About
The Salo W. and Jeannette M. Baron Awards for Scholarly Excellence in Research of the Jewish Experience were established at the University of Vienna in 2020. Generously supported by the Salo W. and Jeannette M. Baron Foundation/Knapp Family Foundation, the Awards recognise exceptional scholarship that advances our understanding of Jewish life and history in all their complexity.
The programme comprises the Senior Scholar Award, which honours distinguished scholarly achievements, and the Young Scholar Award, which supports outstanding early-career research through a funded research stay at the University of Vienna's Department of Jewish Studies. Together, they celebrate established excellence while fostering the next generation of scholarship on the Jewish experience.
Sponsor
The Knapp Family Foundation, established in 1979, and the Salo W. and Jeannette M. Baron Foundation, established in 1987, share a commitment to advancing education in Jewish history and culture. Through their support of the Baron Awards, the Foundations recognise pathbreaking scholarship that explores the Jewish experience in original and illuminating ways. This work rests on the conviction that the study of Jewish history can also deepen our understanding of the human condition and foster greater understanding across societies.
Charles Knapp presents the 2025 Baron Awards in Vienna.
Salo W. and Jeannette M. Baron
Salo Wittmayer Baron (1895–1989) was one of the most influential Jewish historians of the twentieth century. Born in Tarnów, Galicia, he studied in Vienna before joining Columbia University in 1930, where he held the first university chair in Jewish history in the United States. His scholarship ranged across centuries and continents, most notably in his eighteen-volume A Social and Religious History of the Jews. Rejecting what he termed the “lachrymose conception” of Jewish history, Baron emphasised not only persecution and suffering, but also Jewish creativity, resilience, community, and renewal.
Jeannette Meisel Baron (1911–1985) was a scholar of economics and history in her own right and Salo Baron’s closest intellectual collaborator. The two met while she was pursuing doctoral research in economics at Columbia University and married in 1934. Jeannette contributed extensively to the research, editing, and preparation of Baron’s publications, and their sustained scholarly partnership was fundamental to his work. The Awards bear both their names in recognition of this shared intellectual legacy and of the collaborative nature of scholarship.
Jeannette M. and Salo W. Baron in close collaboration.
Advisory Board
The Baron Award Advisory Board brings together internationally established scholars from relevant fields and recent recipients of the Baron Senior Scholar Award. It selects the Senior Scholar laureate from among nominated candidates and evaluates applications for the Young Scholar Award, ensuring that both distinctions are awarded on the basis of scholarly excellence.
The current Board comprises the following members:
- Elisheva Baumgarten, HUJI
- Michael Brenner, American University/LMU Munich
- Manuela Consonni, HUJI
- Armin Lange, University of Vienna
- Lawrence H. Schiffman, NYU
- Michael Segal, HUJI
- Sarah Abrevaya Stein, UCLA
Founding Board members included:
- Elisheva Carlebach, Columbia University
- Judith Olszowy-Schlanger, Oxford University
- Dina Porat, Tel Aviv University
Project leader
Armin Lange is Professor of Second Temple Judaism at the University of Vienna, where his research focuses on ancient Judaism, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and historical and contemporary antisemitism. Following his collaboration with Charles Knapp on the 2018 international conference An End to Antisemitism!, he initiated the Salo W. and Jeannette M. Baron Awards and continues to lead the programme.
Department of Jewish Studies
Spitalgasse 2, Court 7.3
1090 Vienna
Room: 2L O2 17
Executive coordinator
Dr Kerstin Mayerhofer is a scholar of Jewish Studies and cultural historian at the University of Vienna, specialising in the intersections of religion, gender, and race. As Executive coordinator of both An End to Antisemitism! and the Salo W. and Jeannette M. Baron Awards, Kerstin has played a central role in turning their academic vision into sustained international programmes, overseeing their development, selection processes, events, and public presence.
Department of Jewish Studies
Spitalgasse 2, Court 7.3
1090 Vienna
Room: 2L O2 27
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Contact
Please direct all enquiries concerning the Awards to baronawards.judaistik(at)univie.ac.at. Please note that this inbox is monitored intermittently and allow up to 76 hours for a response.
Location
Department of Jewish Studies
University Campus Vienna
Spitalgasse 2, Court 7.3, 1090 Vienna