Prof. Dr. Ze’ev Strauss Awarded Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize

Ze'ev Strauss has been a junior professor of Jewish religion at Universität Hamburg since 1 April 2022. Among other things, his research focuses on Jewish Hellenism, its Philosophy of Religion, and its links to rabbinic literature, in particular Philo of Alexandria, Haskalah and Wissenschaft des Judentums (Science of Judaism).

The DFG honors Strauss' research, which "investigates how traditional Jewish and Christian ideas are related and interlaced, thus historically re-embedding the discussion about the equality of Jewish citizens and the development of modern anti-Semitism."

"I congratulate Prof. Dr. Ze'ev Strauss on his well-deserved success. The prize ranks among the most generously funded achievements for early career researchers in Germany. His success as a junior professor of Jewish religion highlights an important subject area and shows that excellent research is conducted across all disciplines at Universität Hamburg," says University President Prof. Dr. Hauke Heekeren.

Ze'ev Strauss studied philosophy at Heidelberg University and Jewish studies at the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg. In 2017, he completed his doctoral degree at Heidelberg University with a dissertation titled Aufhellung des Judentums im Platonismus zu den jüdisch-platonischen Quellen des Deutschen Idealismus, dargestellt anhand von Hegels Auseinandersetzung mit Philon von Alexandria. Ze'ev Strauss was a postdoctoral research associate at Universität Hamburg's Institute for Jewish Philosophy and Religion until 2019. Following a visiting professorship at the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg, he was a postdoctoral research associate at the University's Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies of Universität Hamburg from 2020-22.

Since April 2022, Strauss has been a junior professor at Universität Hamburg. In the middle of 2024, he will start the new junior research group Emancipatio Rabbinica: Die Stellung der rabbinischen Literatur in den Debatten über den Status der Juden in der Moderne (1600-1900) im italienischen, deutschen und osteuropäischen Kontext within the DFG-funded Emmy Noether Program.

The Heinz Maier-Leibnitz-Preis is named after the physicist and former president of the German Research Foundation and has been awarded since 1977 to honor researchers at an early stage of their career. The prize is intended to encourage and help recipients boost their academic career. Every year, ten prizes worth €200,000 are awarded. The prize money can be used for further academic research for up to 3 years. The award ceremony in Berlin is scheduled for 4 June 2024.

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