Following a festive inauguration of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1925, Jewish scholars who formed the Governing Council of the Institute of Jewish Studies discussed the need to create an international organization representing all aspects of Jewish studies. A member of the Council - Mojżesz Schorr (1874-1941)—a distinguished historian and a Warsaw rabbi—took the initial steps in designing the future “World Congress of Jewish Studies.” In the summer of 1928, he circulated his ideas among leading Jewish intellectuals worldwide. Schorr argued that such a congress had become necessary given the rapid growth of the field and the “spiritual renaissance of the Jewish people.” Indeed, like other full-fledged scholarly disciplines, Jewish studies merited an organized forum.

Cyrus Adler (1863-1940)—one of the addressees of the proposal—voiced numerous reservations or, as he put it in his letter to Schorr in January 1929, “I do not find myself very much in sympathy with this idea.” Pointing to the limited financial resources available to Jewish scholars worldwide and in particular the lack of “Government patronage,” Adler opted for focusing resources on already existing scholarly initiatives. Moreover, he suggested a more grass-roots approach, with “local academies” serving as the organizing principle for Jewish studies. While Adler’s response focuses on the structural weaknesses of Jewish studies and its practitioners, the debate with Schorr allows us to see the maturing of international academic networks and the influence of institutional models borrowed from other, more established fields.