Schusterman Center for Israel Studies

Manal Totry-Jubran, Bar Ilan University : Challenges of the Middle-Class Flight of the Arab Minority in Israel. Watch the Recording

Karen Grumberg, The University of Texas at Austin : Gothic Narratives of Israel / Palestine in Hebrew Novels by Ayman Sikseck and Alon Hilu 

Caroline Kahlenberg, University of Virginia : Ribhi Kamal: The Predicament of an Arab Hebraist

Jonathan Ghariani, Brandeis University : A Diplomatic History of Turkish-Israeli Relations, 1996-2022.  Watch the Recording

 : “Side by Side”: Nurturing Intercultural Competence among Palestinian and Jewish Teachers in Israel. Watch the Recording

Dana Von Suffrin, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich : Making the Desert Bloom: Otto Warburg and 'Botanical Zionism,' c. 1900-1930 

Noah Hysler Rubin, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem: Digitizing Jerusalem’s Archives: Urban Heritage in the Age of Digital Culture.

Emma Polyakov, Merrimack College: The Nun in the Synagogue: Judeocentric Catholicism in Israel. Watch the recording.

Emmanuel Bloch, Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania: Tsni'ut (Modesty): Between Law and Ideology in Israeli Orthodox Communities. Watch the recording.

Talia Diskin, University of Haifa: The Law and The Child: Legal and Moral Discourse in Children’s Weeklies in Israel’s First Decade.

Pnina Lahav, Boston University: Golda Meir: A Feminist Biography. Watch the recording.

Ori Yehudai, The Ohio State University: "A Day of Blood and Valor": Terrorism and Social Tensions in 1970s Israel. Watch the recording.

Tamar Sella, Rice University: Reorienting Diasporic Lineage: Queer and Femme Arab-Jewish Performance. 

Maham Ayaz, Brandeis University: Land, Nation, and Individual Rights in Israel, after Basic Law: Human Dignity. Watch the recording.

Sonia Gollance, University College London: Jewish Masculinity in the Zionist Ballroom. Watch the recording.

Mikhal Dekel, The City College of New York: Tehran Children: A Holocaust Refugee Odyssey

Yair Lorberbaum, Bar Ilan University: The Barak Court's Revolution in Legal Interpretation at the Crossroads of Legal Theory and Israeli Politics

Keren Friedman-Peleg, College of Management Academic Studies: Trauma and Resilience in Israel's Southern Periphery

David Weisburd, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem: Tel Aviv - Jaffa and the Law of Crime Concentration

Gary Samore, Brandeis University: Israel and Nuclear Weapons: Maintaining the Monopoly

Rachel Fish, Paul E. Singer Foundation: Rav Froman’s Vision: One Land, Two Peoples 

Jason Lustig, Harvard University: Who will be the successors to European Jewry? Israeli Archives and the European Jewish Cultural Legacy

Tally Kritzman-Amir, Harvard University: Seeking Asylum in Israel: Border Policies in a Comparative Context

Marik Shtern, University of California San Diego and Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research: Between the Wall and the Mall: Israelis and Palestinians in Post-Oslo Jerusalem

Orna Sasson-Levy, Bar-Ilan University: Gendered citizenship: the case of women breaking the silence

Omri Asscher, University of California, Los Angeles: Reading across Borders: Israel, America, and the Politics of Translation between Jews

Elizabeth Imber, The College of Idaho: Empire of uncertainty: Zionism, British imperialism, and the future of the Yishuv

Alexander Kaye, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University: The Theological Origins of Religious-Secular Conflict in Israel

Randa Abbas, Western Galilee Academic College: Israel as a Rainbow of Cultures and Traditions Druze Women as Part of a Minority    

Steve Kaplan, Hebrew University of Jerusalem: Falasha, Beta Israel, Ethiopian Jews: Models and Methods

Eva Gurevich, Brandeis University doctoral candidate: Post-1967 Secular Messianism in Israeli Politics and Culture

Eilon Schwartz, Hebrew University of Jerusalem: Between Racists and Traitors: A Search for a Politics of the Common Good  

Walker Robins, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies: Between Dixie and Zion: Southern Baptists' Palestine Questions

Zvi Zohar, Bar-Ilan University: Why Don't Israelis in the Negev Observe Two Days of Yom Tov?

 Shayna Weiss, United States Naval Academy: Holy Waters: The Controversy over Jerusalem's First Public Pool

Rifat Azam: The Israeli Supreme Court and the Challenges of Equality in Israel as a Jewish and Democratic State

Karen Spira, Brandeis University doctoral candidate: “The best place for any child”: Evolving Attitudes Toward Orphanhood in the Pre-state Yishuv

Tamara Wittes, Brookings Institution: Lessons from the Trenches – Bridging the Academic-Policy Divide in US Mideast Policy

Gil Rubin, Harvard University: Vladimir Ze'ev Jabotinsky between Eastern Europe and Palestine

Mikhael Manekin, Israel Tomorrow: The Depoliticization of the Israeli Left – How Money and Institutions Drove the Peace Camp Away from Israeli Political Discourse and Power

Yair Ettinger: Haredim in Israel – Ideology or Sociology

Dorit Rabinyan: Dorit Rabinyan on her novel "All the Rivers"

Itamar Lurie, Israeli Psychoanalytic Society: A De-Stabilizing Encounter – The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict in the Therapeutic Context

Sharon Shalom, Bar-Ilan University: Between 'Identification' and 'Identity' – Case Study of the Second Generation of Ethiopian Immigrants to Israel

Adam Ferziger, Bar-Ilan University: Yankees in Rabbi Kook's Court – The Role of American Orthodoxy in Israeli Judaism

Haim Koren, Israeli Ambassador: Reflections of an Israeli Diplomat in Egypt and South Sudan

Safa Aburabia, Ben-Gurion University: The Historical Discourse on the Nakba – Resistance Voices of Bedouin Women from the Naqab

Liron Shani, Brandeis University: Between Nationalism, Science and Livelihood – The Role of Agriculture in Contemporary Israeli Society

Amber Taylor, Brandeis University: Jerusalem is Not for Sale – Orthodox Opposition to the Creation of the BYU Jerusalem Center on the Mount of Olives

Ronit Irshai, Rivkah Rosenberg, Avishalom Westreich: The Intersection of Religious Law, Family and Gender in Israel Today

Derek Penslar, Harvard University: Theodor Herzl – A Biography for the 21st Century

Aron Shai, Tel Aviv University: China and Israel – Strange Bedfellows

Orit Rozin, Tel Aviv University: From "A Home for All Jews:" The Right to Childhood and the Age of Marriage Law

Shlomo Fisher, Hebrew University: Jewish Identity in Israel after the Zionist Revolution: A Reading of the Pew Center Survey of the Religion of Israelis

Dan Ben-David, Tel Aviv University: Israel at a Crossroads: The View from 30,000 Feet (A socio-economic review)

Aviad Hacohen, Shaarei Mishpat Academic College: Freedom of Religion in Democratic Israel – Is it a Reality or Was it a Dream?

Aviv Ben-or, Brandeis: Abandoning Language – Sami Michael as an Arabic Writer

Lital Levy, Princeton University: The Political Uncanny – Reading Palestinian-Israeli Intersubjectivities

Mohammed S. Wattad, UC Irvine / Zefat Academic College: Israel, A Jewish and Democratic State – Perspective of an Arab Minority Citizen

Shachar Pinsker, University of Michigan: To Write in a Silent Language? Yiddish in Israeli Literature and Culture

Mostafa Hussein, Brandeis University: David Yellin's Encounter with Arabo-Islamic Culture and the Study of the Land of Palestine

Liora Norwich and Robert DeBoard, Brandeis University: A Framework for Exploring Political Mobilization – An Overview of Israel Case Studies

Rachel Werczberger, Tel Aviv University / UPenn: The Making of Authenticity – New Age Spirituality in Israel and the Resacralization of Jewish Identity

André Levy, Ben-Gurion University / Brandeis: Happy Mimouna – The Construction of Ethnic Frivolousness in Israel

Motti Inbari, UNC Pembroke: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, A Comparison – Radical Ultra-Orthodoxy and Messianic Religious Zionism

Noga Kadman, Tour guide and author: Palestinian Visits to Depopulated Villages in Israel

Guy Ziv, American University: The Structure-Agency Debate Revisitied – Shimon Peres and Actor Indispensability

Uri Bialer, Hebrew University of Jerusalem / Brandeis: Pre-State Historical Legacies and Israel's Foreign Policy

Nir Avieli, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev: Size Matters – Defining Israeli National Cuisine

Susanna Klosko, Brandeis University: The Inform, the Unfortunate, and the Aged – Chronic Illness, Naturalized Jews, and the American Consulate in Ottoman Jerusalem

Amihai Radzyner, Bar-Ilan University Law School: The Impact of Supreme Court Rulings on the Halakhic Status of the Official Rabbinical Courts in Israel

Oren Barak, Hebrew University of Jerusalem: State, Society and Security in Israel/Palestine and Lebanon

Noam Shoval, Hebrew University of Jerusalem: Jerusalem's Geopolitical Question: An Urban and Social Geography

Shraga Bar-on, Shalom Hartman Institute: "Godseekers:" A Cross-Identity State of Faith and the Jewish Renaissance in Israel

Jon Levisohn, Mandel Center for the Study of Jewish Education: Pedagogy Session - Teaching Contentious Issues

Dan Perelman, Associate Provost of Innovation in Education: Pedagogy Session - On Teaching Israel

Galeet Dardashti, Rutgers University: Money, Music and Mizrahiyut: The Piyut (Sacred Song) Craze in Israel

Anita Shapira, Tel Aviv University: Ben-Gurion - Father of Modern Israel (public event and book-signing)

Yiftach Klein, Actor: "Fill the Void" - Examining Religion in Society

Gideon Aran, Hebrew University of Jerusalem: Studying Palestinian Suicide Terrorism in Israel

Michael Zank, Boston University: Jerusalem in the Religious Studies Classroom - Theoretical Considerations and Topical Issues

Liora Norwich, Brandeis University: Ethnic Contention in Democratic Contexts: The Arab Minority in Israel

Yael Aronoff, University of Michigan: The Political Psychology of Israeli Prime Ministers - When Hardliners Opt for Peace

Nachman Ben-Yehuda: Israel Through a Prism of Unconventionality

Jonathan Gribetz, Rutgers University: Knowing the Enemy through Translation -- On Arabic Renderings of Zionism

Donna Divine, Smith College: The Middle East Conflict -- Is the Pen Mightier than the Sword?

Savyon Leibricht, Author and Playright: Writing about the Holocaust

Gershom Gorenberg, Journalist and Historian: Rewriting Israeli History -- Two Cases of Narrative, Evidence and Cognitive Dissonancee

Hillel Cohen, Hebrew University of Jerusalem: Can one Write the History of the Conflict without Lying? The Hevron Massacre (1929)

Uri Bialer, Hebrew University of Jerusalem: History of Foreign Policy -- Working in Israeli Archives

David Fisher, Documentary Filmmaker: When Private Goes Public

Dan Schueftan, Haifa University: Israel's National Security Challenges in a Changing Regional and International Environment

Annette Koren, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies: Teaching Israel at American Universities -- Growth, Placement, and Future Prospects

Shai Feldman, Crown Center for Middle East Studies: Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East

Madalina Vartejanu-Joubert, INALCO Paris: On the Bonfils Archive - Photographs from the 19th Century Middle East

Ariel Roth, Israel Institute, Washington DC: Jewish Historical Memory and Israeli Security Policy

Tuvia Friling, Ben Gurion University of the Negev: 'New' Historians Use of the Shoah in Israel's Historiographical Discourse

Rachel Rojanski, Brown University: Yiddish - The Story of a Jewish Culture in a Hebrew State 1948-1968

Yoel Rappel, Elie Wiesel Archive, Boston University: The Prayer for the Welfare of the State of Israel

Edwin Seroussi, Hebrew University of Jerusalem: Jo Amar - A Western Israeli Artist

Sariel Birnbaum, SUNY Binghamton: Image of the Jew in Arab Historical Cinema

Yehudah Mirsky, Brandeis: Multiple Modernity as Theory and Theology - Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt and Rav Kook

Shay Rabineau, Brandeis: Israeli Hiking Trails as Articulations of National Identity

Sara Hirschhorn, Brandeis: Rabbi Shlomo Riskin and the Jewish-American Makings of Efrat

Pnina Lahav, Boston University School of Law: The American Identity of Golda Meir

Ute Deichmann, Ben Gurion University of the Negev and Koeln University: The Difficult Beginning of Israeli-German Scientific Cooperation

Asaf Romirowsky, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, Philadelphia: Refugee Relief: the Quakers and the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Uri Zaki, B’tselem USA: The Mammoth in the Room: The Israeli Occupation - Facts, Myths, Politics and Narratives

Dor Guez, Photography and Video Artist, Israel: On The Rose Art Museum Exhibition, "Dor Guez: 100 Steps to the Mediterranean"

Charles Asher Small, Institute for the Study of Global Anti-Semitism, New Haven: Is it Possible to Study Contemporary Antisemitism in the Academy Today?: Conceptual and Political Impediments

Ilana Pardes, Harvard Divinity School, Hebrew University of Jerusalem: Agnon's Moonstruck Lovers: The Song of Songs in Israeli Culture

Emily McKee, Schusterman Center Post-Doctoral Fellow, Anthropology: Water Governance and the Politics of Scale: Middle-Eastern Cross-Border Conservation

Tsafrir Goldberg, Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education: The Politics and Practice of Israeli High School History Curriculum about the Jewish-Arab Conflict

Eitan Bar-Yosef, University of Pennsylvania: Cry, The Beloved Country - Blackface, Mimicry, and Ethnicity in the Israeli Theater of the 1950s

Oded Haklai, Queen's University: Palestinian Ethnonationalism in Israel

Rivka Neriya Ben-Shahar, HBI Scholar/Sapir Academic College: The Creation of a New Women's Religious Culture: An Integrated Perspective

Eric Fleisch, Schusterman Scholar, NEJS: American Jewish Philanthropy to Israel in the Post-UJA Era

Efraim Inbar, Bar-Ilan University: The Arab Uprising and Israel

Abigail Jacobson, Research Fellow, Crown Center for Middle East Studies: Wallahi, al-Umma Matat...": The Ihsan Tourjman Diary as Source for Study of Jerusalem during WWI

David Jacobson, Director, Program in Judaic Studies, Brown University: The Emergence of Talmudic Legends in Contemporary Israeli Culture

Laura Ligouri, Schusterman Scholar, Brandeis Anthropology: Reflections and Reconstructions of the Psyche in Israeli Theater

Michael Kassen, AIPAC President-elect: A Discussion on the Role of AIPAC

Michael Feige, Schusterman Visiting Professor, Anthropology, NEJS: The Changing Concept of Home among the West Bank Settlers

Charles D. Freilich, Senior Fellow Belfer Center, Kennedy School: National Security Decision Making Process in Israel

Yigal Schwartz, Ben Gurion University: Hebrew Literature in Europe - The 'Austro-Hungarians' versus the 'Russians'

Michal Ben-Josef Hirsch, Schusterman Post-doc Politics/Heller School: Beyond Kumbaya - Using Symbolic Reparation in the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process

Michael Keren, University of Calgary: We Are Coming Unafraid - The Jewish Legions and the Promised Land in the First World War

Uri Bialer, Schusterman Visiting Professor History, NEJS: The History of Israel's Foreign Policy as an Area of Study

Yuval Jobani, Schusterman Post-doc NEJS: Man and Nature - AD Gordon on Secular Jewish Identity

Benni Neuberger, Open University: On the Stability of Israel's Democracy

Alain Deickoff, CNRS/Universite de Quebec: The Recognition of Israel as a Jewish State

Guy Abutbul, Schusterman Scholar, Sociology: The Construction of Ethnic Identities in the Israeli Middle Class

Yoram Peri, University of Maryland: The Military's Political Role in the Middle East and in Israel

Rachel Fish, Schusterman Scholar, NEJS: Michel Warshawski and the Zionist Idea

Avinoam Patt, University of Hartford: 'The People Must be Forced to go to Palestine' - a New Assessment of Zionism among the Survivors of the Holocaust

Adi Gordon, University of Cincinnati: On Jews and Other Nations - The Intellectual Biography of Hans Kohn

All seminar participants: Topics on Chanukah

Ceynep Zivcik, Schusterman Scholar, Politics: Turkey and Israel - The Role of the Military in Civil Society

Dan Ben-David, Tel Aviv University: A Macro Perspective of Israel's Society and Economy

Mitchell Bard, AICE: The Arab Lobby

Nahshon Perez, Visiting Professor Boston University : The Privatization of Jewishness in Israel: On Markets, Pork and the Sabbath

Gerald Steinberg, NGO Monitor: Monitoring NGOs

Uzi Rebhun, Hebrew University: Demography, Social Prosperity and the Future of a Sovereign Israel

Pnina Lahav, Boston University: A Small Nation Goes to War: Israel's Cabinet Authorization of the 1956 War

Sammy Smooha, Haifa University/Brandeis University: Is Israel Western?

Liora Halperin, Harvard University Center for Jewish Studies: Language Diversity in the Yishuv

Sayed Kashua, Writer-in-Residence, Haaretz columnist, novelist, screenwriter

Aviva Halamish, Open University of Israel, Brandeis University: Soviet Influences on Israeli Culture in the Early Years

Andi Arnovitz, HBI Artist in Residence Brandeis University: Tear/ Repair [kriah/ichooi]

Ethan Bronner, Jerusalem Bureau Chief, New York Times: Covering the Middle East in 2010: A Report from the Field

Maoz Azaryahu, Haifa University/Brandeis University Anthropology: Asher Hiram and the Architecture of Military Cemeteries

Dalia Ofer, HBI Guest, Brandeis University: Parenthood in the Shadow of the Holocaust

Yarden Fanta-Vagenshtein, Harvard Research Fellow: Education: The Ethiopian-Israeli Community

Shay Rabineau, Schusterman Scholar, NEJS: Hiking Trails in Israel

Michal Ben-Josef Hirsh, Schusterman Politics Post-doc, Politics: Until the Messiah do us Part: An Ideational and Political Alliance Between Israel and American Christians

Daphne Tsimhoni, Princeton University: Between the Star and the Crescent: The Position and Dilemmas of Palestinian Christians, in Between Israel and the Palestinian Authority

Alex Weingrod, Professor Emeritus Ben-Gurion University: The New Israeli Minorities

Edwin Seroussi, Hebrew University: Music in Israel Today: Processes and Experiences

Yoram Bilu, Schusterman Visiting Professor/Anthropology: The Messianic Self: Towards a Comparative Analysis of Habad and Braslav in Israel

Mordechi Inbari, Schusterman Post-doc/NEJS: Rabbi Amram Bloi and the History of Neturei Karta

Randy Geller, Schusterman Scholar/NEJS: Framing the Druze Question: A Unique Minority in the Jewish State

Nili Gold, University of Pennsylvania: Writing Literary Biography

Gabi Sheffer, Hebrew University: The Study of Civil-Military Relations in Israel: A New Perspective

Nira Yuval Davis, University of East London: Belonging and the Politics of Belonging

Hagar Lahav, Sapir Academic College, HBI: The State of Journalism in Israel

Paula Kabalo, Ben Gurion University of the Negev/Boston University: Challenging Disempowerment in 1948: The Role of the Jewish Third Sector during the Israeli War of Independence

Gannit Ankori, Hebrew University, Brandeis University: Israeli Art

Benny Gidron, Schusterman Visiting Professor/Heller School, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev: Civil Society: The Missing Link in Israel Studies

Guy Ben Porat, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev: Secular but illiberal? Paradoxes of Israeli Democracy

Ronit Matalon, Haifa University: On Memory & Autobiography

Dr. Maina Chawla Singh, University of Delhi/American University: 'Being Indian--Being Israeli': Ethnicity and Identity Among Indian Jews in Israel

Etgar Keret, Writer: Girl on the Fridge, Jellyfish

Yaacov Ariel, University of North Carolina: Christian Zionism

Joseph Ringel, Schusterman Scholar/NEJS: What Is A Sephardi? A Debate Between R. Ovadiah Yosef And R. Eliyahu Zinni

Natan Aridan, Ben Gurion University: Israeli Diplomacy and Diaspora Communities 1948-1957

Ofir Abu,Schusterman Scholar/Politics: Nationalism, Religion and the Breakdown of the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process

Motti Inbari, Schusterman Post-doc/NEJS: Who Will Build the Third Temple: Jewish Fundamentalism and the Temple Mount

Motti Inbari, Schusterman Post-doc/NEJS: Theology of the Disengagement: Rabbinical Response to a Crisis of Faith

Rachel Fish, Schusterman Scholar/NEJS: Bi-Nationalism: Nation-State Creation or Intellectual Framework

Guy Abutbul Selinger, Schusterman Scholar/Sociology: From Mizrahiyut to Sephardiyut: The Construction of a New Political Subject