Ok, here is what I understand about Hibernate Filters.

1. You can define them (staticly) in mapping files, and attach them either at a class level or collection level.

2. You can create them (dynamically) by calling createFilter() on a session. However, this is only at a collection level.

By question then is, is there a way to dynamically create a filter on a session but at a class level?

Theoretically, it could be done. At configuration time, you could create a FilterDefinition object, then add it to Configuration.getFilterDefinitions. The problem with that is that it's not very dynamic, as it can only be done before the session factory is created.