Omri Asscher | Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies
Research Project Title: Under-the-Radar Religious Conversations: Constructing Jewish Identity Through Translation Across Israeli and American Jewries, 1980-2015
Project Description: The study aims to take a step toward filling this lacuna of studies of religious trends in Israel and America Jewry by exploring previously unstudied translation processes of Jewish religious texts from Hebrew to English and English to Hebrew. The translation of texts of varied genres will serve as a powerful prism for studying the affinities and tensions between the two major Jewish communities of our time, in Israel and the United States, and forms of religious Jewish identity in each community. Processes of translation will reveal how local Jewish identities in Israel and America were implicitly and explicitly entangled with challenging – and inspiring – Jewish identities across the ocean.
Daniel Stein Kokin | Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies
Research Project Title: "Kol ha-Nekudot"/"All the Points"/"Kull al-Nuqaṭ
Project Description: The project aims to produce an interactive, online map of Israel and the Palestine Territories.
Marc Trachtenberg | Political Science
Research Project Title: A Self-Inflicted Wound? Henry Kissinger and the Ending of the Yom Kippur War
Project Description: A close study of the events surrounding the ending of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, it focuses on the question of whether Henry Kissinger gave the Israelis a green light to continue their advance beyond the ceasefire deadline--a deadline he himself had just negotiated with his Soviet counterparts in Moscow.
Scott Abramson | Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
Research Project Title: Friends behind Enemy Lines: The History of Israel’s Cooperation with the Kurds
Project Description: The research traces the course of cooperation between Israel and the Kurds of the Middle East. Before Israeli statehood had even been proclaimed, Jewish Agency officials and Kurdish leaders had not only recognized the affinity of circumstance between their two peoples, they had also discovered an affinity of interest. Accordingly, these Zionists/Israelis and Kurds pursued cooperation. Success proved initially elusive. But the Iraqi Kurds commenced their 14-year rebellion in 1961 offered an opportunity for Israel, in whose new "Periphery Doctrine" the idea behind cooperation with the Kurds had found formal expression
Yair Agmon | Information Studies
Research Project Title: Forgotten Records, Community Memories: Investigating the potential for community-based archival practice in Israel
Project Description: Archival records play a critical role in Israeli society, heavily influencing the shared social imagination and frequently used as legal evidence in disputes over historical accounts, ownership, and human rights. Yet many records throughout history, often those of marginalized and minority ethnic groups, did not enter the official archives. Scholars and professional associations have increasingly recognized the right of the vulnerable to exert more control over their records, stressing the political and social detriment caused to communities who are excluded or misrepresented in the official record. Community-based approaches to records autonomy offer non-state solutions to capture the diverse experience of underrepresented groups and demand human rights accountability. This project analyzes the legal and professional space for community-based organizations to adopt and engage in archival practice without losing the trust of their communities.
Yotam Menda Levy | Art
Research Project Title: The Farhud in the Art, Literature and Poetry of the Jews of Baghdad
Project Description: The research will follow "Farhud" and it`s representation in Israeli culture, art, and discourse. The research will bring to light new evidence of these events and will try to draw a narrative linking poets, artists and scholars while trying to highlight a visual dimension that had only recently come to recognition.
Omri Asscher
Shaiel Ben Ephraim
• Devorah Norton • Fall Semester at Hebrew University of Jerusalem
2017-18 Grant and Fellowship Recipients
2016-17 Grant and Fellowship Recipients