Starting in the 2025-2026 academic year, the École du Louvre will offer enrollment in a brand-new course on the arts and archaeology of Judaism, thanks to the support of the Etrillard Foundation.
The Etrillard Foundation has indeed concluded a six-year partnership to fund this new specialized chair, whose classes will be open to undergraduate students and auditors.
The École du Louvre offers its undergraduate students and auditors courses organized into “specialized chairs”, designed to deepen knowledge in a specific field over three years. Until now, there were thirty-one of these specialized chairs.
The thirty-second specialized course, focusing on the arts and archaeology of Judaism, fulfills a dual purpose: first, to raise awareness and appreciation of the results of work by archaeologists and art historians, public collections, and more broadly, the heritage of Jewish worlds, in all their diversity from Antiquity to the present day. Second, to train future specialists for the Judaica collections in French museums, which are little known and often still poorly studied, and for the rich architectural heritage of Judaism.
This new specialized chair is designed for undergraduate students at the École du Louvre and is structured around an organic course, a synthesis course, and practical tutorials. The organic course has the distinction of also being open to auditors.
The organic course entrusted to Dominique Jarassé is entitled “An Art Without Territory? Synagogues, an Architecture of Jewish Identity”. This 20-hour course is directly linked to current research.
The synthesis course, structured cyclically over three years (at a rate of 20 hours per year), covers various fields (archaeology, Judaica, built heritage). It will be taught starting in the fall of 2025 by Paul Salmona and focuses on the archaeology of ancient and medieval Judaism.
Finally, the practical tutorials, whose syllabus is closely aligned with the organic course, are taught by Anaëlle Gobinet-Choukroune. These classes aim to facilitate the assimilation of knowledge and to develop the methodology applied to the chosen specialty.
The selection of teachers was carried out by the management and the department of studies of the École du Louvre, in conjunction with the management of the Museum of Jewish Art and History.
The project to create a chair dedicated to the arts and archaeology of Judaism is fully in line with the Etrillard Foundation’s mission, as it strives to reveal and promote the relevance of cultural heritage, particularly European, in the contemporary world. By encouraging and supporting academic research, the aim is to foster the transmission of knowledge and the rediscovery and preservation of heritage and works related to Jewish history and culture.
The Foundation is honored to contribute to a field of knowledge that is fundamental to the understanding of history and art history, a field that currently has no higher education chair in France, unlike in some of our European neighbors.
“This chair appeared essential to us, as it fills a gap between the existing specializations in Islamic art and the art of Eastern Christians. We hope that many students and auditors will enroll in it,” states Miguel Perez de Guzman, General Delegate of the Etrillard Foundation.
The Etrillard Foundation also supports the École du Louvre via the “Arts of the Past / Arts of the Present” Doctoral Research Fellowship, as well as living grants to assist students in precarious situations.
To enroll in the Arts and Archaeology of Judaism classes as an auditor, click on this link: www.ecoledulouvre.fr
