The Center for the Study of Jewish Art and Culture was founded in 2016 and is dedicated to the research and development of curriculum related to questions of Jewish art and culture as a complex phenomenon. In the broadest sense, the Center is dedicated to contextualized study of Jewish material and visual culture belonging to the spheres of public representation and the private, the sacral and the profane, from the teritorry of southeastern Europe and beyond – taking into accunt the diverse modes of expressing the Jewish identity. In terms of chronology and geography, the Center deals with studies of visual culture created among the late antique and medieval Romaniote communities, through that of the Sephardic Jews coming from the Pyrennes to the Balkans, to Jewish communities of the early modern and modern era, with special emphasis on the area of southeastern Europe. The research undertaken by the Center will take into account both the high and institutionalized visual culture, as well as the popular and folklore, including various aspects of devotional, sacral and profane space, the world of material and objects of art, funerary art in all its guises, memorial art and the culture of memory, as well as the different aspects and relations between verbal and visual culture, including, finally, the field of Holcaust studies.

All activities of the Center are based on internationally recognized methodology, with a particular employ of and an emphasis on intercultural, comparative and multidisciplinary approaches typical of contemporary culture studies and with an awareness of all achievements of relevant humanistic disciplines.Beside the above mentioned, another significant goal of the Center is the realization of academic cooperation through joint research projects carried out in cooperation with similar research centers, universities, academic networks, and cultural institutions at home and abroad. As an institution which is also involved in education and popularization of science in the field of Jewish studies, the Center will strive to enhance the development of this academic field at the Universty of Belgrade and to answer the needs of its students through study programs, educational activities, workshops and specialiazed courses.