Long-standing cooperation between Menachem Fisch and Christian Wiese receives an institutional framework
Official launch of the Frankfurt-Tel Aviv Center for the Study of Religious and Interreligious Dynamics

In December 2022, the Frankfurt-Tel Aviv Center for the Study of Religious and Interreligious was officially launched. During a two-day conference, university presidents Enrico Schleiff of Goethe University and Ariel Porat of Tel Aviv University signed a cooperation agreement. The founding of the center, which will be operated jointly by the two universities, was the initiative of Menachem Fisch and Christian Wiese. The Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften has supported their close cooperation on interreligious dynamics in history and the present for many years.

The initiators of the new center Prof. Menachem Fisch (left) and Prof. Christian Wiese. (Photo: Tel Aviv University)

The cooperation agreement for the founding of the Frankfurt-Tel Aviv Center for the Study of Religious and Interreligious Dynamics was signed in Tel Aviv on December 19, 2022 in the context of a scientific conference. The conference title »Thinking Interreligiously. The Many Faces of Interreligious Interaction« is programmatic for the new center, which will be concerned with the multi-layered relationships – the interconnections, commonalities and differences – among the religions in history and the present. The center will focus on the three monotheistic religions Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Christian Wiese, holder of the Martin Buber Professorship for Jewish Philosophy of Religion at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, and Menachem Fisch, Professor emeritus of History and Philosophy of Science at Tel Aviv University and Director of the Center for Religious and Interreligious Studies there conceived the conference. Both are closely associated with the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften: Wiese is member of the Kolleg’s board of directors and Fisch is a Senior Fellow. Together with Matthias Lutz-Bachmann, the director of the Forschungskolleg, they lead the research focus »Interdisciplinary Study of Religions« at the Kolleg.

Matthias Lutz-Bachmann emphasizes: »For many years, the Forschungskolleg has supported interdisciplinary research on religions at Goethe University in cooperation with international partners. We are very pleased that the founding of the German-Israeli Center has now emerged from this context. The specific feature of the research center is that it will be established and operated jointly by both universities.«

The establishment of the new center has a long history. The plan to establish a German-Israeli institute dedicated to the study of interreligious dynamics emerged during several years of exchange between Menachem Fisch and Christian Wiese, including during Fisch’s research stays at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften in 2013 and 2016/17. The signing of the cooperation agreement in December 2022 marks the conclusion of this process. The university partnership is initially limited to three years in order to serve the development of the new center. Plans are to increase networking among researchers through joint symposia and conferences. In addition, the center will help develop cooperative master’s programs in religious studies at both universities. The center will be financed with EUR 50,000 annually from Goethe University and EUR 20,000 from Tel Aviv University.

Further information:
Press release of Goethe University on the center’s launch
Conference program »Thinking Interreligiously. The Many Faces of Interreligious Interaction«
FKH research focus »Interdisciplinary Study of Religions«