From 1852 to 1855 Steinthal resided in Paris, where he devoted himself to the study of Chinese, and in 1863 he was appointed assistant professor at the Berlin University; from 1872 he was also privat-dozent in critical history of the Old Testament and in religious philosophy at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judenthums.

Steinthal was one of the directors (from 1883) of the Deutsch-Israelitischer Gemeindebund [de], and had charge of the department of religious instruction in various small congregations.

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Chajim H. Steinthal's death, an international, interdisciplinary conference, organized by the Leopold-Zunz-Zentrum zur Erforschung des europäischen Judentums (LEUCOREA Stiftung, Wittenberg), the Synagogue Museum Gröbzig and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, was held December 1–4, 1999, at Schloss Wendgräben (Saxony-Anhalt, Germany).

The conference volume was published by Brill and contains papers presented in the fields of linguistics, philosophy, Jewish studies and history as well as an inventory of Steinthal’s papers in the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem.

[1] Steinthal's principal works are: The first volume of his Gesammelte Kleine Schriften appeared at Berlin in 1880.