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PhD honors 2016/17 | Jack, Joseph & Morton Mandel School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities

PhD honors 2016/17

Asfahan Bahaloul

Asfahan Bahaloul

Department of Jewish history and contemporary Jewry

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Subject: Shaping of the Holocaust in the Arab Newspapers

Supervisor: Dr. Amos Goldberg & Professor Hillel Cohen

Abstract: The media arena is perceived as a key site for the distribution and reproduction of cultural significances, as well as social patterns, thereby reflecting perceptions, standpoints and values. The Israel Arabic press is a tool for shaping the character of the Arab-Palestinian society between two identities: national and civil. The Israel Arabic press has a key role in examining identity-associated dilemmas: parallel trends- The Holocaust memory in Israel and the Arab discourse into this memory can be examined through the cultural approach to media research. The journalistic act serves to expose ideological mechanisms, and so the media at large, particularly the press, construct and shape national narratives among an imaginary community whose individuals have a sense of shared fate.The Arabic press’ choice of highlighting, or ignoring, Holocaust discussions also has its roots in cultural national contexts. In order to discuss the Holocaust’s role in shaping the collective memory of the Arab society in Israel, one can employ the term of naturalisation, coined by Roland Barthes.2 This construction or the lack thereof attests to the ideological view held by the Arabic press in regards to this sensitive issue. It therefore follows that the significances of journalistic texts are constructed by means of symbolic representation systems that make up the cultural-media discourse. The constructs and significances of the Holocaust memory framing are examined using two major perspectives: the narrative, shaped from a cultural or personal point of view, and the constructivist one, whereby knowledge is a product of human construction, not necessarily a reflection of an “objective” reality exposed.

Bio: I analyzed the Arab press with different political orientations and demonstrated the changes of Arab newspaper coverage relating to the Holocaust discourse. I took into account that in the Eighties there was a dramatic increase in publication of new popular Arab media.

New publications such as “Panorama” a weekly tabloid which dealt with not only political issues but also popular culture. On the other hand the Northern communist party paper
“Al Etihad” (The United) and “Sout el Hak” ( The voice of Truth and Justice) which belongs to the Israeli Islamic movement are more extreme newspapers than the moderate Panorama.

Publications:

Shaping of the Holocaust in Arab Newspapers

 

Presidential Stipend 2016/17

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Naama Bar-Eitan Sadovsky

Naama Bar-Eitan Sadovsky

Hebrew Literature

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Subject: Lateness – Poetics of Late Poetry

Supervisor: Dr. Tamar Hess

Abstract: In the dissertation I wish to examine the late poetry of Tuvia Rivner, Israel Pincas, S. Shifra, and Avot Yeshurun in light of the perspective of "late style" and old age.
"Late style" as an independent field of research that offers a multi-directional model for the examination of late works has yet to be assimilated in the research of modern Hebrew poetry. This, despite fascinating and varied developments in this field of research around the world. Studies of the artist as an old man and artistic works towards the end of life have been conducted in recent decades in various fields of art, such as music, painting, and literature, juxtaposing aesthetic research tools and psychoanalytical theories concerning the cycle of life and theories from the field of gerontology, which at the same period of time established itself as an independent scientific field of research.
In the proposed research I wish to open a more significant window upon these developments and, as I mentioned above, use the perspectives of old age and "late style" to examine the late works of the four poets. The working assumption is that this perspective can serve as a valuable interpretive tool for understanding the poetical changes in the late work of these poets and vice versa: A thorough examination of the late works of these poets and the uncovering of the inner dialectical processes that motivate stylistic changes in their work can contribute to the developing theoretical discussion in this field.

Bio: I studied for my BA and MA at Hebrew University, in the Hebrew Literature department, and also completed MA studies on the creative writing track in the Hebrew Literature department of Ben Gurion University in the Negev. In the last years I devoted myself mostly to educating and teaching in the Hebrew University Secondary School (Leyada), and in various academic institutions - in The Hebrew University, David Yellin Teacher’s College, the Academy for Music and Dance, and others. I wrote my M.A. final thesis about Tuvia Rivner's poetry, with a view to examining the existential-linguistic contradiction that is at its core. In the dissertation I deal with the poetic features of late poetry, under the guidance of Dr. Tamar Hess.

 

Presidential Stipend 2016/17

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Venus Bargouth

Dr. Venus Bargouth

The English Department

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Subject: Wordsworth's Revisions

Supervisor: Prof. Leona Toker

Abstract: This dissertation studies the revisions made by William Wordsworth to Salisbury Plain, The Borderers and The Ruined Cottage, the works whose early versions are, to a large extent, his response to the social and political upheaval of the French Revolution. The revisions made by the poet to these three works in the course of his life, during which his ideological, moral, political and poetical principles underwent changes, are sometimes radical. This study demonstrates how his evolving worldview is reflected in his textual changes. The revisions also show how Wordsworth’s experience of the French Revolution influenced not only his early political inclinations and poetic vocation but also many of his responses to political events in his conservative years and thus his later poetry. Hence, among other things, my research supports the position of those literary critics who deny that Wordsworth’s poetry elides its political moment: his early works do respond to the political and historical events of the time of their composition.  
    Pace New Criticism, which marginalizes the author’s intention or rather seeks to separate the artist and his works in accordance with the critique of the intentional fallacy, I argue that in order to understand what stimulated the composition of Salisbury Plain, The Borderers and The Ruined Cottage, and what later motivated the revisions made to these poems, we may seek suggestions from Wordsworth’s life even at the risk of disturbing his image as an extraordinary being.
     The three works, initially composed in the 1790s, mark a turning point in Wordsworth’s poetic progress. It was only after his return to England from France in 1792, during cycles of his hope and despair, that his genuine voice emerged. None of the poems written prior to Salisbury Plain manifests the revolutionary power of his poetic genius. Salisbury Plain, The Borderers and The Ruined Cottage form the foundation of Wordsworth’s life-long defence of humanity in general and the people of the lower classes in particular. Moreover, it is through these works that the poet’s philosophical vision of the oneness of the human heart with nature ripens, in his attempts to come to terms with the human condition and place suffering in a framework which facilitates coping with it.
     Evidence in Wordsworth’s correspondence suggests that in 1798, while working on The Ruined Cottage, he was also thinking about Adventures on Salisbury Plain and The Borderers. Rather than finishing one poem, laying it aside and taking up another, he simultaneously worked on the three, which explains some of the similarities in their thematic concerns and style. Yet the move from Salisbury Plain to The Borderers attests to changes in Wordsworth’s attitude to such issues as motivation, intention, crime, punishment, political institutions and formal law. Furthermore, whereas after 1799 Wordsworth never attributed importance to either Adventures on Salisbury Plain or The Borderers till the decision was made to publish them in 1842, The Ruined Cottage preoccupied him for the rest of his life. 
     The study of the development of the early versions of the three works reveals the maturation of Wordsworth’s art and the evolution of some aspects of his political and philosophical stance. He gradually becomes a poet of the human psyche. Whereas the early version of Salisbury Plain shares some features with contemporary protest poems, in his revisions Wordsworth transcends the political and social focus of protest poetry in probing the inner lives of his suffering characters, with an emphasis on guilt and fear. Conveying tension between reason and emotions, he works out emotivist principles in the ethical positions that transpire from his works as well as in his literary theory, unifying his axiology. He also resolves his attitude to such issues as compassion, remorse, penitence and justice. The Wanderer, as The Ruined Cottage was titled in 1814, serves as a step towards a larger work which would grant completion to Wordsworth’s philosophical and ideological principles. The alterations made for the 1814 version facilitate its incorporation into the design of The Recluse, the poet’s planned philosophical work about man’s relation to nature and society. 
      Wordsworth endorsed a succession of political and philosophical identities, moving from liberal republicanism to Godwinian rationalism to the transcendental philosophy of the One Life and eventually to political and religious conservatism. His longevity as well as shifts in his socio-economic condition made axiological changes possible. By his seventies he had become a rather conservative financially secure family man in the government employ. In 1843, the poet who had once declared that he abhorred monarchy became Queen Victoria’s Poet Laureate. Wordsworth did not deny that he was changing. Time-induced changes constitute recurrent thematic concerns in many of his works. In 1801 he noted that his early poems represented opinions widely different from those that he held at present. In The Prelude the speaker repeatedly observes that youth played a significant role in his early judgments. The mainstream public opinion of Wordsworth changed as well. By the late 1830s, those attributes of his poetry which had once been scorned by many came to be identified as the sources of his strength. His poetry was constantly quoted, and his works were acknowledged as intellectual stimuli. This new status imposed new obligations. 
     My research examines the ways in which these biographical factors may have influenced the revisions of Wordsworth’s early works, revisions that affected the fashioning of his image for posterity. 
     The changes which some of Wordsworth’s principles underwent are evident in the revisions that he made to the poems that he had written in his twenties but published in his seventies. In 1842, when he published his earlier radical, pantheistic and revolutionary anti-war poetry, such as Salisbury Plain, in Poems, Chiefly of Early and Late Years, he omitted, added or rewrote complete verse paragraphs, as well as separate lines and words. Guilt and Sorrow; or Incidents upon Salisbury Plain and (to a smaller degree) The Borderers were so altered that they revealed little or nothing of Wordsworth’s erstwhile radicalism. This was followed by the 1845 publication of the likewise heavily revised version of The Excursion, of which the first book had started as The Ruined Cottage in 1797. By this time, in addition to other changes in his status, Wordsworth was also held in reverence as a conservative Christian poet. He now had to and probably wished to conform to what was required of him as a public figure. Drawing attention to his political past or reviving its spirit would have been counterproductive. The study of Wordsworth’s revisions suggests that he might have mitigated his earlier radicalism by self-censorship.  
      When the conformist elderly poet excised those cultural cues that anchored the poems in the historical context of the reactionary 1790s, he altered the portrayal of characters, their interactions, conversations and the nature of their relationships. Sometimes such changes cause inconsistencies and logical contradictions in the plot and the arguments made in the poems. Even when no drastic changes in thematic concerns are detected between two versions, changes in emphasis or word order indicate different attitudes or altered states of mind. The later version of The Borderers, for instance, seems to enhance the play’s philosophical concerns at the expense of the psychological ones. Although the revisions sometimes attest to major ideological changes, the earlier and later versions of the poems share thematic concerns, which points to a continuity in the poet’s preoccupations.
     Comparing the published versions with the earlier manuscript ones, this study considers whether the revisions serve to adapt Wordsworth’s early works, directly related to his moral crisis in France and suffused with republican opinions, to engagement with newly emerging social and political affairs, such as the contemporary debates concerning the Poor Laws and the abolition of the death penalty. The changes in the poet’s attitude explain how Salisbury Plain and The Borderers accrued different meanings when, as a political figure, he started serving different causes, some diametrically opposite to those of his early years. The new versions are not only geared up to the context of 1842 but also praise the selfsame institutions which Wordsworth had earlier abhorred.
     Wordsworth’s 1842 revisions also reflect changes in aesthetic preferences. In his later years he disavowed that principle on which his poetics was founded; namely, to write in ordinary language for ordinary people. Rather, he resorted to eloquent sometimes artificial language which suits élite expectations. Judging by his own criteria, with which some literary critics agree and some do not, the later versions have a greater aesthetic merit. This claim is examined in the dissertation.

 

 

Bio: I am interested in the Romantic period. I love excursions in nature. I have a husband, a son and a dog.

 

Rotenstreich Stipend 2016/17

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Tobias  Bitterli

Dr. Tobias Bitterli

History department

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Subject: Cabinets of curiosities and the organization of knowledge in 16th and 17th century Holy Roman Empire of German Nation

Supervisor: Prof. Dror Wahrman

Abstract: The research will evolve around the question of how these collectors of Cabinets of wonders organized their knowledge and defined the objects categorical boundaries. Based on these questions the research will try to answer the questions how the parts of the collections became knowledge and what was the ''Weltanschauung'' (worldview) of these collectors.

The research will present a social history of knowledge based on the microcosm of collectors and their Cabinets of wonders and will deal with the acquisition and transmission of knowledge, its 'construction' and 'production' and with practices such as classification and experiments. The group of collectors will be analyzed according the theories of the “New sociology of knowledge” and in particular the approach of micro-sociology which is concerned with the everyday life of small groups, circles, networks or 'epistemological communities' and sees those as the fundamental units which construct knowledge and directs its diffusion through certain channels. These 'epistemological communities' are often studied through the micro-spaces in which they work. In the research the micro space will be relations between the collectors and their buying agents on the one hand and the relations between the collectors themselves and the collectors and scholars.

Short bio: I emigrated 9 years ago to Israel from Switzerland.

 

Mosse Stipend 2016/17

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Netanel Cohen (Musai)

Netanel Cohen (Musai)

Musicology Department

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Subject: The Rivers of Babylon and the Song of Zion: Babylonian and Yerushalmi Styles of Liturgical Music of the Babylonian Community in Jerusalem

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

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Aharon Glatzer

Aharon Glatzer

The Department of Hebrew Language

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Subject: The Linguistic Background of Biblical Exegesis in the Tannaitic Midrashim

Supervisor: Prof. Yochanan Breuer

Abstract: This study examines all the Tannaic midrashim with the purpose of identifying all those that are based on a linguistic issue. The objective of the study is to give a maximally comprehensive overview of the exegetical methods used in addressing such issues in Tannaic midrashim, in hopes of laying down the groundwork for a future description encompassing all Rabbinic texts. The advantage of this study lies in its systematic nature: it offers a description, as comprehensive as I could make it, of all the relevant exegetical methods, both common and rare.

Bio: 2011 – 2015: M.A in Talmud, on a research track. Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
2008 – 2010: B.A with honors in Talmud and Hebrew Language. Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
2005 – 2007: Rabbinical ordinance from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. Kollel studies in Yeshivat Birkat Moshe, Ma'ale Adumim.

Publications:

Books
1א. נפש מרדכי: סליחות מבוארות נוסח פולין, מכון תורת אמך, מעלה אדומים תשע"ה
1ב. סליחות מבוארות קורן מנהג פולין, הוצאת קורן, ירושלים תשע"ו (מהדורה מעובדת של 1א)
1ג. נפש מרדכי: סליחות מבוארות כמנהג פולין, מכון תורת אמך, מהדורה שנייה מתוקנת, מעלה אדומים תשע"ח (מהדורה מתוקנת של 1א) 
2. נפש מרדכי: סליחות מבוארות כמנהג ליטא, מכון תורת אמך, ירושלים תשע"ז

Articles in Peer-reviewed journals:

3. "וְלֹא תַחֲנִיפוּ אֶת הָאָרֶץ - על אשמת הארץ בהסתרת דם הנרצח", מוזה 3 (תשע"ט), עמ' 6-19
4. "'מניין לאבות מלאכות מן התורה': רִקעהּ הלשוני של דרשה – גימטרייה, דמיון פונטי ודמיון גרפי", דרך אגדה, (התקבל לפרסום ונמצא בעריכה לשונית, כ-19 עמודים)
5. "תלך לתימהון: שגיאות סמנטיות-לקסיקליות הנגרמות בשל הגבהת משלב הכתיבה", חלקת לשון, (בשיפוט, כ-15 עמודים)
6. "בין שכנות לשותפות - עיון מחודש בסוגיית מקיף וניקף", נטועים, (בשיפוט, כ-20 עמודים) (גרסה מורחבת ומעובדת של 11)

Additional Articles:

7. "פסיק רישא - ביטול תודעת היחיד", מעליות כ"ד (תשס"ד), עמ' 42-51
8. "אדעה מילים יענני ואבינה מה יאמר לי", המעין מו, א (תשס"ו), עמ' 35-44
9. "צריכא?! - ביאורו של מושג", מעליות כ"ז-כ"ח (תשס"ח), עמ' 111-117
10. "מודל אלטרנטיבי להבחנה בין השומרים", מרחבים ג (תשע"ה), חברותא - בית מדרש לתלמידי האוניברסיטה העברית בירושלים, עמ' 92-109
11. "שותפות הבאה לו לאדם בעל כרחו - עיון במשנת מקיף וניקף", מרחבים ד (תשע"ו), חברותא - בית מדרש לתלמידי האוניברסיטה העברית בירושלים, עמ' 71-85

Newspaper Publication:

12. "עברית של שבת": טור שבועי בענייני לשון וסמנטיקה, מוסף "שבת", עיתון מקור ראשון (2007).

Thesis:

13. הבסיס הלשוני של המדרש לפי מדרש ספרי במדבר.
מנחה: פרופ' יוחנן ברויאר.
 

President's Scholarship 2016/17

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Noa Goldblatt

Noa Goldblatt

Department of Linguistics

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Subject: Micro-typology of discourse markers borrowing in German speech islands

Abstract: This is a corpus study examining the borrowing patterns and mechanism of discourse markers in German speech islands, from a comparative point of view

Supervisor: Dr. Eitan Grossman and Prof. Hans Boas

Bio: I am a PhD candidate of Structural Linguistics, focusing on Typology of Germanic languages spoken outside of the German sphere

Publications:

Goldblatt, Noa. 2017. What Does Duh Do. MA Thesis. In Der Reggeboge 51:2

 

Presidential Stipend 2016/17

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Sivan Gottlieb

Dr. Sivan Gottlieb

Department of Art History

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Subject: Illuminated Hebrew Medical Manuscripts from the Late Middle Ages

Supervisor: Prof. Sarit Shalev-Eyni

Abstract: My area of research is illuminated Hebrew manuscripts from the late medieval ages. I believe that the research of these manuscripts is a fascinating and enriching way to learn about Jewish history. My PhD research deals with illuminated Hebrew medical texts from 15th century, Italy. In my research, I would like to explore the medical history and culture that is revealed from these scientific manuscripts, the way they were used, and their connection to Latin manuscripts, and to give a deeper insight into the relationship between Jewish doctors and artist.

Bio: PhD student. Department of Art History

Publications:

Gottlieb, Sivan. “‘Go and Learn’: The Ashkenazi and Italian Roots of the Sereni Haggadah." Ars Judaica (2018): 63-78.

Presidential Stipend 2016/17

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Binyamin Hunyadi

Dr. Binyamin Hunyadi

Department of Yiddish

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Subject: Yiddish Anarchist Press and Literature, 1890-1918

Supervisor: Avraham Novershtern, David Roskies

Abstract: The history of the anarchist movement in Yiddish is one of the uncharted chapters in Jewish historiography. At the end of the 19th century, Jewish anarchist groups were formed out of the masses of Jewish immigrants fleeing persecution in the East and settling in Western Europe and in the Americas. Living the migrant life, constantly shifting from country to country, the Jewish anarchists were forced to organize into extremely mobile cells. They established centers in major European cities, especially London and Paris and, across the Atlantic, major anarchist groups were formed in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Buenos Aires. These centers persisted for decades, their ‘rosters’ constantly renewed with the unending flux of immigration. With time a network emerged, connecting the disparate groups in a tightly-knit web, marking out central and peripheral communities. My project focuses on the literary production of these groups, i.e. on the main ideological patterns within the anarchist press, on anarchist fiction and poetry written and published in Yiddish, and on Yiddish translations of literary works from European languages, carried out by ideologically-motivated Yiddish anarchists.

Bio: Binyamin Hunyadi is a research student in the Mandel School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities. His dissertation, The Emergence of Anarchist Literature and Press in Yiddish, 1890-1918, proposes to delineate thehistory of the Yiddish anarchist movement and its literary production in a trans-national context, tracingits development from the movement's inception in England and the United States to its temporary collapse by the end of the First World War. In 2015 he completed his Master's degree in the joint Yiddish program of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University. His final thesis was a study of the first known rhymed adaptation of Yeven Metsula into Yiddish, published in 1686 in Amsterdam, which shaped,to a large extant, Ashkenazi Jewish consciousness and the patterns of historical remembrance in Jewish culture.Previously, he completed a second M.A. thesis during his studies in the University of Budapest, in which he tackled questions pertaining to the first ultra-orthodox Yiddish journal, Amud ha-Yira edited by R. Akiva Yosef Schlesinger.His field of interests covers a wide array of subjects ranging from the history and culture of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to topics in Yiddish culture and literature.

Publications:

  • 2012 - A nőbűvölő. Ayzik-Meyer Dik és a haszkala nézeteinek terjesztése a 19. századi Kelet-Európában. [The womanizer. Ayzik-Meyer Dik and the Propagation of the Views of Haskala in 19th Century Eastern Europe], in Múlt és Jövő, 2012/3 [Past and Future], Budapest, pp. 108-116.
  • 2013 - Isaac Bashevis Singer elbeszélése a Forvertsben [Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Short Story in the Forverts], Múlt és Jövő, 2013/4 [Past and Future], Budapest, pp. 116-118.
  • 2015 - Isten szolgái - R. Joszef Akiva Schlesinger ultra-ortodox újságja az 1860-as években Magyarországon: a jiddis Amud ha-Jira [Servants of God: Amud ha-Yira - R. Akiva Yosef Schlesinger’s Ultra-Orthodox journal in the 1860’s in Hungary], in Régió [Region], 2015, 23/1. pp. 50-71.
  • 2017 - Zalmen Gradowski és az Auschwitz-tekercs [Zalmen Gradowski and the Scroll of Auschwitz], in Zalmen Gradowski, Auschwitz-tekercs − A pokol szívében (Budapest: Múlt és Jövő, 2017), pp. 7−35.
  • 2018 - Ha-Kadosh Shomer: Ha-Teatron ve-Kefulo −Gilgul Sipura shel Alilat ha-Dam shel Tisa-Eslar be-Tarbut Yidish ha-Popularit [The Holy Shomer: Theater and its Double − The Story of the Blood Libel of Tiszaeszlár in Yiddish Popular Culture], in Ho!, 2018, 16, 317-321.
  • 2018 - Farshklaft tsu Got - R. Akive Yoysef Shlezingers gor Frume Tsaytung af Yidish ‘Amed ha-Yire in Ungern in di 1860er Yorn [Enslaved by God. R. Akiva Yosef Schlesinger’s Ultra-Orthodox Yiddish Journal in the 1860s in Hungary], in Yerushalmer Almanakh (forthcoming).
  • 2018 - Morose News for a Mundane World: Rabbinic Discourse in the Yiddish Amud ha-Yira in Hungary, 1866−1867, in Proceedings of the Ladino-Yiddish Rabbinic Writings International Workshop Held at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (submitted for publication).

 

Presidential Stipend 2016/17

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Nir Idan

Nir Idan

History

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Subject: Charlatans in 17th Century Paris

Supervisor: Moshe Slohovsky

Abstract: My research deals with charlatans, medicine sellers who worked on stages in the market squares and streets, in 17th century Paris. Using texts documenting the performances of the most successful and well known duo of charlatans at the time I seek to position the phenomena in its context in terms of both history of medicine and history of theater. My goal is to understand how and why charlatans fashioned their unique style of performance, and what about it was appealing for their audience and customers.

Bio: I did my B.A. and M.A. in history in the Hebrew University. Co-editor of the journal “Hayo Haya – Young Forum for History”.

Presidential stipend 2016/17

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Anna Kawalko

Anna Kawalko

Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry

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Subject: Dissonant Heritage. Nation-Building, Material Politics and German-Jewish Book Collections in Czechoslovakia, 1918-1948

Supervisor: Prof. Yfaat Weiss

Abstract: My doctoral dissertation seeks to explore one of the most ambiguous and unknown chapters of postwar Jewish reconstruction in the wake of unprecedented Nazi plunder of Jewish libraries and archives during 1933-1945. Toward the end of WWII, most of the looted documents which had been previously stored in Berlin were evacuated to various castles in Bohemia and Moravia, ghetto Theresienstadt and Jewish Museum in Prague, where they became a focal point of interest of Jewish communities, Soviet trophy brigades, state officials and restitution organizations in Europe, Palestine/Israel and the United States. The research aims to illuminate the unique history of these cultural treasures, to present various parties involved in their restitution on both individual (Gershom Scholem, Shmuel Hugo Bergman, Otto Muneles, Zeev Scheck) and institutional (Diaspora Treasures Committee at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, National Library in Prague, Jewish Museum in Prague, Jewish communities in Czechoslovakia) level, and to describe them within broader historical context of shifting centers of postwar Jewish life as well as of growing communist influence in Czechoslovakia, which culminated in the coup d'état in February 1948 and subsequent nationalisation of property. It will generate a historical analysis of multiple agendas guiding postwar restitution efforts, complex relations between Jewish communities in Europe and Jewish people in Palestine/Israel, and the role of cultural property in nation building processes after 1945.

Bio: Anna Kawalko is a PhD student at the Department of History of the Jewish People and Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, under the auspices of prof. Yfaat Weiss. She earned her bachelor’s degree at the University of Warsaw (2012), and completed her master’s degree (summa cum laude) at the department of German Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (2015). Her master’s thesis (‘Abandoned, Nationalized, Lost? Polish Repatriates and German Property in Lower Silesia, 1945-1947’) dealt with German material heritage and various processes of nation building in Lower Silesia (Poland) after WWII. Currently, Anna prepares her doctoral dissertation, devoted to the status of German and German-Jewish cultural property in Czechoslovakia after 1945. Her research interests include Jewish cultural property after 1945, heritage and migration studies, Central and Eastern European borderlands in the 20th century, and historical study of material culture. 

Publications: 

1) From Breslau to Wrocław: Transfer of the Saraval Collection to Poland and the Restitution of Jewish Cultural Property after WWII; in: Naharaim. Zeitschrift für deutsch - jüdische Literatur und Kulturgeschichte; ed. Weidner, Daniel / Weiss, Yfaat / Wiese, Christian (November 2015)

2) A Story of Survival: Hebrew Manuscripts and Incunabula from the Saraval Collection in the Manuscriptorium - Digital Library of the Memoriae Mundi Series Bohemica Project; in: Medaon. Magazin für jüdisches Leben in Forschung und Bildung (December 2015) 

 

Rothschild Stipend 2016/17

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Avi (Avraham Max) Kenan

Dr. Avi (Avraham Max) Kenan

Department of Philosophy

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Subject: Emotional Knowledge: Emotions' Epistemic Role

Supervisor: Prof. David Enoch and Prof. Hagit Benbaji

Abstract:The main question that underlies the dissertation is the following: do emotions have an epistemic role? The rationale behind the positive answer that I provide is the following. An answer to whether emotions have an epistemic role depends in part on what emotions are. Thus, we need an account of the kind of mental state that emotions are, or at the very least an account of the necessary and sufficient conditions for a mental state being an emotion. In addition, an answer to the question about emotions’  epistemic role must take into consideration that characteristics of emotions may pose limitations on their epistemic role. The five chapters of this dissertation try to do exactly that: provide an account of emotions’ indispensable epistemic role, an account that satisfies the constraints that arise from considering what emotions are. The thesis that arises from the dissertation is that emotions are sui generis mental states, essentially evaluable and felt, that conceptually represent and present affective-evaluative properties. They are the basic way we experience and think about affective-evaluative properties, and they fix the reference of the concepts of these properties. Emotions are defeasibly entitled, can be justified by evaluative evidence and defeasibly justify beliefs in virtue of being evidence of evidence. Although their epistemic role is limited in some cases, they are nonetheless epistemically indispensable.

Bio: 

I have a BA in Psychology and Philosophy from the Hebrew University, an MA in Clinical Psychology and a PhD in Philosophy.  

My dissertation is related to one of the central aspects of our daily lives and of psychotherapy - emotions. Specifically, I argue that emotions are an independent source of knowledge. For example, my fear can be an independent way for me to know that there is something dangerous in my vicinity or my shame can be a way for me coming to know that I had done something wrong. This will seem natural to many people. Psychotherapists surely think that their patients' emotions and their own emotions are a way of discovering a world of psychic meaning. However, is has proven to be quite difficult to offer an account of emotions and their epistemic role that withstands philosophical scrutiny. In my dissertation I hope to have succeed in doing so, while remaining true to the phenomenology of emotions.

Apart from my philosophical research, I am a certified clinical psychologist and conduct therapy with children, adolescents and adults. In addition, I am engaged in theoretical thinking about clinical psychology from a psychoanalytic perspective, mainly Freudian and Kleinian.
 

 

Publications:

R. Pat-Horenczyk, A.M. Kenan. M. Achitvu, E. Bachar. (2014). Protective Factors Based Model for Screening for Posttraumatic Distress in Adolescents. Child and Youth Care Forum, 43 (3), 339-351. DOI: 10.1007/s10566-013-9241-y.

 

Presidential Stipend 2016/17

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Yinon Nachshon

Cognitive Science 

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Subject: A model of similarity in STM

Supervisor: Prof. Anat Maril

Abstract: We propose a mechanism suggested to explain major semantic-based symptoms often observed in schizophrenia patients: hyper abstraction and over concreteness. We will introduce a mathematical model of the semantic space and using it, we will try to demonstrate and support our hypotheses regarding the relationship between stress – a major precursor of schizophrenia – and the number and sharpness of attributes encoded when considering objects and the perceived similarity between them, a cognitive process that is at the heart of abstraction. We are planning to conduct experiments to empirically test the model’s assumptions and main hypotheses, using both behavioral and brain imaging measures. We hope to gain important insight into the semantic-related symptoms of schizophrenia by testing the following main idea: elevated stress leads to a reduction in the number of attributes considered when processing objects, which in turn influences perceived similarity between objects (and hence the basic process of abstraction).

Bio: My name is Yinon Nachshon, married to Yael and father to Nevo and Amir. I am a PhD student in Dr. Anat Maril's neurocognitive lab in cognitive science department. I am a graduate of the Technion’s medicine faculty (MD) and math faculty (BSc in mathematics). I am interested in similarity and dimensionality in the semantic space, mathematical modeling of the semantic space and the representation of this space in the brain, and in the connection between the dimensionality of the semantic space and Schizophrenia.

 

Presidential Stipend 2016/17

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Ma'ayan Nidbach

Ma'ayan Nidbach

Department of Asian Studies

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Subject: The reinterpretation of Bhartṛhari in Kashmir Śaivism

Supervisor: Prof. Yigal Bronner

Abstract: My research deals with the unique status of Bhartṛhari, philosopher and grammarian of the 5th century CE, in the writings of a lineage of scholars from Kashmir of the 10-11th centuries (Mainly Somānanda, Utpaladeva, and Abhinavagupta). I examine the ways in which these scholars reinterpreted Bhartṛhari's ideas and terminology in their texts, which, I hope, will shed light on an interesting link in the history of Indian thought and religion.

 

Azrieli Scholarship 2016/17

Presidential Stipend 2014/15

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Anatoly Polnarov

Anatoly Polnarov

Asia Studies

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Subject: Polarizing rhetoric in Former Han (206/202 BCE - 9 CE)

Supervisor: Prof. Yuri Pines

Abstract: My study concerns polarizing political rhetoric in early China. By polarizing rhetoric I mean the rhetoric that depicts the political process as a persistent confrontation between two fundamentally antagonistic forces. I shall show that in early China polarization was used as a rhetorical technique, and that it developed gradually from the Warring States (453-221 BCE) to the Former Han periods (206/202 BCE-9 CE). 

The basic elements of polarizing rhetoric had been formed prior to the imperial unification of 221 BCE. Yet, it was only in the second half of the Former Han period that a fully developed polarizing discourse had come into being. Proponents of this discourse reduced the variety of political views and approaches to a dichotomy of extreme opposites. One was represented by legendary sage rulers of the past and especially by the idealized model of the Western Zhou 西周 dynasty (1046-771 BCE). The opposite “bad side” was represented the by Han’s short-lived predecessor, the Qin 秦 dynasty (221-207 BCE). Yet the polarizing approach went far beyond the Zhou-Qin dichotomy; it encompassed multiple issues related to socio-economic and administrative policies, foreign affairs, ritual, and culture.
I shall trace the evolution of polarizing rhetoric in early China and try to demonstrate that its rise was closely related to the political ascendancy of the group named Ru 儒 (“Confucians” or “Classicists”). For them polarizing rhetoric became a potent tool for criticizing current policies and policymakers and a key element in the emerging moralizing approach to politics and administration. In the polarized world envisioned by the Ru amorality meant immorality, and any policy which was not based on purely moral considerations should have been discontinued. The moralizing discourse and the related polarizing rhetoric developed by the Ru enabled them to bolster their claim for moral authority and also to undermine the legitimacy of rival groups with which they vied for power at the Han court.
In my study I shall show how the Ru developed and integrated polarizing tropes, forging thereby an extraordinarily effective rhetorical device. I shall furthermore show how this new rhetoric contributed to the rise of the Ru. During the first decades of the Han dynasty the Ru were a relatively marginal group, whose skills were not much appreciated by the political elite. Toward the end of the Former Han period, in contrast, the Ru became a power to reckon with. By explicating the link between the polarizing rhetoric employed by the Ru and their ascendancy I hope to elucidate heretofore insufficiently studied aspects of this all-important process.

Bio: I am a PhD student at the Department of Asia studies. This is my second year with the PhD Honor Program. I received my MA degree from Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 2014. I study preimperial and early imperial China, particularly political culture, intellectual history and related topics.

Publications:

Polnarov A., "Looking Beyond Dichotomies: Hidden Diversity of Voices in the Yantielun 鹽鐵論", accepted for publication in T'oung Pao

 

Presidential Stipend 2016/17

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אסיף רחמים

Dr. Asif Rahamim

Department of Comparative Literature

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Subject: Displaced Cartographers: Space, Place, and Mapping in the Poetry of Paul Celan and Avot Yeshurun - A Comparative Study

Supervisor: Prof. Yoav Rinon, Prof. Vivian Liska

Abstract: My study is dedicated to the poetic works of Avot Yeshurun and Paul Celan and to the crucial role questions of space and place, rootedness and uprootedness, displacement and homelessness occupy in it. At the center of the study stands a practice which I call “Poetic Cartography”: poetically re-mapping (and thus re-constituting) actual “real-life” places. This artistic mapping method which is historically and ethically oriented, seeks to alter the ways we think and understand the spaces and places in which we live. 

Bio: I'm interested in 20th century literature and thought, with an emphasis on the convergence between German literature and French theory. My PhD research will be a comparative study of the poetics of Paul Celan and Aavot Yeshurun regarding modernity's "Crisis of Language".

 

Presidential Stipend 2016/17

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Heeli Schechter

Heeli Schechter

Department of Archaeology and ancient Near East

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Subject: The use of shell adornment during the Neolithic of the Mediterranean zone of the Southern Levant.  

Supervisor: Daniella Bar-Yosef Mayer and Nigel Goring-Morris

Abstract: The shells of marine molluscs are among the oldest ornaments used by humans. Shells were instrumental in past economic life, as a component in exchange networks, connecting individuals and communities from distant regions. They carry symbolic meaning as artefacts of personal adornment and act as social and personal identity agents. During the Neolithic period in the Levant, shells were used as beads, pendants and inlays, produced by different technological manufacturing procedures, and used in various ways. 

The aims of this project include composing a comprehensive overview and synthesis of shells in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B of the Mediterranean Levant, focusing on the use of shells in different life situations – private, public, mortuary, and intra-site context. An additional aim is to incorporate microscopic methods in the study of manufacturing technology and use-wear, never before carried out in this region.
The materials for this study include both newly excavated shell assemblages and reanalysis of published material. The sources to be used include previous reports on mollusc assemblages; different guides to taxonomic research; published methodological research concerning bead-making technology and macro- and microscopic use-ware analysis; theoretical literature concerning personal adornment, use of space, social and economic interaction, identity and more.

Bio: I have been interested in archaeology since childhood and have participated in excavations from a young age. I have a BA from Ben Gurion University in the Negev and an MA from Tel Aviv University. My MA thesis examined the social and economic place of Qumran Cave 24 (Judean desert), through different aspects of material culture. My main field of expertise is lithics (flint and obsidian) from Neolithic contexts. As part of a wider interest in identities in archaeology I would like to study expressions of personal adornment using molluscan (shell) assemblages.

Publications: 

 

Gopher, A., Eirikh-Rose, A., Ashkenazi, H., Marco, E., May, H., Makoviychuk, Y., Sapir-Hen, L., Galmor, S., Schechter, H.C., Ackerfeld, D., Haklay, G. and Zutovski, K. 2019. Nahal Yarmuth 38: A new and unique PPNB site in central Israel. Antiquity 93(371): e29 (1-8).

Schechter, H.C., Zutovski, K., Agam, A., Wilson, L. and A. Gopher. 2018. Refitting Bifacial Production Waste – the Case of the Wadi Rabah Refuse Pit from Ein Zippori, Israel. Lithic Technology 43(4): 228-244. DOI: 10.1080/01977261.2018.1514723

Schechter, H.C., Gopher, A., Getzov, N., Rice, E., Yaroshevich, A. and I. Milevski. 2016. The Obsidian Assemblages from the Wadi Rabah Occupations at Ein Zippori, Israel. Paléorient 42(1): 27-48.

Agam, A., Walzer, N., Schechter, H.C., Zutovski, K., Milevski, I., Getzov, N., Gopher, A. and R. Barkai. 2016. Organized waste disposal in the Pottery Neolithic? A Bifacial Workshop Refuse Pit at Ein Zippori, Israel. Journal of Field Archaeology 41(6): 713-730. 

Schechter, H.C., Marder, O. Barkai, R., Getzov, N., and A. Gopher. 2013. The obsidian assemblage from Neolithic Hagoshrim, Israel: pressure technology and cultural influence. In: F. Borrell, J. J. Ibáñez, M. Molist (eds.) Stone Tools in Transition: From Hunter-Gatherers to Farming Societies in the Near East. Bellaterra (Barcelona): Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Pp. 509-528.

Gopher, A., Lemorini, C., Boaretto, E., Carmi, I., Barkai R., and H.C. Schechter. 2013. Qumran Cave 24, a Neolithic-Chalcolithic site by the Dead Sea: a short report and some information on lithics. In: F. Borrell, J. J. Ibáñez, M. Molist (eds.) Stone Tools in Transition: From Hunter-Gatherers to Farming Societies in the Near East. Bellaterra (Barcelona): Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Pp. 101-114. 
 

 

 

President Stipend 2016/17

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Yair

Dr. Yair Segev

Department of Bible

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Subject: The Deuteronomistic Redaction of the Former Prophets: Its Relation to the Book of Deuteronomy and its Law Code

Supervisor: Dr. Ronnie Goldstein

Abstract: My research deals with the redaction of the Former Prophets (Joshua to Kings) and its affinity with the book of Deuteronomy and its law code (Deut. 12 – 26). Scholars have noticed such an affinity already in the 19th century, though they left its exact nature and details unsolved. One should note also the exhaustion of scholarly terminology in passing generations. I intend to conduct a more penetrating inquiry into the nature of the relation between the two corpora: With which segments of Deuteronomy were the redactors of the former prophets acquainted and in which phase of redaction?       

 

President Stipend 2016/17

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