Lecture
Professor Xu Xin
Monday 22.06.2026
Professor Xu Xin
Jewish Scholarship in Chinese Universities
Monday 22.06.2026
Summary
A survey on Judaic Studies programs in Chinese universities since the 1980s, focusing on the background leading to their rise, an analysis of their goals and achievements, and possible developments in the future.
Professor Xu Xin
Xu Xin, Diane and Guilford Glazer Chair Professor of Jewish and Israel Studies and Founding and Honorary Director of the Institute of Jewish/Israel Studies at Nanjing University, China, is President of the China Judaic Studies Association, Editor-in-Chief and a major contributor of the Chinese edition Encyclopedia Judaica. He is author of A History of Western Culture (2002), The Jews of Kaifeng, China: History, Culture, and Religion (2003), Anti-Semitism: Past and Present (2016), Aliens in a Strange land: Jews and Modern China (2017), and A Concise History of Israel (2026).
He teaches courses such as Jewish history, Anti-semitism, Jewish culture and Judaism and has both MA and Ph.D. programs at Nanjing University. He served as a Fellow or a visiting scholar at Hebrew Union College, Harvard University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Bar-Ilan University, and Tel Aviv University. He has organized many exhibitions and conferences on Jewish topics in China. His activities in promoting the study of Jewish subjects among the Chinese have been supported by a number of foundations.
In 1995, he was honored “James Friend Memorial Award.” In 2003, Bar-Ilan University awarded him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Honoris Causa in recognition of the extremely important work he has done on research of the Jewish people in China.