Arcadia’s first grant, made out in 2005, supported the publication of Professor Joseph Dan’s multi-volume history of Jewish mysticism. The grant enabled the centre to perform research for the Hebrew volumes, which deal with Antiquity and the start of the Middle Ages. In 2008, Arcadia decided to continue its support for the next phase of the project: the first three volumes dealing with the Middle Ages. These volumes will, similarly to the time line of the previous project, be completed and published in the next three years.

Professor Dan is one of the world’s most influential contemporary scholars of Jewish mysticism. He writes in both English and Hebrew. His English volumes will be published by Oxford University Press (New York).

PROJECT UPDATE:

In 2011, we awarded Professor Dan a repeat grant of $150,000 to support the research and publication of volumes seven, eight and nine of the History of Jewish Mysticism.

This will bring the work up to the end of the Middle Ages and complete the analysis of nearly two millennia of Jewish creativity in this field.