About us

The Centre for the Study of the Holocaust and Jewish Literature was established in 2010 at the Department of Czech Literature and Comparative Literature at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University. It is involved in literature studies related to Shoah and Jewish culture and literature in the Czech Lands and Central Europe.

The most important publications so far have been the extensive collectively written monograph of more than 1000 pages Cizí i blízcí (Close and Foreign),and the Handbook of Polish, Czech, and Slovak Holocaust Fiction. Works and Contexts. Available as Open Access on the publisher  website https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110671056/html.

The Centre cooperates with several international partners on a number of projects. We have worked together for a long time with Justus Liebig University in Gießen, Germany. Currently, our main partners are the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East-Central Europe in Marburg, Germany and the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland. Other key partners include Tel Aviv University; Moses Mendelssohn Zentrum (University of Postdam); and Comenius University Bratislava. Main partners in the Czech Republic are the Institute of Czech Literature at the Academy of Sciences, the Jewish Museum in Prague, the Centre for Jewish Studies at Palacký University in Olomouc and the Department of Middle East Studies at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. Since 2010, we have organized a series of workshops with our German and Polish colleagues focusing on fiction and documentary literature devoted to the Holocaust in Central Europe. To our knowledge, this is the only international cooperation of such kind in Europe.

We are also active in the field of Israel Studies and socio-cultural qualitative research into contemporary Jewish communities in the EU. In September 2020, the Centre coorganized in Prague the international annual conference of the European Association of Israel Studies, with 160 active participants from all over the world. Research into this area takes place within the framework of the project “United in Diversity – An Interdisciplinary Study of Contemporary European Jewry and Its Reflection” supported by Erasmus+ Program, Key Action 2: Strategic Partnerships Grant awarded by the Czech National Agency acting under delegation by the European Commission. The Centre cooperates on this project with the above-mentioned universities from Israel, Germany, and Slovakia with Charles University as the main project coordinator and grant applicant.

Members of the Center are teaching courses on Jewish culture and Israel in both Czech and English. Among these are “Jewish Motives and Antisemitism in Czech Literature I-II;” “The Topic of the Shoa in Central European Literatures  I-II“, “The Holocaust in Czech and Slovak Feature Films” (in English), “The Holocaust in Film Adaptations” (in English), “Israel’s Diverse Society: Ethnicity, Gender and Religion” (in English), and “Czech-Israeli Literary, Cultural, and Diplomatic Crossroads in 20th and 21st Century.”

Numerous theses on Jewish literature and the Holocaust have been defended at the Institute of Czech Literature and Comparative Studies at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University. Three doctoral dissertations and several master’s and bachelor’s theses are currently in progress.

Members of the Centre are organizing Yiddish cultural events in České Budějovice. Since 2015, Yiddish Translation course is held for the interested public in the Café “Měsíc ve dne” and events during Jewish religious festivals about Yiddish culture were organized at the literary café “Měsíc ve dne”.

You can see a full report on ten years activities here: Report_Activities_10yrs_CSHJL

 

Facebook page: Jewish and Israel Studies in the Czech Republic

https://www.facebook.com/JewishIsraelStudiesCzechRepublic

Recent Media Mentions:

Radio programme about Jiří Weil (21.9. 2021)

Introduction to Handbook of Polish, Czech and Slovak Holocaust Fiction. Works and Contexts for AJS (with a short video, 4.1. 2022),

Radio programme from Nov 7th, 2021 about the Bergmann Conference https://regiony.rozhlas.cz/hugo-bergmann-v-praze-a-jeruzaleme-navstivte-teplicky-cimes-a-kdo-u-nas-zalozil-8615065;

https://zpravy.aktualne.cz/zahranici/mladi-zide-uz-nemaji-strach-ani-v-nemecku-rikaji-vedci/r~2a3c9cec3e8b11eaa24cac1f6b220ee8/

https://www.rozhlas.cz/nabozenstvi/zpravy/_zprava/rozpad-zidovskeho-zivota-167-dni-druhe-republiky–1676280

https://www.mmz-potsdam.de/files/MMZ-Potsdam/Bilder_Publikationen/DIALOG/Dialog%2082.pdf

https://regiony.rozhlas.cz/herzlovo-centrum-izraelskych-studii-nabarvene-ptace-evropska-asociace-8072346

 

Úvod > About us