A Vision Come True - Abraham Geiger and the Training of Rabbis and Cantors for Europe (original) (raw)
More than twenty years ago, Louis Jacobs (1920–2006) stated in a landmark article entitled Jewish Theology Today that, regrettably, “ there is no department of Jewish theology, as there is of Christian, at any university.” The opening of the School of Jewish Theology at the University of Potsdam (Germany) on November 19, 2013, has rendered this statement invalid. Earlier that year, the Union of Pro-gressive Jews in Germany and Masorti Germany (associated with the Conservative stream of Judaism) signed a contract with the University of Potsdam to establish the school as a fully-fledged department of Jewish theology. Backed by the Federal State of Brandenburg, the University of Potsdam offers undergraduate programs as well as Master-level programs in Jewish theology which can lead to ordination by the liberal Abraham Geiger College or the conservative Zacharias Frankel College. What appears to be a mere bureaucratic act is, in fact, a historic milestone in the development of European rabbinical training. Similar to the theological options open to pastors, imams, and priests, Jewish theology will finally become a regular academic subject in Germany, thus eligible to receive financial support from the state.
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