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Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies

Coordinates: 39°56′50″N 75°08′55″W / 39.947312°N 75.148493°W / 39.947312; -75.148493
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Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
The Katz Center's Building on Walnut Street
Former name
Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning; Annenberg Research Institute
Established1993
DirectorSteven Weitzman
Location
420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

39°56′50″N 75°08′55″W / 39.9473°N 75.1486°W / 39.9473; -75.1486
Websitehttps://katz.sas.upenn.edu/

The Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, commonly called the Katz Center, is a postdoctoral research center devoted to the study of Jewish history and civilization.[1]

Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies 420 Walnut St Philadelphia PA

History

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The Katz Center is the continuation of two pioneering institutions devoted to advanced research: Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning and the Annenberg Research Institute. Dropsie College was the first accredited doctoral program in Judaic studies in the world. The Annenberg Research Institute was a center for advanced study in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam founded in 1986 with staff and collections carried over from Dropsie College. The founding director of the Katz Center was David B. Ruderman.[2] The current Ella Darivoff Director is Steven Weitzman.[3]

The Katz Center was established in 1993 as a part of the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. It was first named the Center for Judaic Studies (CJS); later, the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies (CAJS)—and in 2008, the Katz family endowed the center in memory of former board chair and philanthropist Herbert D. Katz. It is located in an award-winning building across from Independence National Historical Park in Center City Philadelphia.[4]

The Katz Center houses offices for scholars who are in residence throughout the academic year for postdoctoral research, as well as an extensive library of Judaica,[5] a reading room, and seminar and meeting spaces.[6]

Fellowship program

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The Katz Center's primary activity is an academic fellowship program, which brings scholars from around the world to Philadelphia for a semester or a year. The program supports approximately 20 fellows each year; scholars apply if their current research fits the annual theme.[7]

Weekly seminars allow fellows to share their findings with each other and with invited scholarly guests; annual conferences are open to the wider academic community.[8]

Dropsie University Complex

In addition, the Katz Center offers public programs and a summer intensive course for graduate students.[9]

Library at the Katz Center

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The combination of the Dropsie/Annenberg library with the Judaica holdings of the Penn Libraries resulted in a 350,000-volume collection of Judaica, including more than 8,000 rare books and an assortment of cuneiform tablets.

There are also 451 codices in eleven alphabets and 24 languages and dialects. Some of the languages and dialects represented include Hebrew, English, German, Yiddish, Ladino, Arabic, Latin, Judeo-Arabic, Armenia, Telugu, and Syriac. Fragments from the Cairo Geniza and others written in Coptic and Demotic on papyrus round out the collection.

The library also holds the personal letters of more than 50 Jewish-American leaders from the 1800s and 1900s, including Isaac Leeser, Sabato Morais, and Abraham A. Neuman (three ministers of Congregation Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia), Cyrus Adler (president, Dropsie College, Mikveh Israel, American Jewish Committee, Jewish Theological Seminary of America; librarian, Smithsonian Institution), Charles Cohen (president, Mikveh Israel, Fairmount Park Commission), his journalist sister Mary M. Cohen, Yiddish journalist Ben Zion Goldberg, and the benefactor Moses Dropsie.[10]

Publications

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The Katz Center houses the Jewish Quarterly Review, the oldest continuously published journal of Judaic studies in English. Founded in England in 1888 under the editorship of Claude Montefiore and Israel Abrahams, JQR first came to the U.S. in 1911 under the editorship of Solomon Schechter and Cyrus Adler. It is currently published by Penn Press.

A Cairo Geniza fragment is part of the collection.

The Katz Center partners with the University of Pennsylvania Press to publish the book series Jewish Cultures and Contexts. The series is edited by Shaul Magid, Francesca Trivellato, and Steven Weitzman.[11]

Notable fellows

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References

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  1. ^ "Home | Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies". katz.sas.upenn.edu. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
  2. ^ katzcenterupenn. "History". Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
  3. ^ katzcenterupenn. "Staff". Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
  4. ^ "University of Pennsylvania – Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies | The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life". magnes.berkeley.edu. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
  5. ^ katzcenterupenn. "Library at the Katz Center". Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
  6. ^ katzcenterupenn. "FAQs". Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
  7. ^ katzcenterupenn. "International Fellowship". Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
  8. ^ katzcenterupenn. "Academic Gatherings". Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
  9. ^ katzcenterupenn. "Advanced Summer School for Graduate Students in Jewish Studies". Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
  10. ^ "Library at the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies & Penn Libraries Judaica - collections | Penn Libraries". www.library.upenn.edu. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
  11. ^ katzcenterupenn. "Jewish Quarterly Review". Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
  12. ^ "Menahem Ben-Sasson". en.jewish-history.huji.ac.il. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  13. ^ "Prof. Amnon Ben Tor to receive Israel Prize in archaeology". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  14. ^ "The Hebrew University of Jerusalem - Division of Marketing & Communication". www.huji.ac.il. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  15. ^ "Clémence Boulouque — Department of Religion". religion.columbia.edu. New York City: Columbia University in the City of New York. 2023. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
  16. ^ "Clémence Boulouque — Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies". katz.sas.upenn.edu. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania. 2023. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
  17. ^ "Jewish Art and the Struggle of Tradition in Modernity". bildnercenter.rutgers.edu. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  18. ^ "Natalie Zemon Davis Biography | AHA". www.historians.org. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  19. ^ "About Daniel J. Elazar". www.jcpa.org. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  20. ^ katzcenterupenn. "Professor Yaakov Elman z"l (1943–2018)". Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  21. ^ "Gitin, Seymour | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  22. ^ "Nurith Gertz". www.ithl.org.il. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  23. ^ "Moshe Greenberg". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  24. ^ "Bio - American Bar Foundation". www.americanbarfoundation.org. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  25. ^ "Gershon D. Hundert". Jewish Studies מדעי היהדות. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  26. ^ "Idel, Moshe | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  27. ^ "Natalie Zemon Davis Biography | AHA". www.historians.org. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  28. ^ "Prof. Yosef Kaplan". pluto.huji.ac.il. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  29. ^ "Ruth Mazo Karras". | College of Liberal Arts. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  30. ^ "Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett Oral History". Library of Congress. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  31. ^ "Jewish Museum Chief Curator Norman Kleeblatt Steps Down". artnet News. December 29, 2016. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  32. ^ "David C. Kraemer". www.jtsa.edu. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  33. ^ "Shaul Magid". Shalom Hartman Institute. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  34. ^ "Michael A. Meyer, Ph.D." Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  35. ^ "David Nirenberg | History | The University of Chicago". history.uchicago.edu. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  36. ^ "David B. Ruderman | Penn Arts & Sciences Department of History". live-sas-www-history.pantheon.sas.upenn.edu. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  37. ^ "Maurice Samuels | Yale MacMillan Center Council on Middle East Studies". cmes.macmillan.yale.edu. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  38. ^ "Sharpest Brains, Widest Hearts, Gifted Minds: The Fantastic 16 to Win the 2018 Israel Prize". mfa.gov.il. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  39. ^ "Stefanie B. Siegmund". www.jtsa.edu. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  40. ^ "Shaked, Gershon | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  41. ^ "Eminent historian delivers lecture about Israel's founding father". College of Social Sciences and Humanities. January 27, 2015. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  42. ^ German, Department of (March 15, 2014). "Anna Shternshis". Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  43. ^ katzcenterupenn. "Reuven Snir". Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  44. ^ "Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich". July 23, 2011. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  45. ^ "Guy G Stroumsa | Hebrew University of Jerusalem - Academia.edu". huji.academia.edu. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  46. ^ "Susan Rubin Suleiman". rll-faculty.fas.harvard.edu. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  47. ^ "Ilan Troen '63". www.brandeis.edu. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  48. ^ "Prof. Yaron Tsur". Tel Aviv University. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  49. ^ "Chava Turniansky". press.uchicago.edu. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  50. ^ "elliot r. wolfson: scholarship". wolfson.faculty.religion.ucsb.edu. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  51. ^ Giving a Diamond: Essays in Honor of Joseph Yahalom on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday. Brill. February 22, 2011. ISBN 978-90-04-20382-2.
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39°56′50″N 75°08′55″W / 39.947312°N 75.148493°W / 39.947312; -75.148493