Birgit Klein

Birgit Klein serves as Professor and Chair of Jewish History at the Heidelberg University of Jewish Studies since 2006. Ordained as a rabbi from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (2017), she holds dual expertise in academic scholarship and religious leadership within Jewish studies.

Her educational trajectory includes:

• Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters (Rabbi), Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, USA (2017)
• Habilitation in Jewish Studies, Free University of Berlin (2006)
• Doctorate in Jewish Studies, Gerhard Mercator University of Duisburg (1998)
• Master of Arts in Jewish Studies, University of Jewish Studies Heidelberg (1991)
• Studies in Judaic studies, theology, and classical philology across Jerusalem and Heidelberg

Professor Klein's research pioneers interdisciplinary approaches to Jewish history, with particular focus on Early Modern German-speaking regions. Her work interrogates gender dynamics through legal frameworks like Jewish marriage and inheritance law, explores global Jewish entanglement through case studies like Sephardic communities in Curaçao, and examines religious autonomy through judicial practices. She innovatively bridges social, economic, and mentalité history to reconstruct Jewish lived experiences from antiquity to modernity.

Her publications reveal evolving scholarly priorities: early work centered on medieval legal autonomy and gender relations, while recent research engages contemporary ethical debates (end-of-life care, circumcision), spatial practices (Eruv construction), and Holocaust-era cultural resistance. This trajectory demonstrates consistent methodological rigor applied to expanding thematic territories within Jewish historical studies.

Her scientific recognition includes:

• Marsilius-Kolleg Fellowship, Heidelberg University (2022-2023)
• Whizin Prize in Jewish Ethics (2017)
• Weiner Family Fellowship at University of Pennsylvania (2011)
• Albert Steeger Prize (2004)

Professor Klein maintains active research leadership through editorial roles in major reference works and advisory positions with national institutions. Her dual rabbinical-academic identity uniquely informs her scholarship on Jewish legal traditions and contemporary religious practice.

She contributes to academic governance as member of scientific boards for the German Historical Museum (2010-2020), Topography of Terror Foundation, and Central Archive for Research on German Jewry, while maintaining rabbinical affiliations with the Allgemeine Rabbinerkonferenz and Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association.