PhD honors 2015/16

Supervisor: Prof. Ilana Pardes

Abstract: In my doctoral research, provisionally titled "Ludic Quests: Gogol, Melville, Nabokov," I offer a comparative reading of three novels: "Dead Souls," "Moby-Dick," and "Lolita." The focal point of my analysis is the examination of correspondences between the geographic and the poetic-cum-interpretive quests performed in each work. I argue that both types of quests—the literal and the figurative—are characterized by distinct playfulness, a particularly significant manifestation of which is the personages' and speakers' continual digression to the margins of the road and of discourse alike. In addition to explicating philosophical and formal affinities between the three novels with regard to the benefits and the hazards of ludically going off track, my study seeks to trace the Russian-American dialogue in which Nabokov engages with two of his nineteenth-century predecessors.

Publications:

* "על העיוורון: ספר איוב כמודל להארה רוחנית בסונטה התשע-עשרה של
מילטון", מוזה: כתב עת לתלמידי מחקר במדעי הרוח, גיליון 1 (2017): 7-22.

Rotenstreich Stipend 2017/18

Presidential Stipend 2015/16

Supervisor: Dr. Aldina Quintana and Prof. Galit Hasan-Rokem

Abstract: Mapping of syntactical and morphological structures marking foreground and background in Judeo-Spanish folktales documented between 1914-1935 in the Balkan region.

Rothschild Stipend 2014/15

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

Supervisors: Prof. Dror Wahrman (History) and Prof. Ruth HaCohen (Musicology)

Abstract: My research aims to illuminate cultural perceptions and structures of thought in British society of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, by tracing the changes in the public image of opera singers. My premise is that the rich and largely vitriolic discourse concerning these singers can reveal deep-seated and dominant cultural notions in British society, in relation to the underlying categories of body, gender and nationality which shaped this discourse and the overarching question of representation on stage as a key cultural site.

In contrast to the myth of the “land without music”, 18^th century Britain saw the rise of a variety of musical genres of different types, most importantly the oratorios of G. F. Händel, which quickly became the musical canon of British national identity. On the other hand, opera, originally an Italian theatrical-musical medium, was continuously attacked as a form of foreign and senseless luxury. I focus on the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, since during this time fundamental changes in the political climate and in cultural sensibilities opened up new possibilities for the operatic medium in Britain, whether as a vehicle for national sentiment or as part of a romantic-cosmopolitan ideal. However, this process was continually undermined by deep-seated suspicions towards the singer and his craft – as a distorter of language and common sense, as a “scandalous” corporeality whose vocalizing is pathological, or as a privileged member of society who employs his status in a destructive manner. All of these attributes pointed towards the singer's false essence, frustrating opera's claims to higher truths. In this respect, I would argue that British society's vexed relations with the operatic medium were predicated, to a large degree, on its difficulty in negotiating the image of the singer. This realization, in turn, will help shed new light on British society’s inner codes and sensibilities in that era.

Publications:

Erman, Uri. “The Operatic Voice of Leoni the Jew: Between the Synagogue and the Theater in Late Georgian Britain.” Journal of British Studies 56, no. 2 (2017): 295–321. doi:10.1017/jbr.2017.3.

Rotenstreich Stipend 2015/16

Polonsky Stipend 2012/13

Supervisor: Prof. Naama Goren-Inbar

Abstract: Within the framework of my PhD thesis I wish to test and analyze the morpho-technological variability in the biface tools assemblage from the Lower Paleolithic site of Gesher Bneot-Ya‘aqov. This site is exceptional in the Levant with respect to both the wealth and variety of finds and the cultural tradition reflected in the production of stone tools. Furthermore, the stone tool assemblage in general, and specifically the bifacial component, exhibit a unique similarity to bifacial tool assemblages form Africa. Thus, with respect to the dating of the site, it is interpreted as representing one of the earliest waves of hominin migration out of Africa.

The bifacial tool assemblage from the site has been typo-technologically analyzed using traditional attribute analysis within the framework of the forthcoming fourth volume of the excavation report. The morphological aspect of the tools has been analyzed using traditional morphological methodologies for biface shape analysis which are based on a small number of metrical indices and qualitative observations. This analysis indicated high morphological homogeneity along the occupational sequence at the site, but due to its relatively low resolution had difficulties in identifying finer morphological trends and patterns.

The renewed analysis within the framework of the current study will apply 3 dimensional digital models of the artifacts, alongside multivariate statistical methods. These provide high-resolution quantitative comparisons which allow the identification of archaeologically significant morphological trends and patterns. Furthermore, the application of computerized spatial tools will allow to correlate morphological patterns to spatial and chronological aspects at the site. Additionally, a comparison of the results to those received from the analyses of additional sites from the Levant and Africa will permit to sharpen the similarities and differences between different cultural traditions at an inter-regional scale. Finally, the integration of experimental results could allow to interpret the observed morpho-technological variability as stemming from cognitive, social and cultural aspects of Middle Pleistocene hominins.

Publications:

Books: 
Goren-Inbar, N., Aplerson-Afil, N., Sharon, G., Herzlinger, G. 2018. The Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov volume IV: The lithic assemblages. Springer: Dordrecht. 

Articles:
Herzlinger, G., Goren-Inbar, N. UNDER REVIEW. Do a few tools necessarily mean a few people? A techno-morphological approach to the question of group size at Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov, Israel. Journal of Human Evolution,

Herzlinger, G., Wynn, T., Goren-Inbar, N. 2107. Expert cognition in the production sequence of Acheulian cleavers at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel: A lithic and cognitive analysis. Plos One, 12(11): e0188337

Zaidner, Y., Porat, N., Zilberman, E., Herzlinger, G., Almogi-Labin, A., Roskin, J. 2017. Geo-chronological Context of the Open-air Acheulian Site at Nahal Hesi, Israel. Quaternary International, 464(A): 18-31.

Herzlinger, G., Goren-Inbar, N., Grosman, L. 2017. A New Method for 3D Geometric Morphometric Shape Analysis: The Case Study of Handaxe Knapping Skill. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 14: 163-173. 

Goren-Inbar, N., Aplerson-Afil, N., Sharon, G., Herzlinger, G. 2015. A New Type of Anvil in the Acheulian of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov, Isarel. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 370(1682): 20140353.

Herzlinger, G., Pinsky, S., Goren-Inbar, N. 2015. A Note on Handaxe Knapping Products and their Breakage Taphonomy: an Experimental View. Journal of Lithic Studies, 2(1): 65-82.

Herzlinger, G., Grosman, L., Goren-Inbar, N. 2013. The PPNA Quarry of Kaizer Hill, Modiin, Israel - The Waste Piles. in Stone Tools in Transition: From Hunter-Gatherer to Farming Societies in the Near East. Borrell, F., Inbánez, J.J., Molist, M., (eds.). 395-405

Herzlinger, G. 2012. The Downslope Movement of Lithic Artifacts: A Field Experiment. Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society, 42: 1-21.

Rotenstreich stipend 2017/18

Presidential Stipend 2015/16

Supervisor: Prof. Yaron Ben-Naeh

Abstract: This dissertation discusses the Ottoman-Jewish Haskalah (Enlightenment), which had developed and grown in the Tanzimat period (1839-1876) and the Hamidian period (1876-1908). The study focuses on the four central urban Jewish communities in Western Anatolia, the Southern Balkans (Salonica, Istanbul, Izmir, and Edirne), and in Jerusalem, as a unique study case of an ottoman province.

The research encompasses a circle of some 30 Maskilim, which their main cultural and intellectual links, defining them as a group in this study, was to the Jewish Haskalah movement in Central and Eastern Europe, mostly in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. These Maskilim, most of whom had acquired some rabbinic education, wrote mainly in two languages: Hebrew, the Lingua Franca of Jewish Haskalah movement, and the Sephardic Ottoman vernacular – Ladino.

Publications (selection):

Tamir Karkason, “Sabbateanism and the Ma’aminim in the Writings of Abraham Elmaleh”, El Prezente: Studies in Sephardic Culture 10 (2016), pp. 123-142

---, “Sephardi Historiography: ‘Three who preceded Ben-Yehuda’ as a Test Case”, Pe’amim: Studies in Oriental Jewry 149 (2017), pp. 97-136 (Hebrew)

Yaron Ben-Naeh and Tamir Karkason, “Writings in Hebrew on Istanbul during the Last Ottoman Century and the Early Years of the Turkish Republic”, in: Christoph Hertzog and Richard Wittmann (eds.), Recovering the Voices of Late Ottoman Istanbul’s Multiethnic Residents through Self-Narratives (1830-1930): Sources and Research Paradigms, Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing (in press)

Rotenstreich Stipend 2015/16

Presidential Stipend 2015/16

Subject: Deauthorizing Dante: Authorship and Readership between Dante and his 14th Century Poetic Heirs

Supervisor: Dr. Gur Zak

Abstract: Dante’s poetic authority and outstanding reputation is irrefutable today, however, in his days he was regarded as an experimental poet and amateur theologian and thinker whose status and literary abilities were questionable. Special attention was given to the authoritative tactics he employed in his Divine Comedy, in which he notably places himself as the heir of the classic literary tradition and casts Virgil as his guide and mentor, whom he will eventually surpass in the completion of his poetic and authoritative quest. One of the foremost techniques for attaining authority in his Commedia is indeed his ample use of Virgil’s epic, as he openly avails himself of Aeneas’s salvific journey to the new world and bases his own voyage upon this famous connotation, while also undermining the former text, reframing it so as to accommodate his own ideologies. 
This successful authoritative technique unintentionally prompts Dante’s 14th century poetic heirs—namely, Boccaccio, Petrarch, and Chaucer—to apply his method against him, as they use Dante’s fame and acclaim in order to substantiate their own positions as poets. Just like Dante negotiated his poetic authority vis-à-vis the Latin auctores, simultaneously validating Virgil’s poetry as well as negating his legacy and the classic tradition – his successors too employ the Commedia as foil for the construction of their auctoritas, both by relying on Dante’s established reputation and at the same time undermining his poetic choices.
This intriguing dynamic is the focus of this study, examined through two specific episodes which are rewritten by all three poets so as to challenge and question Dante’s authority and authorship. 

Shachar is currently a postdoctoral fellow, pursuing research of the cross-cultural as well as intertextual relations between the Italian literary tradition of the 14th century and the Medieval English nascent culture.

Azrieli Stipend 2017/18

President Stipend 2015/16

Supervisor: Prof. Hillel Cohen, Prof. Israel Gershoni 

Abstract: In his research Osheroff examines how the concept of Jewish national minority rights—in Palestine and in the region as a whole—was debated and discussed in the Palestinian and pan-Arab sphere from after the First World War until 1967. Osheroff focuses on the different plans devised by Arab intellectuals and leaders to solve the "Palestine problem" and the "Jewish question" within the framework of non-statist or quasi-statist agendas such as cantonization, federalization of Palestine, or different conceptualizations of autonomy for the Jewish minority in the Middle East.

Short Bio: Eli Osheroff is a PhD candidate in the department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Rotenstreich Stipend 2017/18

Presidential Stipend 2015/16

Supervisor: Prof. Dror Wahrman

Abstract: In my PhD. research I analyze the cognitive aspects of early modern education in England. I examine various learning environments and retrace the different ways in which teachers, pedagogy and study tools were organized in order to form students' minds in places like Grammar schools and colleges. In order to track the development of cognitive skills in English society, I explore the 'traces of thought' students left in their notebooks and on the margins of their textbooks. I am still of the naive opinion that if I succeed in interpreting enough scribbles in some Latin textbook's margins, I might discover something deep about modernity.

Publications:

"Ökologische Kommunikation: Heinrich Mendelssohns Nachlass", Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte (ZIG) 16:1 (2017): 95-106.

Rotenstreich Stipend 2017/18

Presidential Stipend 2015/16