Marko Feingold Award
To mark the 100th birthday of the late President of the Jewish Community of Salzburg (Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Salzburg), Hofrat Marko Feingold (1913–2019), the City of Salzburg, the Province of Salzburg, and the University of Salzburg established the Marko Feingold Award in 2013.
The award, endowed with €4,500, is aimed at early-career researchers from all disciplines within Jewish Studies, including historians, scholars of literature and art, philosophers, linguists, scholars of religion, Judaic studies researchers and related fields.
Eligible dissertations should explore a topic relating to Jewish history, culture or religion from a cultural and social sciences perspective. Particular emphasis is placed on the lived experiences of Jewish individuals and communities, as well as their contributions to politics, business, academia, culture and the arts, language, literature and religious discourse within society. Research may also address themes such as persecution and displacement, the Shoah, exile and diaspora experiences.
The Marko Feingold Award represents a distinction of great significance for the University. Marko Feingold was an exceptional personality, particularly in the way he engaged with and communicated his experiences. The award commemorates his outstanding commitment to the ideals and practice of peace, reconciliation and understanding between peoples and religious communities, as well as his invaluable contribution as a contemporary witness who shared his knowledge through lectures in schools and in public settings.
At the same time, the award honours Feingold’s remarkable historical achievements as a leading representative and long-serving president of the Jewish Community of Salzburg, recognising his pivotal role in its re-establishment and development following the difficult years of persecution and displacement.
Award Recipients
Information on previous award recipients can be found below.
2014
The German historian Jacob Eder of the University of Jena was awarded the principal prize, endowed with €3,000, for his outstanding doctoral thesis, Holocaust Angst: The Federal Republic of Germany and the Memory of the Holocaust in the United States, 1977–1998, which examines Germany’s engagement with Holocaust remembrance in the United States.
The recognition award, endowed with €1,500, was presented to the German theologian Susanne Lechner Masser for her doctoral thesis on picture books and educational programmes for Jewish children.
Press release: Germany and the Memory of the Holocaust in the United States – University of Salzburg
2016
The art historian Annika Wienert was honoured for her doctoral thesis on the architecture of National Socialist extermination camps. In her research, she examined the architectural structures of the Nazi extermination camps Bełżec, Sobibór and Treblinka. Wienert completed her doctoral studies at the Institute of Art History of Ruhr University Bochum.
Press release: The Architecture of Nazi Extermination Camps – University of Salzburg
2019
The Austrian historian Eva Reder studied history in Vienna and Poznań. In 2019, she was awarded the Marko Feingold Award for her doctoral thesis, “Pogroms in the Shadow of Polish State Formation, 1918–20 and 1945/46: Triggers, Motives and Practices of Violence”.
Press release: Award for Two Female Historians – University of Salzburg
Photos from the event can be found in our Flickr album on the 2019 Marko Feingold Award.
2022
The German historian Anne-Christin Klotz was awarded the Marko Feingold Award in 2022 for her doctoral thesis, “Gemeinsam gegen Deutschland. Warschaus jiddische Presse im Kampf gegen den Nationalsozialismus (1930–1941)” (United Against Germany: Warsaw’s Yiddish Press in the Struggle Against National Socialism, 1930–1941).
Press release: Award for Two Female Historians – University of Salzburg
Photos from the event can be found in our Flickr album for the Marko Feingold Award 2022.
2025
In 2025, the Marko Feingold Award was presented to two recipients whose doctoral theses were deemed worthy of distinction by an expert jury comprising historians from the Universities of Salzburg, Vienna, Jena and Tübingen.
Dr Rotem Avneri Meir received the award for his outstanding dissertation, The Emergence of the Seleucid Empire on the Margins of the Seleucid Empire. The jury also recognised the dissertation of Dr Jan Thorben Wilkens, entitled Queer Jewish Groups in Europe and their Network of Jewish Queers (1972–1990s), as being of exceptional merit.
Press release: Presentation of the Marko Feingold Award 2025 – University of Salzburg
Photos from the event can be found in our Flickr album for the Marko Feingold Award 2025.
