President Scholarship

Supervisor: Steven E. Fassberg

Abstract: The focus of my PhD thesis is the morpho-syntax of the Aramaic dialect used by the Jews of Palestine in the Byzantine period, as attested in writing. Following the Mishnaic period, i.e. from the 3rd century CE onward, we witness a shift from Hebrew to Aramaic in rabbinic literature reflecting, it would seem, a drastic decline in the use of Hebrew as a living language in the area. A distinct Aramaic dialect, referred to as Jewish Palestinian- or Galilean Aramaic, begins to appear in important rabbinic works from Byzantine Palestine: The Palestinian Talmud, Bible translations and Aggadic Midrash such as Genesis Rabbah. Morpho-syntax relates to the dependence of morphological forms on syntactic structure. The thesis will attempt to describe and explain the choice of morphological forms of categories such as the noun, verb, pronoun among others in connection with the syntactic structures they appear in. Understanding this aspect of linguistic function is essential to the general understanding of the language and has a bearing upon many areas. It will contribute to better understanding the texts themselves, and to characterizing texts of uncertain provenance, and will also aid in understanding linguistic development in Mishnaic Hebrew, contemporary Aramaic dialects and even the spoken Arabic dialects that replaced Aramaic.

Presidential Stipend 2013/14

Rotenstreich 2015/16

Supervisor: Dr. Eitan Grossman, Prof. Willem Adelaar

Abstract: The goal of classical ‘Greenbergian’ typology is to identify language universals, and to answer the question: what is a possible language? However, since the groundbreaking work of Nichols (1992), the field of linguistic typology has slowly shifted. Today, the main focus of typology is linguistic diversity as a problem in its own right. Bickel (2007) goes so far as to write that the goal of modern day typology is “to explain why linguistic diversity is the way it is.” This recent development, which can be called the ‘Nichols-Bickel transform,’ has raised a new set of questions and problems, and have supplemented classical structural and functional explanations with the need to address historical contingency as a causal factor in explanatory theories of language structures. The study aims both to describe diversity within Quechuan but also to explain it, based on ‘emerging’ linguistic features. It also aims to better our understanding of linguistic diversity by means of linking it to what we know of language change. It will try to tackle such questions as: What are emergent features? Why are they more prone to change, i.e., less stable? Why do renewed features not stabilize or if they do stabilize, what makes them do so? What leads one language variety to follow a certain pathway whereas another follows a different one? This last question has been called the ‘actuation’ problem by Weinreich et al. (1968), and it is considered one of the most recalcitrant problems of language change.

Bio: Rammie Cahlon is a PhD candidate enrolled in a joint program with Leiden University. His research focuses on linguistic diversity and language change and his doctorate research deals with the role of variance in the stabilization process of unstable features. His research interests include areal typology, language typology, language change pathways, transitivity and argument structure, Creoles, Andean and Scandinavian languages.

Presidential Stipend 2014/15

Subject: Issues in the Phonology and Morphology of Rabbi Jonah Ibn Janāḥ

Supervisor: Prof. Aharon Maman

Abstract: The research deals with a number of fundamental and fruitful issues in the fields of the phonology and morphology in the grammar of R. Jonah Ibn Janah, as reflected in all his grammatical works. The study will be based on an available data base that will be built through a systematic collection of all the phonological and morphological phenomena discussed in Ibn Janah's writings.

Bio: I'm working on the grammar of R. Jonah ibn Janāḥ. The subject of my research is "Issues in the Phonology and Morphology of Rabbi Jonah Ibn Janāḥ".

Publications:

• “Four Comments on the Text of Rabbi Yonah Ibn Janāḥ’s Kitāb al-Mustalḥaq”, Iberia Judaica 10 (2018), pp. 121–138
• "בעיות מסירה ב'כתאב אלמסתלחק' (ספר ההשגה) לר' יונה אבן ג'נאח", העברית סו (תשע"ט), עמ' 15–31
  "ר' יונה אבן ג'נאח כמפתח ומשכלל את תורת ר' יהודה חיוג': עקרונות וכלים ליישומם", א' בר‏־אשר סיגל וד' יעקב (עורכים), העברית והארמית בימי הביניים: עיונים בלשון ובחוכמת הלשון, ירושלים תש"ף, עמ' 327–355

President's Scholarship 2017/18

Subject: The Flow of Associations: Similarity and Gravity

Supervisor: Prof. Anat Maril

Abstract: The purpose of this research is to describe the lows that determine the flow of our associations. My study deals with the movement of our associations in semantic space, using mathematical tools, to construct an algorithm that imitates and predicts our flow of associations. 

President Stipend 2018/19

Supervisor: Prof. Edwin Seroussi

Abstract: My study will address the liturgical music of the Judeo-Iraqi synagogues in the neighborhoods of Mahane Yehuda, Beit Yisrael and Gonenim in Jerusalem. While many religious customs of the Babylonian Jewry are consciously preserved in the synagogues, the liturgical music in these synagogues reflects two opposing forces. On the one hand, in some synagogues the unique musical traditions of the Babylonian Jews are zealously preserved, particularly on Tisha B'Av and on the High Holy Days. On the other hand, in other synagogues the dominant musical style is the Jerusalem-Sephardic. The Jerusalem-Sephardic musical style, which developed in Jerusalem, has gained a wide circulation in the last few decades through the radio, the Internet, public concerts and Jewish music schools, and has become hegemonic among the Sephardic Jews from the Middle East, erasing other musical traditions. My research will attempt to gain a deeper understanding on the experience of the community members in preserving the musical-liturgical traditions of the Jews of Baghdad, while taking part in shaping the local hegemonic Sephardi-Yerushalmi style.

Bio: Netanel Cohen is a first year doctoral student in the department of musicology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is writing his dissertation under the guidance of Professor Edwin Seroussi on the liturgical music of the Iraqi Jews in Jerusalem. He holds an M. A. degree in ethnomusicology and a B. A. degree in musicology and Iranian studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research interests include Middle Eastern Jewish liturgical music and Iranian music.

He served as a librarian in the music department of the National Library of Israel and as an instructor of Persian music theory in the Center for Middle Eastern Classical Music in Jerusalem. He also plays the santur (the Persian hammered dulcimer) and is a cantor in the Sephardic-Yerushalmi style.

Presidential Stipend 2016/17

Supervisor: Dr. Shimon Gesundheit

Abstract: In my dissertation, I investigate biblical redaction from a material perspective. What did the editors’ desks look like? How did they go about compiling some of history’s most formative texts? It is often presumed that these works were invariably created by scribes who integrated and supplemented earlier sources. Contrary to the prevailing opinion, I contend that various biblical passages were created through a process of literal “cut and paste.” Proto-biblical papyrus scrolls were disassembled and even dissected into small snippets. These patches and sheets were then spliced and pasted together. Other times, texts were expanded by affixing scraps of old papyrus onto fresh sheets and writing new material in the gaps. That these unusual methods were practiced by biblical editors can be established through a systematic investigation of extant redactional errors, finding surprising support in texts ranging from ancient Egypt to nascent America.

Publications:

• Idan Dershowitz, “MORDECAI, SON OF JAIR (HEBREW BIBLE/OLD TESTAMENT),” Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception (EBR) 18, De Gruyter (2017; forthcoming) 
• Idan Dershowitz, “NAOMI (HEBREW BIBLE/OLD TESTAMENT),” Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception (EBR) 18, De Gruyter (2017; forthcoming)
• Idan Dershowitz, “Revealing Nakedness and Concealing Homosexual Intercourse: Legal and Lexical Evolution in Leviticus 18,” Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel (HeBAI; forthcoming)
• Idan Dershowitz, “Darius II Delays the Festival of Matzot in 418 BCE,” TheTorah.com: A Historical and Contextual Approach (2017): http://thetorah.com/darius-ii-delays-the-festival-of-matzot-in-418-bce/
• Idan Dershowitz, “KENATH,” Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception (EBR) 15, De Gruyter (2016 [online], 2017 [print]) 
• Idan Dershowitz, “KENAZ, BROTHER OF CALEB,” Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception (EBR) 15, De Gruyter (2016 [online], 2017 [print])
• Idan Dershowitz, “KENAZ, SON OF ELAH,” Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception (EBR) 15, De Gruyter (2016 [online], 2017 [print])
• Idan Dershowitz, “KENAZ, SON OF ELIPHAZ,” Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception (EBR) 15, De Gruyter (2016 [online], 2017 [print]) 
• Idan Dershowitz, “Man of the Land: Unearthing the Original Noah,” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (ZAW) 128:3 (2016), 357–373
• Idan Dershowitz, “The Guilt of the Slanderer and the Sotah: Between Certainty and Uncertainty” TheTorah.com: A Historical and Contextual Approach (2015): http://thetorah.com/the-guilt-of-the-slanderer-and-the-sotah/
• Idan Dershowitz, Moshe Koppel, Navot Akiva, and Nachum Dershowitz, “Computerized Source-Criticism of Biblical Texts,” Journal of Biblical Studies (JBL) 134:2 (2015), 253–271
• Idan Dershowitz, “Flowing with Fat and (Bee) Honey: Evidence from Ancient Egypt,” Vetus Testamentum (VT) 64:4 (2014), 665–667
• Idan Dershowitz, Nachum Dershowitz, Tomer Hasid, and Amnon Ta-Shma, “Orthography and Biblical Criticism,” Proceedings of Digital Humanities (DH 2014), Lausanne, Switzerland, 451–453
• Idan Dershowitz, “Computerized Bible Criticism,” Bible and Interpretation (2011): http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/der358009.shtml
• Moshe Koppel, Navot Akiva, Idan Dershowitz, and Nachum Dershowitz, “Unsupervised Decomposition of a Document into Authorial Components,” Proceedings of the 49th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (2011), 1356–1364
• Navot Akiva, Idan Dershowitz, and Moshe Koppel,“Exploiting Synonym Choice to Identify Components of a Document” (abstract), Israeli Seminar on Computational Linguistics (2010)
• Idan Dershowitz, “A Land Flowing with Fat and Honey,” Vetus Testamentum (VT) 60:2 (2010), 172–176
• Idan Dershowitz, “Simeon and Levi are Brothers,” Megadim 44 (2006), 25–31 (Hebrew)

Presidential Stipend 2014/15

Rothenstreich Stipend 2015/16

Subject: Developing a method for analyzing archeological engraving techniques: the study of the "Chariots" engraving at the Timna site

Supervisors: Prof. Leore Grosman and Dr. Gal Ventura 

Abstract: In my doctoral research I aim to develop methods for analyzing archeological engraving techniques through studying the "Chariots" engraving at the Timna site.
The goal of the study is to formulate criteria paving the way for characterizing the engraving techniques used in ancient times. This will be done by clarifying the methods, tools and skills required for making specific rock engravings. The study will couple examining the creative process with digital analysis methods.  This will be accomplished by understanding the way in which the localized craft technology including skills, techniques and material conceptions can be used as a research tool in the effort to examine, analyze and decode archeological findings. 

Bio: Lena Dubinsky studied ceramic design at Bezazel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. Upon graduation, she opened her own design studio. She shortly returned to Bezalel as an instructor, where she still teaches. While lecturing at Bezalel, she earned a master's degree with honors at Tel Aviv University. Her thesis discussed the aesthetic and political implications of city plans developed by the Jerusalem Committee formed to modernize architecture and municipal design in Jerusalem after 1967. Additionally, she curates exhibitions concerning craft in the modern world, and is included in international exhibitions and collections.

Publications:

• "העשייה והתעשייה: המקרה של מפעלי הפורצלן באירופה בראשית המאה ה-21", בתוך: 'מחשבות על קראפט', עורכים: ערן ארליך, אורי ברטל, ראובן זהבי, הוצאת רסלינג: ירושלים, 2015
• "תהליכי ייצור בכבישה יבשה ויישומם בתעשיית האריחים: סיור במפעל נגב", '1280ºc', כתב עת לתרבות חומרית, חורף 2011
• "רב שיח: קראפט, עיצוב וטכנולוגיה" בשיתוף עם פרופ' גד צ'רני, עינת לידר, הדס רוזנברג-ניר, טל גור, דב גנשרוא ושלומית באומן, קטלוג תערוכת "עיצוב קרמי: כלים טכנולוגיים", מוזיאון ארץ ישראל, תל אביב, 2011

President stipend 2017/18

Subject: Social History of the Western Galilee 1936-76

Supervisors: Prof. Hillel Cohen-Bar and Prof. Liat Kozma

Abstract: My doctorate thesis will focus on the history of inter-communal relations between the varied groups that lived in the western galilee during the British mandate and in the decades that followed. For the first time, this project will put the western galilee on central stage relying on multiple and diverse academic fields and using primary resources and methodology that will bring forth the voices of the different communities that lived in the area.

Bio: I completed my BA in Middle Eastern studies in the Hebrew University and then proceeded to an Mphil in Middle Eastern studies at Oxford University, St. Antony's college. My MA thesis dealt with the history of sectarianism in Israel/Palestine through a work of micro history of an Arab village in the Galilee. My doctorate thesis will focus on the history of inter-communal relations between the varied groups that lived in the western galilee during the British mandate and in the decades that followed. For the first time, this project will put the western galilee on central stage relying on multiple and diverse academic fields and using primary resources and methodology that will bring forth the voices of the different communities that lived in the area.

Presidential stipend 2017/18