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Phd Alumni | Jack, Joseph & Morton Mandel School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities

Phd Alumni

Rebecca  Biton

Dr. Rebecca Biton

The institute of Archaeology

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Subject: Archaeozoological Study of Amphibians and Reptiles from Pleistocene and Holocene Archaeological Sites in the Hula Valley, Israel

Supervisor: Dr. Rivka Rabinovich

Abstract: My Ph.D. dissertation focus on sites in a restricted geographical area, the HulaValley, in north Israel. The HulaValley encompasses a complex of distinct water bodies, including the LakeHula and its swamps, numerous springs and streams which has yielded important archaeological records of human occupation dating from one million years ago. That research will concentrate on three excavated, well-dated sites: Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (GBY) – a Lower Paleolithic site (Early-Middle Pleistocene, ca. 780,000 B.P.),Nahal Mahanayeem Outlet (NMO) – A Mousterian site (Late Pleistocene, ca. 70,000 B.P.), Ain Mallaha/Eynan – A Natufian site (Late Pleistocene, ca. 12,000 B.P.) excavated by Prof. F. Valla

The study has two main objectives

Taxonomic identification of amphibian and reptile species present in the Hula Valley from the Lower Paleolithic to the Natufian period

To shed light on the nature of the human- amphibian and reptile relationships throughout the different periods and cultures within those chronological contexts. Were amphibian and reptile species collected and utilized by hominins and, if so, how may they have been utilized

Snakes, tortoises, pond turtles, lizards and amphibians are present at all sites, and their taxonomic identification will make a major contribution towards the understanding of paleonvironment and paleoclimate of the Hula Valley during the Pleistocene and Early Holocene

It is already obvious that the species distribution and the number of bones retrieved varies significantly from site to site, indicating a unique story for each, a story that will hopefully shed light on the as yet unknown relationship between humans and herpetofauna during the prehistoric periods in Israel

 

Presidential Stipend 2012/13

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Ivri Bunis

Dr. Ivri Bunis

Hebrew Language

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Subject: The Morphosyntax of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic from the Byzantine Period

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

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Adi Burtman

Adi Burtman

Musicology

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Subject: The Emotional Subject as Portrayed in Nineteenth-Century Italian Tragic Opera: The Psychosocial Map of Jealousy

Supervisor: Prof. Ruth HaCohen

Abstract: In my research I wish to examine the way in which nineteenth century Italian opera reflects and mediates the dynamic emotional space of Italian subjects and society, and in particular the conflicted emotional space of jealousy and its surroundings.

 

Presidential Stipend 2013/14

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Rammie Cahlon

Rammie Cahlon

Linguistics

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Subject: Linguistic diversity in Quechuan

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

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Elnatan Chen

Dr. Elnatan Chen

Department of Hebrew Language

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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

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Murtaza Shopra

Murtaza Chopra

Department of Archaeology

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Subject: How mathematical astronomy was developed in Assyrya and Babylone

Supervisor: Prof. Wayne Horowitz

Abstract: The astral bodies were of central interest throughout the entire Mesopotamian civilization history. We found tablets of Persian and Seleucid periods with numbers and procedures that allow us an insight into their purely mathematical theory of astronomical phenomena. I try to understand how a mathematical theory of the moon’s behavior was conceived and developed in the first millennium B.C, why they found mathematisation appropriate for better understanding it, and what principals led to this scientific achievement.

Bio: I am an Assyriology PhD candidate, beginning my third year. The topic of my research is trying to understand how mathematical astronomy was developed in Assyrya and Babylone.

 

Presidential Stipend 2017/18

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Haim Cohen

Department of Cognitive Sciences

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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

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israel cohen

Israel J. Cohen

Department of Philosophy

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Subject:  Ontological studies of the laws of halakhah and morality

Supervisor: Dr. Aaron Segal; Prof. David Enoch 

Abstract: Pre-theoretically, we attribute different degrees of moral values to different acts. This attribution of degrees has various implications for cases of deliberation, uncertainty and additional contexts.
In my research I want to give a theoretical account abuot the phenomenon of wrongness and rightness coming in degrees: the question of whether the phenomenon exists, the relation of such degrees to the binary features of rightness and wrongness, the correct metaphysical account of the phenomenon, and an investigation of a number of questions it raises in normative ethics and in Jewish legal contexts.

Bio: I am interested in metaphysics, meta-ethics, philosophy of halakhah and the connections between these fields. My research topics are the concepts of halakhic law and moral law.

 

President Stipend 2018/19

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Naama  Dar Amir

Naama Dar Amir

Department of History

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Subject: The London Pleasure Fairs in the first half of the Nineteenth Century

Supervisor: Professor Dror Wahrman and Professor Moshe Sluhovsky

Abstract: My PhD thesis examines the role of the London Pleasure Fairs in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century. This was an especially important period in their long history that marked both new developments in the nature of the Fairs as well as the disappearance of most of the long established Fairs.

My thesis will suggest the Fairs were integral to the formation of the city's life and culture and the practices created and established within them held much bigger social and cultural impact than was assumed by scholars so far. Indeed I argue that understanding the changing nature of the Fairs, their decline and the rise of new cultural institutions that took on some of their roles and practices, is crucial to understanding the cultural, political and social changes in the period.  

 Presidential Stipend 2013/14

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Idan Dershowitz

Dr. Idan Dershowitz

Biblical Studies

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Subject: Mosaica: Material Methods of Biblical Redaction

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

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Lena Dubinsky

Lena Dubinsky

Department of Art History

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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

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Shlomi Efrati

Dr. Shlomi Efrati

Department of Talmud and Halakha

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Subject: Psiqata of Ten Commandments and Psiqta of Matan Torah: Text, Redaction and Tradition Analysis

Supervisor: Prof. Menahem Kister

Abstract: In my dissertation I study two rabbinic compositions, which weave together various sources and traditions around the verses of the Ten Commandments. In my work I will establish a reliable text for these compositions, determine their date and provenance, and explore their relations to other rabbinic compositions. Finally, I intend to delve into some of the more interesting (and puzzling) traditions that are gathered in these composition. Thus I hope to shed some light on the development and contents of these (intriguing) Pesiqatas. Furthermore, this work will contribute to the understanding of the evolution and transmission of traditions in the rabbinic literature.

Publications:

•    "הגלות השנייה: גלות, חזרה וגלגולי עריכה בספר הצוואות", מגילות יא-יב (תשעד-תשעה), עמ' 221-256
•    "קונטרס פרק חלק ופרקי מגילה (א): מסורת נוסח ייחודית של פרק חלק"; "קונטרס פרק חלק ופרקי מגילה (ב): מסורת נוסח ייחודית של פרק 'מגילה נקראת' והערות על התהוות נוסח התלמוד", תרביץ (הוגש לשיפוט)

 

Presidential Stipend 2015/16

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Lily Eilan

Dr. Lily Eilan

Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies

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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

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יוגב

Dr. Yogev Elbaz

Department of  Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies

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Subject: Israel's Intervention in Lebanese Civil War (1975-1982) as a Case Study of its Policy in the Region

Supervisor: Prof. Elie Podeh, Prof. Eyal Zisser

Abstract: My dissertation will examine Israel's policy towards Lebanon from the late 60's until 1982 Lebanon War, and will especially focus in Israel's Involvement in Lebanese Civil War (from 1975). In this paper, I will analyze the following issues: the nature of the involvement; the course of events that led to the first Lebanon war; the processes and consequences of the intervention in terms of Israeli society and its influence on foreign policy; and finally, the compatibility between Israel's actions in Lebanon and its stated policy in the Middle East.   

Bio: I completed a BA in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies and Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry, and MA in Israel Studies - both in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. My Master thesis - ''Villa in the Jungle?': Israel's Involvement in Middle-Eastern Conflicts as Part of its Policy in the Region, 1949-1970' - dealt with Israel's clandestine policy in the Middle East, and focused in Israel's interventions in two Intra-Arab conflicts: Yemen’s civil war (1962-1967); and 'Black September' crisis in Jordan (1970).

Publications:

Elbaz, Yogev. "Beyond the Periphery: Israel's Intervention in the Yemen Civil War in the 1960s", Israel Studies, Under Review.

אלבז, יוגב. 'אותיות פורחות באוויר: הספר גוילי אש כמשקף ומעצב ההנצחה הישראלית בראשיתה', בתוך: ישראל גרשוני ומאיר חטינה [עורכים], עבר מתעתע: מיתוס, היסטוריה וזיכרון בחברות אסלאמיות ובחברה הישראלית (תל אביב: רסלינג, 2021), עמ' 441-397.

אלבז, יוגב. 'סיכון מחושב: מעורבות ישראל במלחמת האזרחים בירדן, ספטמבר 1970', עיונים: כתב עת רב-תחומי לחקר ישראל, גיליון 31 (2019), עמ' 181-152.

אלבז, יוגב. 'אויב אויבי הוא ידידי: מעורבות ישראל במלחמת האזרחים בתימן כחלק מהמלחמה הקרה בין ישראל למצרים, 1967-1956', היה היה, גיליון 10 (פברואר 2014), 93-71.

*אלבז, יוגב. '"כאן כדי להישאר": מעורבות איראן בסוריה, 2021-2011', עדכן אסטרטגי. נשלח לביקורת עמיתים.
 

President Stipend 2018/19

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Uri Erman

Dr. Uri Erman

History

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Subject: Perceptions of opera singers in Britain, 1760-1830: A cultural history

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”, 18th 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

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Hadar Feldman Samet

Dr. Hadar Feldman Samet

Department of Jewish Thought

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Subject: The Hymns of the Sabbatean "Ma'aminim" in their Ottoman Context

Supervisor: Dr. Pawel Maciejko

Abstract: My work is dedicated  to the research of the lives and texts of the Sabbatean "Ma'aminim", also known as " Dönme ", who converted to Islam in the footsteps of their messiah Sabbatai Sevi. The Ma'aminim lived in Ottoman Salonika, starting at the late 17th century, and until 1924, when they were forcibly repatriated in Istanbul.

My research deals with one of the few authentic inner sources that are available: a codex of approximately a thousand mystical, messianic, liturgical poems, dating to the 18th and 19th centuries, written in Ladino, Hebrew, Aramaic and Ottoman- Turkish. These poems appear in five manuscripts, four are located in Ben Zvi institute and the fifth at Harvard University library archives. To this day only a small part of the poems were examined and published. My research aims to progress current achievements by providing an encompassing and systematic analysis of the entire codex. I wish to discern the unique identity of the Ma'aminim community and their relationship to their surroundings by examining the poems in multiple aspects: Linguistic, formative, musical, ritualistic and philosophical. Through this work I wish to contribute to the understanding of the inner world of the Ma'aminim, as well as exploring their syncretic religion and the development of later Sabbateanism. Moreover, studying the poetry of the Ma'aminim can provide a case study for other syncretic phenomena and a model for exploring inter-cultural relations taking place between a majority and a minority in general, and in European and Ottoman cultures of the early modern era, in particular. 

 

Presidential Stipend 2013/14

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Miri Fenton

Miri Fenton

Department of History of the Jewish People and Contemporary Jewry

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Subject: Everyday Life, Identity, and Communal Relations: A Comparison of Kehilot Shum and Aragon, c.1200 – 1347

Supervisor: Prof. Elisheva Baumgarten

Abstract: Using case studies, my research into medieval Jewish communal identity challenges contemporary academic use of the category of “community" as an analytical tool. Using Hebrew, Latin and vernacular sources, I explore how communal identity was built and developed through complex social processes and sets of interactions. By comparing and contrasting Jewish communities in the lands of the Crown of Aragon and in Ashkenaz, I hope to propose a new framework for how we can think of medieval Jewish communities in a theoretically nuanced way. 

Bio: Miri is writing her PhD in Medieval history, comparing and contrasting Jewish community life in the Crown of Aragon and Ashkenaz, 1100-1347. She uses social history and social theory to investigate the realities of Jewish communal life and investigate how communities were constituted by the everyday interactions and relationships. Miri holds a BA in history, and an MPhil in philosophy of religion, from the University of Cambridge. She was the Henry Fellow at Yale Graduate School 2011-12, and has spent two years learning in egalitarian yeshivot in New York and Jerusalem. She also edits academic texts in English. Under the supervision of Prof. Elisheva Baumgarten, her thesis is entitled “Everyday Life, Identity, and Communal Relations: A Comparison of Kehilot Shum and Aragon, 1100-1347.”

Publications:

“The Lives of the Dead in Medieval Ashkenaz,” in In, Out and In Between: Jewish Daily Life in medieval Europe, eds. Elisheva Baumgarten and Ido Noy (2021)

“Moving Bodies: Corpses and Communal Space in Medieval Ashkenaz,” Jewish Studies Quarterly (forthcoming, 2021).

“Absent Husbands and Lonely Wives”; Clearing Refuse in Medieval Cologne”; “Instructions to my Sons and Daughters: The Ethical Will of Eleazar, an 'Average Jew'”; “Piety Even in Death: Rabbeinu Bahya Commenting on Ashkenazi Custom”; R. Yom Tov’s Suicide”; “Remembering Pietism in Ashkenaz from Spain”; “The Attack on the Jews of York in 1190 Reported in Christian Sources”; “The Sweetness of Learning Torah”; “Using Your Wife’s Money to Pay Your Bills: Meir of Rothenburg Responsa,” in Jewish Daily Life in Medieval Northern Europe, 1000-1350: A Sourcebook (Medieval Institute, Michigan State University Press, forthcoming 2021)

Book Review, Javier Castaño, Talya Fishman, and Ephraim Kanarfogel, eds. Regional Identities and Cultures of Medieval Jews. Oxford: Liverpool University Press, 2018. 362 pp. Chiddushim, no. 21 (2019) [Hebrew].

“Hasdai Crescas, Grounds for assertions about God and the philosophical use of scripture,” Journal of Scriptural Reasoning 15 (2016).

“A dedicatory letter and its context: Beinecke MS 115,” Yale Law School Library Journal (2012).
 

Rotenstreich Stipend 2018/19

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Eran Fish

Dr. Eran Fish

Philosophy

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Subject:

Supervisor: Dani Attas

Abstract: My research addresses different aspects of consequentialism. Among other things, I ask the following questions: if everyone’s good is equally important, does it ever matter whose good we promote? should we distinguish between statistical and identifiable victims? What is the value of an equal chance? Is well-being additive?

 

Polonsky Stipend 2012/13

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Yael Gaulan

Department of Linguistics

Subject: Communication Patterns in Emotional Dicourse in Hebrew

Supervisor: Dr. Elitzur Bar-Asher Siegal, Prof. Zohar Kampf