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The Centre was founded in 1972 by Dr David Patterson, then Cowley Lecturer in post-Biblical Hebrew, and thereafter the Centre's President until his retirement in 1992. The University of Oxford, while strongly welcoming David's initiative, emphasised that the Centre must be financially self-supporting as there was no scope for allocating funds from the University's central budget. This has remained the position to the present day.
The Centre was originally based at the Oriental Institute in Pusey Lane, Oxford, later moving to rented premises at 45 St Giles' (a building owned by St John's College) in order to accommodate the increase in staff numbers and to provide more teaching rooms. At the same time the Centre acquired in 1973, through the generous action of the Charles Wolfson Charitable Trust, the use of Yarnton Manor, an early seventeenth-century house and rural estate just outside Oxford. (For further details on the history of Yarnton Manor, follow this link)
The Charles Wolfson Charitable Trust owned the estate from 1973 to 1991. In the latter year the generosity of another donor enabled the Centre to purchase the property. Today the Manor House is used for teaching and administration, the barn has been converted into a library, and the various cottages house students and visiting academics. Ricardo House, a purpose-built accommodation block comprising sixteen study-bedrooms, was added in 1992. At Exeter Farm, a property situated along the Cassington Road, there was a large stone barn which was converted into an annexe of the Library and extra accommodation. Having been used for several years, this property was sold by the Centre in 2006, when the house next door to the Manor, Perry Orchard, was purchased. In 2002 the Charles Wolfson Charitable Trust presented the Centre with further real estate bordering the Manor: 45 acres of agricultural land together with some derelict buildings at Mead Farm. These have been converted into additional residential premises and a storage facility for the Library. The site has been renamed Manor Farm, to avoid confusion with Mead Farmhouse, a privately owned residence next door.
Meanwhile, the Centre's physical integration with the University was accomplished in the autumn of 2000, with the formation of the Oxford University Teaching and Research Unit in Hebrew and Jewish Studies. Now known as the Hebrew and Jewish Studies Unit of the University of Oxford, it is housed on the third floor of the Oriental Institute, the construction of which was funded by the Centre's supporters. The Centre was designated a Recognized Independent Centre of the University of Oxford in 2006.
The One-Year Programme in Jewish Studies (as it was initially called) began in 1985 as a 'junior year abroad' course. In 1993-94 it became a graduate course leading to the University of Oxford's Diploma in Jewish Studies. The Diploma was appropriately re-designated as a Masters degree (MSt) in Jewish Studies from the academic year 2002-2003 onwards. The re-designation also means that students at the Centre are now fully 'matriculated' in the University, becoming members of an Oxford college while continuing to be accommodated at Yarnton. College membership greatly facilitates social integration with the Oxford student body at large.
Since the programme's inception, about three hundred students from all over the world have spent an academic year at Yarnton. Some have thereafter pursued Jewish Studies to doctoral level and have become university teachers; others have worked as school educators, project leaders, writers and researchers; a few have undergone rabbinical training.
The Centre offers a number of visiting fellowships and (non-stipendiary) scholarships each year for established academics to work on particular projects and make use of Oxford libraries and other facilities. During the past three decades nearly six hundred academic visitors have spent time in residence at the Centre, typically for a period of about six months. Their research interests have encompassed all areas of Hebrew and Jewish Studies and they have greatly enhanced the academic life of the Centre. A full list of the visiting faculty covering 1972-2002 was compiled in March 2003, and is available on request.
David Patterson, the Centre's Founder-President, was awarded the CBE for services to Jewish Studies in the Queen's Birthday Honours List of June 2003.
David Patterson, 1922-2005