Books

The Jewish Culture and Contexts series from the University of Pennsylvania Press publishes monographs in all areas of Judaic studies with the goal of deepening understanding of Jewish culture within the specific historical and geographic contexts in which it has developed. The series' editorial board is co-directed by Steven Weitzman, Francesca Trivellato, and Shaul Magid who work closely together with Jerry Singerman, Senior Editor for the Press. The series is best known for studies of medieval and modern Jewish history, but is open to projects relating to all periods of Jewish history and from a range of humanistic fields, including religious studies, literary studies, art history, and other disciplines. The series also publishes volumes that grow out of the Katz Center’s fellowship years and that often constitute significant interventions in a particular subfield within Jewish studies. For more information about the books published in the series, visit the Penn Press website.

If you are an author wishing to propose a book to the series, contact Jerry Singerman via Penn Press or the series’ coeditors.

The Gruss Colloquium in Judaic Studies was inaugurated in the spring of 1994. This year-end event provides a forum for Katz Center fellows and distinguished guests to present and debate the results of their research. Select papers delivered at the colloquium and chosen from the year's seminars are published under the editorship of fellows appointed from the research group. As the culmination of a year of intense study on a common research theme, the colloquium volumes aim to define the state of the field at its vibrant cutting edge. In 1998, Yale University Press published the first volume of papers drawn from the colloquium as part of the series Jewish Culture and Society. Since 2002, the Katz Center has joined with the University of Pennsylvania Press to bring out the volumes as part of the series Jewish Culture and Contexts.

Taking Note: 20 Years of Scholars and Scholarship at the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, 1993–2014, a collection of essays, images, and a history of the Center since it became part of Penn in 1993, is now available as an e-book.

An earlier retrospective of the Center’s mission and accomplishments was published in Breaking New Ground: Scholars and Scholarship at the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, 1993–2004. This collection summarizes the theme of each fellowship year, and lists each fellow along with their major publications resulting from time spent at the Katz Center. There are also several short essays from fellows past.

The scholars that make up the Katz Center library staff also have worked in partnership with the fellows each year to produce a web exhibit that links the interests of individual fellows with the library’s rich resources. To wander through these virtual exhibits, please visit the Library at the Katz Center website.