Officer for the Prevention of Antisemitism

Prof. Dr. Lutz Edzard
Chair of Arabic and Semitic Studies
Bismarckstr. 1
91054 Erlangen

+49 9131 85-22444

www.orientalistik.phil.fau.de/person/lutz-edzard/

Duties of the Officer for the Prevention of Antisemitism

Due to the social responsibility resulting from the history of antisemitism that also occurred at FAU and through the commitment FAU makes in its mission statement (“Meeting all university members with appreciation regardless of gender, sexual identity, ethnic origin, religious confession or worldview, social origin, age or health impairment”), the Officer for the Prevention of Antisemitism is responsible for the practical implementation and communication of zero tolerance towards antisemitism at FAU. Among other things, the Officer is a point of contact in the event of antisemitic concerns and for Jewish students, researchers, and faculty, as well as all other employees. The position includes representation in various committees, as well as collaboration with the Jewish communities of the Nuremberg Metropolitan Region, ministries, NGOs, professors, liaison lecturers, prosecutors, the Center for Teacher Education, and the Office of Equality and Diversity. The Officer for the Prevention of Antisemitism liaises with the Executive Board, and exercises the powers they assign to him.

Please also refer to the Website of the FAU Office of Equality and Diversity

CV of Prof. Dr. Lutz Edzard

After completing his MA in Semitic Studies, Arabic Studies, Theoretical Linguistics, Logic and Philosophy of Science, Prof. Edzard completed a PhD in Arabic and Semitic Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley at the Department of Near Eastern Studies in 1992. In 1999, he completed his habilitation in Semitic Studies at the University of Bonn. From 1994 to 1995, he was a visiting scholar at the United Nations (Translation and Editorial Division) and at New York University as well as a lecturer on teaching assignments for Arabic and Semitic Studies at the University of Bonn until 2002. He became Professor of Semitic Linguistics at the University of Oslo in 2002. In 2013, he was appointed Chair of Arabic Studies and Semitic Studies at FAU, where he teaches Modern Hebrew in addition to Arabic.

Prof. Edzard is an ordinary member of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and co-publisher of the Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics online (Brill), Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies, the Porta Linguarum Orientalium (Harrassowitz) as well as co-publisher for Arabic and Semitic Studies of the magazine of the German Oriental Society (Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft). In conjunction with Prof. Ofra Tirosh-Becker from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he has published a volume about Jewish language variants such as Yiddish, Ladino, Jewish-Aramaic, and Jewish-Arabic.

He has been the Officer for the Prevention of Antisemitism at FAU since July 2024.