Is there such a thing as a 'European academic world'? The European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) operates on the principle that there is, and this volume is an attempt to present the facts on which this conviction is based. The eight plenary lectures delivered at the EAJS Congress of 2002 all dealt with the past, present and, in some measure, future of Jewish Studies as they developed in Spain, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Eastern Europe and Russia, and the United Kingdom: a pan-European perspective concludes the whole. At the opening ceremony of the congress, in the "Esnoga" (Portuguese Synagogue) of Amsterdam, two further addresses were held, which both illustrate the firm rootedness of European Jewish culture in its European surroundings, as exemplified by the history and culture of the Amsterdam Portuguese Jewish community.