A new Centre for Global Jewish Studies has been created at the University of Warwick.

Co-directors Dr Anna Hájková and Professor Stephen Shapiro say that the Centre’s goal is to increase awareness, promote conversation, and lead research into the richness and variety of Jewish heritage and experience across time and place.

Its founding directors aim to look beyond academia and engage the local community and the public at large with Global Jewish Studies in creative and innovative ways.

Professor Shapiro said: “We believe this will be one of the first centres in the UK which explicitly dedicates itself to an open horizon.”

“We want to welcome the diversity that is the Jewish life and history and hope to place the Centre at the heart of a welcoming community of established and emerging researchers, non-academic university personnel, and the wider public.”

The Centre is committed to presenting the full ethnic and racial diversity of the Jewish community in its work, foregrounding diverse Jewish voices and points of view, as Dr Hájková stated: “We also plan to undertake comparative studies and engagement with other groups sharing or studying related histories of marginalization and discrimination.”