Born in Oakland California, Arieh Saposnik grew up in Haifa, Israel. He received his Ph.D. in History and Jewish Studies from New York University, and after holding the Jess Schwartz Chair in Hebrew Culture at Arizona State University, joined the faculty at UCLA in 2009 as Associate Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures and as Gilbert Chair in Israel Studies. His research focuses on the history of Zionism and Israel and on the varieties of Jewish nationalism. His book, Becoming Hebrew: The Creation of a Jewish National Culture in Ottoman Palestine was published in 2008. He is currently working on two parallel book projects: a study of the shifting imagery and symbolism of the sacred in the making of Zionism and Israeli culture; and a history of Territorialism and the Jewish Territorialist Organization.