from  Prof. Maren Niehoff (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

My GIF story echoes my research, collegial networks and even my own life. Born in Germany, I became the Max Cooper Professor of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University, teaching there since 1991. While my mother tongue is German, the mother tongue of my three daughters is Hebrew. I am a historian of ideas, specializing in cultural, linguistic and philosophical contacts of ancient Jews with their environment. Three areas of specialization have crystalized over the years: Philo of Alexandria, the first Jewish philosopher and Bible exegete; Paul, another Hellenistic Jew who communicated the Biblical heritage to Roman audiences, and early rabbinic literature, especially Genesis Rabbah. 

The GIF Grant for Young Scientists, which I received in 2003-5, was my second cooperation with a German university and laid the foundation for much research and cooperation to come. I was hosted by Prof. Christoph Markschies at the Humboldt University in Berlin and worked with him on the connections between the rabbinic Midrash Genesis Rabbah and the Church Father Origen, active most of his life in Caesarea next to the rabbis.

This cooperation led to a joint project on Rabbinic and Christian Bible exegesis, together with Prof. Christoph Markschies and Peter Schäfer,  which was funded by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung 2014-7. In 2018-9 Prof. Markschies invited me to join the newly founded Einstein Center CHRONOI in Berlin, where I became head of an Exploration with four research students in Jerusalem. Our work on “Time and Religious Identity in Late Antiquity” introduced several young researchers to cooperation with German colleagues. One of them just received as the first women ever a position in the Talmud Department of the Hebrew University. 

Presently, I am the co-head of another Exploration at the Einstein Center, this time focusing on “Creationism and the Calculation of Time in Late Antiquity” (2022-3). I have asked an Italian post-doc, Dr. Ludovica de Luca, to join me in the leadership of this project and develop collegial networks between Israel, Germany and Italy. 

I enjoy other cooperations in Germany, especially in Tübingen and München. In the former I served as the first Martin Hengel Fellow in 2018-9 and was awarded this year the Leopold Lucas Preis. In the latter I will spend a Sabbatical Semester in 2024 as a fellow of the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Stiftung.