check
Dr. Amit Levy | Jack, Joseph & Morton Mandel School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities

Dr. Amit Levy

Department of History

Subject: The New Orient: German-Jewish Orientalism in Palestine/Israel

Supervisor: Prof. Yfaat Weiss and Dr. Aya Elyada

Abstract: In my PhD project, I study the history of Orientalism as an academic discipline in Palestine/Israel, and its German-Jewish roots, by focusing on the life and work of prominent German-Jewish orientalists who founded and developed the School of Oriental Studies at the Hebrew University. At the center of my work stands the transfer of orientalist knowledge, which embodied an essential transformation in the encounter with the Orient: from a scientific, textual encounter in Germany, to a living, physical encounter in Palestine/Israel. I attribute great importance to the circumstances and context of this transformation: the Aliyah/immigration of the orientalists, the transfer agents, whether out of Zionist aspirations or pragmatic considerations; and the great changes in the destination country - national Zionist consolidation and an intensifying Arab-Jewish conflict, in a place which was by and large an Arab space, in language and culture.
Therefore, I ask the following questions: how did immigration to Palestine/Israel affect the German-Jewish orientalists, both professionally and personally? What were the models that these scholars develop in order to mediate between the two ends of knowledge transfer? How were Oriental Studies in the Hebrew University shaped, when its German roots were confronted with the local population, the escalation of violence during the British Mandate period, the political and security needs of the Zionist establishment and the state of Israel, and other orientalist approaches?
This study draws from a rich corpus of archival documents from personal and institutional collections in Israel and abroad, as well as personal interviews.

Bio: I am a PhD student in the Department of History, where I also completed my BA (History & Political Science) and MA (History), both with distinction. During my studies I also participated in the Traces and Treasures of German-Jewish History project (a cooperation between the Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Research Center and DLA Marbach, Germany) - preserving, sorting and cataloging archival collections of German-Jewish orientalists in Israel. Born and raised in Jerusalem, I currently live in Givatayim. Married to Moran, father of Ahinoam. A retired amateur bass player.

Publications:

  • “The Archive as a Storyteller: Refractions of German-Jewish Oriental Studies Migration in Personal Archives,” Simon-Dubnow-Institut Yearbook XVII (2018, forthcoming). 
  • “Orientalist Collections at the National Library of Israel,” Geschichte der Germanistik 49/50 (2016), pp. 147-148.
  • “A Man of Contention: Martin Plessner (1900–1973) and His Encounters with the Orient,” Naharaim 10.1 (September 2016), pp. 79-100.
  • “'השייח': ניגודים ויזואליים ונרטיביים בדרך להבנת האוריינטליזם האמריקני בשלושה עשורי ניתוח”, סליל 10 (חורף 2016), עמ' 39-57.
  • “'מַעלֶש, נסתדר': ערבית בפולקלור הפלמ”ח של שנות הארבעים,” היה היה 11 (סתיו 2015), עמ' 46-66.

 

President stipend 2017/18