The Hebrew University in Jerusalem
The Hebrew University in Jerusalem is the oldest academic Institution in Israel, founded in 1925. The First Board of Governors of the University included such luminaries as Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Martin Buber, Harry Sacher and Felix M. Warburg. Research Interests are the study of religion, Jewish studies, the Holy land and its relations with Europe, religious thought and philosophy. The departments of history, literature and art history include research of western medieval history and visual culture.
Tel Aviv University
Located in Israel’s cultural, financial and industrial heartland, Tel Aviv University is a major center of teaching and research, comprising nine faculties, 106 departments, and 90 research institutes. Medieval studies are concentrated in the departments of literature history and art history.
Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Art History
Ilia Rodov, Sara Offenberg, Eyal Baruch, Eliya Bartal, Mor Presiado, Miriam Rajner.
The Center for the Study of Christianity, The Hebrew University
The Center for the Study of Christianity is connected with the Department of Comparative Religion, where Christian studies are taught. Research at the Center focuses on various fields connected with Christianity, its history, and its thought, past and present. Particular emphasis is placed on research concerning Christianity in the Holy Land and the Middle East, and on the relationship throughout history between Christianity and Judaism.
The Center for Jewish Art
The Center for Jewish Art is the world’s foremost institution dedicated to the preservation of the Jewish artistic heritage. The Center for Jewish Art’s activities includes documentation, research, education and publishing. The Center for Jewish Art’s major project is the Jerusalem Index of Jewish Art, an iconographical Jewish art database.
In the Jerusalem Index of Jewish Art, there are at present about 200,000 documents of objects originating from all over the globe, which range from a coin to a complex of synagogues. Documentation is carried out in five sections of the Index: Ancient and Modern Arts, Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts, Synagogues and Ritual Objects, as well as Jewish Ritual Architecture. The objects are also classified according to iconographical subjects, with references to textual sources for cross-reference, biographies and bibliography.
The Nehemia Levtzion Center for Islamic Studies
The Nehemia Levtzion Center for Islamic Studies was established late in 2004 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The Center strives to encourage and initiate research regarding Islamic religion and civilization, from the advent of Islam in the seventh century C.E. until today, in the Arab world, elsewhere in the Middle East, in Asia and Africa and also in the West. In order to fulfill this goal, the Center organizes research groups, conferences, seminars, and lectures, supports individual and group research, distributes scholarships, and encourages dialog between scholars of Islamic studies and related fields. Islam is understood not just in the narrow sense as a religion, but also as a culture and civilization, and thus the Center will deal with such subjects as religious thought and practice, material and intellectual culture, politics, society and economics.
The Israel Antiquities Authority
The Israel Antiquities Authority is in charge of the country’s antiquities and antiquity sites, their excavation, preservation, conservation, study and publication thereof, as well as the country’s antiquity treasures.
The Studium Biblicum Franciscanum of Jerusalem (SBF)
The Studium Biblicum Franciscanum of Jerusalem (SBF) is the Faculty of Biblical Sciences and Archaeology of the Pontificia Universitas Antonianum in Rome. In 1901, the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land began planning a center for biblical studies in Jerusalem and these plans led to the establishment of the SBF in 1924. Located in Jerusalem’s Old City, the SBF offers degree and non-degree programs of studies in biblical interpretation and in archaeology. Associated with the SBF is the Studium Theologicum Jerosolymitanum, the Custody of the Holy Land’s school of theology.