This paper offers pivotal parameters for an analysis of the contested institutionalization of Jewish theology in contemporary Germany, focusing on the founding and crisis of the School of Jewish Theology at the University of Potsdam, and seeks to situates this development within broader debates over the scientific status of theology and the conditions under which it gains institutional legitimacy in secular, democratic societies. The paper challenges essentialist accounts of both science and religion, and argues that the emergence of academic Jewish theology in Germany must be understood as part of a shifting landscape of Germany's social system of public knowledge, shaped by various factors, including political culture, communal authority, and contested epistemic norms.