced persons camps after 1945. Particular attention will be paid to ego-documents and m...

15/07/2026

CEU participants in the European Summer School in Jewish Studies at the Jüdisches Museum Hohenems, Austria:
Anton Schuetze (Jewish Studies / Museum Studies) is participating along with 60 students from all over the German-speaking academic world; Michael L. Miller taught a seminar on "Guidebooks for Jewish Travelers from the Middle Ages until Today"; and Carsten Wilke will teach a seminar on "Jewish Travelers to India as Observers of Caste Society." A wonderful week of learning in the Austrian Alps. Looking forward to next year's summer school (July 18-23, 2027).

01/07/2026

On May 31-June 2, 2026, the CEU Jewish Studies Program marked its 25th anniversary with an international conference: Jewish Studies at a Crossroads: Central Europe and Beyond. Forty scholars, including many alumni of the CEU Jewish Studies program, came together to present their latest research and reflect on past developments, current challenges, and future directions in the field. By bringing together students, researchers, museum directors, philanthropists and other stakeholders, the conference celebrated this interdisciplinary program, which has played a vital role in shaping Jewish Studies in Central Europe since the fall of communism. The conference also focused on strategies for institutional collaboration, with the aim of opening new possibilities and perspectives for future students and for the field in general. We are grateful to CEU, the European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS), Stadt Wien Kultur, the Knapp Family Foundation, and the Salo W. and Jeanette M. Baron Foundation for their generous support.

Please find links to conference photos and the conference program here:

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25/06/2026

We are proud to announce the publication of the volume "Hungarian Holocaust Revisited: New Discoveries and Insights" (De Gruyter) co-edited by Borbála Klacsmann and Péter Buchmüller, our past and current graduate student respectively, and with contributions by István Pál Ádám and Levente Olosz, our alumni.
Warm congratulations!

For the book details, please see below.

https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111521183/html

22/06/2026

We are celebrating and congratulating Jewish Studies graduate Hannah Szabó for winning the 2026 Hanak Award for the best MA thesis in the one-year program of the Department of Historical Studies!