The College of Jewish Studies in Heidelberg, http://www.hjs.uni-heidelberg.de, was founded in 1979 to revitalize research and study in the field of Jewish culture, history and religion in Germany, following in the tradition of the Academy for the Science of Judaism in Berlin. It is also a centre of training for scholars, teachers of Jewish religion and rabbis. It is run by the Council of Jews in Germany and enjoys public status as an education provider.

The College of Jewish Studies, which is open to applicants of any denomination and celebrated its 25th anniversary in November 2004, works in close partnership with the University of Heidelberg. It also maintains academic relations with various universities abroad, especially in Israel and the United States. It regularly organizes international conferences and publishes an academic journal (Trumah).

The extensive library held by the College of Jewish Studies has an important role to play in research into Judaism. It contains about 50,000 volumes, the principal themes being the Bible and biblical archaeology, Jewish theology and philosophy, anti-Semitism, prayers, customs, rabbinic literature, Jewish art, Hebrew and Yiddish philology and literature, the history of the Jewish people, contemporary Judaism and sociology. It is thereby able to do justice to its reputation as an outstanding German collection in the field of Jewish studies.