Heidelberg Eugen Täubler Lecture 2024

Conversion to Judaism: a particularity of the Jewish people in the Greco-Roman world

Katell Berthelot is Directrice de Recherche of the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and works at the Centre Paul-Albert Février, a research institute in Aix-en-Provence jointly funded by the CNRS and the University of Aix-Marseille. Since 2017, she has been a member and was temporarily President of the Scientific Council of the French Research Center in Jerusalem.

The lecture series is dedicated to one of the most distinguished German-Jewish historians of the 20th century, a universalist of the old school who was ahead of his time in many respects and a great Heidelberg native. In April 1933, Eugen Täubler (1879-1953), Professor of Greek-Roman History at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, submitted his application for dismissal from his position at the university. In doing so, he avoided forced dismissal from public service by the Nazi regime. Täubler had held the Heidelberg chair for eight years. Prior to this, the historian, who was born in the province of Poznan, had been head of the General Archive of German Jews in Berlin, and from 1910 to 1914 also lectured and held a chair at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin. Following his dismissal in 1933, he returned to the still existing Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin. After its closure in 1941, he managed to emigrate to the USA. There he worked as a professor at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati until his death in 1953.

As a universally recognized ancient historian from Heidelberg and a member of the academy, he was entitled to assume that the bridging of Greek, Roman and Jewish history into a fruitful whole had succeeded in 20th century scholarship. in 1933, this certainty became an illusion.

The Heidelberg Eugen Täubler Lecture is organized by the Ignatz Bubis Chair for the History, Religion and Culture of European Jewry. The lecture series is a recurring highlight in the academic life of the city.

 Zoom-Meeting

Thema: Täubler Lecture: Katell Berthelot

Meeting-ID: 625 9055 7617
Kenncode: 752110