The Third World Congress Of Jewish Studies

The Third World Congress of Jewish Studies was held July 25 to August 1, 1961 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. For the first time since its establishment at the Second World Congress of Jewish Studies in 1957, the organizing body was the World Union of Jewish Studies, supported by the Hebrew University, the Ministry of Education and Culture, and the Jewish Agency. About 500 members attended the Congress, 100 of them from abroad, as well as 200 guests from Israel and abroad. Around 260 papers were presented within the fourteen divisions of the Congress, and abstracts were published in fifteen booklets.

Prof. Naftali Herz Tur-Sinai, the president of the Academy of the Hebrew Language, greeted the participants at the opening session. Prof. Ben-Zion Dinur, who had worked on the organization of the Congress, could not attend because of health problems.

Prof. Tur-Sinai pointed out that the original idea for a World Congress in Jewish Studies had already been suggested by Polish rabbi and scholar Prof. Moses Schorr in Berlin in the 1920s, which at the time had been an important center and meeting point in the field. But only decades later did this idea become a reality; and now, in 1961, the Congress was already celebrating its third gathering of experts.

In his greetings, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion particularly emphasized his satisfaction that Iranian Prof. Poure-Daoud from the University of Teheran was about to present his paper “The Messiah in the Zoroastrian religion, and Cyrus, the Messiah in the Bible.” Ben-Gurion expressed his hope that more scholars from Asia and also from Africa would join the World Congress of Jewish Studies in the future, including scholars in the fields of Arabic and Islamic Studies. In his speech Ben-Gurion asserted: “As a consumer of research in Jewish Studies, I am full of heartfelt appreciation for its creators, whether they come from my people or from other nations.” He suggested that research on visions of redemption throughout the ages, both the redemption of the Jewish people, and that of humanity as a whole, should play a more central role in Jewish Studies.

The Third World Congress featured a general meeting of the World Union of Jewish Studies, at which it was decided that the World Union would establish a center for the registration of research conducted in Jewish Studies worldwide and forward information to its members; contact Jewish institutions worldwide to photograph their important document; and keep copies of those documents in the Union’s centers in Israel, along with two other centers to be established in Europe and the United States.

Honorary Congress President: Mr. Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, President of the State of Israel.

Congress Chairman: Prof. Naftali Herz Tur-Sinai

Chairman of the Organizing Committee: Prof. Ephraim Elimelech Urbach

Ministers and Ministry representatives who served on the organizing committee: Mr. Abba Even, Minister of Education and Culture; I. Melkman, Ministry of Education and Culture

Representatives of the Hebrew University on the organizing committee: Prof. Martin Buber, President of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities; Prof. Ben-Zion Dinur, Chairman of the Council – World Union of Jewish Studies; Prof. Hayyim Schirmann, Head of the Institute of Jewish Studies; Dr. Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson, Prof. Israel Halpern, Dr. Zwi Werblowsky, Dr. Shemaryahu Talmon, Prof. Yigael Yadin, Prof. Benjamin Mazar, Prof. Chaim Menachem Rabin, Prof. Gerschom Scholem

Representative of the Jewish Agency on the organizing committee: Dr. Moshe Avidor, Director General; Mr. Zalman Shazar, Head of the Department for Education and Culture in the Diaspora

Executive Committee:  Prof. E.E. Urbach, Chairman; Prof. Hayyim Schirmann, Dr. Shemaryahu Talmon, Prof. Chaim Rabin, Mr. B. Shahevitch