Jewish studies in Wrocław can be traced back to the mid-nineteenth century with the founding of the Jewish Theological Seminary, the most renowned center of Jewish scholarship in Europe until it was closed by the Nazis in 1938. The University’s Jewish studies program harkens back to this tradition, and has even succeeded in reacquiring a few of the Seminary’s invaluable manuscripts.
Professor Jerzy Woronczak brought Jewish studies back to Wrocław in 1993, initially as a research center. In 2003, Jewish studies in Wrocław became a two-year program. By 2013, the program had gained the status of bachelor’s degree, and in 2016 a master’s degree program was added. After successive transformations, a full-scale Department of Jewish Studies was formally opened in 2016. In October 2017, the Department launched an educational path for educators, in cooperation with the Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN, which supplements the academic undergraduate track.
On February 1, 2017, the Department of Jewish Studies was officially named after Tad Taube, philanthropist and a long-time friend of the program.
Photo by Cezary Gwóźdź