Biblical sacrifices, European imperial borderlands, Roman architecture, and Iberian Conversos. Those are a few of the topics the 14 fellows at U-M’s Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies will research in 2014-15, when they gather around the theme of “Jews and Empires.”

Established through a financial contribution from the Jean and Samuel Frankel Jewish Heritage Foundation, the Frankel Institute provides annual fellowships for scholars and artists around the world to conduct research on a given theme.

With the goal of advancing Jewish studies globally, it remains the only program of its kind at a public university in the United States. Additionally, the institute offers lectures, symposia, art exhibitions, and musical performances to the public.

“The theme of ‘Jews and Empires,’ because it applies to Jewish experiences as imperial subjects in so many times and places — from ancient Roman and Persian empires to 20th century Russian and Ottoman empires — will bring together a particularly diverse group of scholars who rarely get an opportunity to talk to each other,” remarked Deborah Dash Moore, director of the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, which includes the institute. “It’s going to be a dynamite year.”

The new fellowship year will begin in September, and the topics of research promise to be fascinating.

For example, incoming fellow Reuven Kiperwasser, who teaches at the Open University of Israel, will travel to Ann Arbor to study Babylonian and Palestinian rabbis who emerged from the Roman and Sassanian empires.

“In order to accomplish this research project successfully, I need a supportive environment where I can express and exchange ideas with colleagues on the topics of my research and on related topics,” he said. “I believe that the Frankel Institute is an appropriate place for this. I anticipate a fruitful and enriching discourse within its environs.”

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