ABOUT THE CENTRE

MISSION

Maximise the benefit of these various activities through dissemination of appropriate results on the internet.

BACKGROUND

The University of Manchester has a long and distinguished record in the teaching of Jewish Studies. The Centre for Jewish Studies was established when the existing provision was strengthened by the creation of the Alliance Chair in Modern Jewish Studies. In 1997, Professor Bernard Jackson was appointed to the Chair, and became Co-Director of the Centre, with Professor Philip Alexander.

The Dept of Religions & Theology, in which the CJS is based, is the only Theology/Religions Dept in the UK with both a 5-star (perfect score) research rating and a 24/24 (perfect score) teaching rating.

• The University boasts a number of outstanding academics in the fields of Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, Rabbinics, Jewish Law and Jewish history. There are around fifteen members of staff across the campus with interests in Jewish Studies. The Centre also enjoys the participation of a number of distinguished Honorary Research Fellows from other institutions.

• The John Rylands University Library is a treasure house of books on Jewish religion, culture, society and history. Its collection of Hebrew manuscripts (many of which once belonged to Moses Gaster) is surpassed in the UK only by Oxford, the British Library and Cambridge.

• The University has large numbers of students interested in Jewish history, literature and culture. Manchester has long been favoured by Jewish students, who form a natural constituency for Jewish Studies courses. Some Jewish Studies options are already attracting classes of eighty.  A full Jewish Studies degree (BA Hons in Hebrew and Jewish Studies) will be available from Autumn 2001; students may also opt for Hebrew in a BA (Hons) in Middle Eastern Languages and in a Joint Honours BA in Middle Eastern Languages with other semitic or European languages (see Department of Middle Eastern Studies). A Jewish Studies stream has been created within the Combined Studies degree, in effect offering to students a range of Joint Honours Degrees in Jewish Studies and other areas. Jewish Studies may also be taken as a major area of concentration within the BA (Hons) in the Study of Religion and Theology (see Department of Religions and Theology).

• The University offers an MA in Jewish Studies and an MA in Hebrew (bursaries available). It also offers expert supervision and specialist resources for PhDs in the area of Jewish Studies (studentships available), with the possibility of supervision offered at a distance.

• The University has long-established links with the local Jewish community, which dates back to the 1780s and is by far the largest in the UK outside London. Over the years numerous Jewish scholars have taught at the University. Chaim Weizmann lectured on chemistry at the University of Manchester. Weizmann's contemporary, the eminent philosopher Samuel Alexander, introduced him to Balfour. Sir Lewis Namier, one of the greatest of modern English historians, was active in assisting Weizmann in the Zionist movement.

• Manchester has one of the finest Jewish museums, the Manchester Jewish Museum, packed with archival material awaiting the attention of researchers.

• Professor Philip Alexander, Professor of Post-Biblical Jewish Literature
• Professor Bernard Jackson, Alliance Professor of Modern Jewish Studies

• Penelope Junkermann