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A Guide to Israeli Speakers Visiting the United
EMBASSY OF ISRAEL A Guide to Israeli Speakers Visiting the United States 2012-2013 Embassy of Israel Washington, D.C. A Guide to Israeli Speakers Visiting the United States 2012-2013 In this era of information explosion, when so much is reported about Israel and yet so little is known of its true nature, we in the Academic Department at the Embassy of Israel believe it is more important than ever to tell the Israeli story. And who better to tell the story than Israeli speakers? Telling the story straight from the source. Telling the story for better or for worse. Prominent Israeli diplomats, university professors, scientists and journalists, all are ready to share their expertise with the American public. The diversity of topics ranges from Israeli humor to high-tech entrepreneurship, Israeli politics to changes in the Middle East, or even the soundtrack of Israeli history. With so many subjects and aspects of Israel, you just have to choose the right one for you. We are proud to present our green Israeli Speakers’ Guide produced as a digital copy, also accessible online. In the guide, you will find the full details of the Israeli speakers in the United States. This year for your convenience, the guide includes a directory of topics as well as a directory of available speakers by geographic location. When you contact these speakers, we would appreciate if you would mention your referral by the Embassy of Israel. We would also be grateful for your thoughts and feedback about the lecture or discussion. We wish you a fascinating and fruitful academic year. Sincerely, Oren Marmorstein National Academic Coordinator for North America For additional information, please contact: Tali Efraty Embassy of Israel Director of Academic Affairs and Speakers' Bureau Phone: (202) 364-5577 academic@washington.mfa.gov.il List of Speakers by Region (Consulate) Boston Yarden Fanta-Vagenshtein Michal Frenkel Annie Tracy Samuel Ben-Dror Yemini Chicago Dr. Gideon Grief Yehuda Halper Houston Ofer Ashkenazi Nimrod Rosler Rhona Seidelman Los Angeles Sarina Chen Amos Guiora Anat Maor Menachem Mor Ilai Saltzman New York cont’d Sheera Talpaz Ilan Toren Miami Chen Bram San Francisco Ela Bauer Arie Dubnov Moshe Naor Aviad Raz Shalom Sabar Assaf Sheleg Yaacov Yadgar New York David Baker Sariel Birnbaum Yoni Bloch Jason Olson Maoz Rosenthal Philadelphia Dan Valsky Washington D.C. Yonah Alexander Dan Arbell Mitchell Bard Maina Chawla Singh Adam Danel Rafael D. Frankel Dan Gincel Adam Harmon Jacob Jaffe Edward Kaufman Martin Kramer Fred Lazin Geoffrey Levin Jonathan Rynhol Ari Sachar Daniel Zisenwine List of Speakers by Topic Arab Israeli Conflict Dan Arbell Mitchell Bard Rafael D. Frankel Shlomo Hasson Jacob Jaffe Edward Kaufman Yoram Peri Nimrod Rosler Jonathan Rynhold Ilai Saltzman Ilan Toren Ben-Dror Yemini Daniel Zisenwine Arab Spring Dan Arbell David Baker Sariel Birnbaum Rafael D. Frankel Aryeh Green Shlomo Hasson Martin Kramer Moshe Naor Daniel Zisenwine Entrepreneurship and Science Dan Gincel Aviad Raz Dan Valsky The Holocaust Mitchell Bard Gideon Greif Assaf Sheleg Israeli Cinema and Media Ofer Ashkenazi Ela Bauer Sariel Birnbaum Israeli History Jacob Jaffe Menachem Mor Moshe Naor Shalom Sabar Rhona Seidelman Assaf Sheleg Annie Tracy Samuel Yaacov Yadgar Israeli Military History and Counterterrorism Rafael D. Frankel Amos Guiora Adam Harmon Geoffrey Levin Moshe Naor Jason Olsen Yoram Peri Ari Sachar Israeli Politics Dan Arbell David Baker Adam Danel Michal Frenkel Shlomo Hasson Fred Lazin Geoffrey Levin Anat Maor Maoz Rosenthal Jonathan Rynhold Daniel Zisenwine Nationalism and Terrorism Yonah Alexander Rafael D. Frankel Shlomo Hasson Geoffrey Levin Ilai Saltzman Annie Tracy Samuel Israeli Society and Culture Ela Bauer Yoni Bloch Maina Chawla Singh Sarina Chen Adam Danel Arie Dubnov Yarden Fanta-Vagenshtein Aviad Raz Nimrod Rosler Assaf Sheleg Sheera Talpaz Yaacov Yadgar U.S.-Israel Relations Dan Arbell Mitchell Bard Yehuda Halper Martin Kramer Fred Lazin Jason Olsen Jonathan Rynhold Ilai Saltzman Annie Tracy Samuel Daniel Zisenwine Jewish Studies Yehuda Halper Menachem Mor Jason Olsen Shalom Sabar Yaacov Yadgar Law, Peace, and Human Rights Ofer Ashkenazi Aryeh Green Women in Israeli Society Maina Chawla Singh Sarina Chen Michal Frenkel Anat Maor Aviad Raz Zionism Chen Bram Arie Dubnov Jacob Jaffe Jason Olsen Rhona Seidelman Yonah Alexander The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies Yalexander@potomacinstitute.org | Professor Yonah Alexander is currently a Senior Fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies and Director of its International Center for Terrorism Studies. Concurrently, he is Director of the Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies and Co-Director of the Inter-University Center for Legal Studies. Both are consortia of universities and think tanks throughout the world. In addition, Professor Alexander directed the Terrorism Studies program (George Washington University) and the Studies in International Terrorism (State University of New York). Educated at Columbia University (Ph.D.), the University of Chicago (M.A.), and Roosevelt University of Chicago (B.A.), Professor Alexander taught at: The George Washington University, The American University, the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University of America, Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University, Haifa University, The City University of New York, and The State University of New York. Prof. Alexander is founder and editor-in-chief of three international journals: Minorities and Group Rights; Terrorism; and Political Communication and Persuasion. He has published over 95 books on the subjects of international affairs and terrorism. His 2008 publications include Evolution of U.S. Counterterrorism Policy: A Documentary Collection (3 Vols.); Turkey: Terrorism, Civil Rights, and the European Union; and The New Iranian Leadership: Terrorism, Nuclear Ambition, and the Middle East. Terrorism on the High Seas: From Piracy to Strategic Challenge and Terrorists in Our Midst: Professor Alexander has appeared on many television and radio programs in over 60 countries. He recently participated in discussions related to maritime terrorism, al-Qaida, and the Mumbai attack on al-Jazeera, Syrian, Swedish, Turkish, Indian, Voice of America, and CNN. His op-ed articles and interviews were published in both the United States and the international press. TOPICS: Terrorism: Will Western Civilization Survive? Middle East Terrorism Terrorism and Israel Terrorism and the U.S. Dan Arbell American University | dsarbell@gmail.com Dan Arbell, a scholar-in-residence at the Department of History and Center for Israeli Studies at American University in Washington, is a 25 year veteran of the Israeli Foreign Service, serving in senior posts overseas in the UN, the United States and Japan, and holding senior positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Headquarters in Jerusalem. Notably he was Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Israel in Washington D.C and worked as Ambassador Michael Oren's second in command for nearly three years (2009-2012). In the 90's, he served as Ambassador Itamar Rabinovich's Chief of Staff and a member of Israel's negotiating team with Syria (1993-1996). From 2001-2005, Dan served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Israeli Embassy in Tokyo, Japan. Back in Jerusalem (2005-2009) he was Acting Head of the North America division at MFA. He holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a Bachelor's degree from Hebrew University in World History and Political Science. He's a frequent guest speaker and lecturer in public for a nationwide focus on his areas of expertise which include the U.S.-Israel relations, Israel's strategic environment and challenges, and Israel's place in the changing Middle East. Dan is married to Sarit and together they have four children. TOPICS: U.S.-Israel Relations Israel's Strategic Environment Israel's Place in the Changing Middle East Ofer Ashkenazi University of Minnesota | Ofer.ashkenazi@mail.huji.ac.il Dr. Ofer Ashkenazi is a Teaching Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Haifa. His research interests include German-Jewish history, Zionist history and the international peace movement of the interwar years. He received his Ph.D. in History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His numerous publications addressing Zionism, Germany and films include the forthcoming book, A Walk into the Night: Madness and Subjectivity in Weimar Film. Many of his classes address the portrayal of national identity in films, particularly in Israel and Germany. Professor Ashkenazi is currently working on a book addressing pre-1948 Jewish sport and body-culture in Palestine. TOPICS: Terrorism: Will Civilization Survive? | Middle East Terrorism | Terrorism and Israel | Terrorism and the U.S. TOPICS: Albert Einstein on Zionism and Peace A Guide to Hidden Israel: Current Israeli Click here to enter text. Films Post-Traumatic Humor in Israel and German Media Jewish Sport and Body Culture in Modern Israel David Baker Prime Minister’s Office | David.baker@it.pmo.gov.il Since August 2000 David has served as Senior Foreign Press Coordinator, The Prime Minister's Office, Jerusalem. His duties include explaining the Prime Minister's policies to foreign journalists, coordinating the Prime Minister's Office reaction and spokespeople for the foreign press in Israel and abroad. Analyzing foreign media trends, briefing foreign journalists, and proposing and implementing information policy for the international media. A native of Queens, New York, David liaises between the Prime Minister's Office and serves on the front lines of Israel's media battleground. David has also spoken extensively in the North America, both on university campuses and within the Jewish community. Prior to his work in the Prime Minister's office, David worked as a writer and editor for the Ministry of Education's international relations division and as a journalist for several English-language publications in Israel. He graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo and made aliyah to Israel in 1985. David holds the rank of Captain as a reserve officer in the IDF Spokesperson's Unit. TOPICS: Media and Current Events Middle Eastern and Foreign Affairs Inside Israel and U.S. Government Positively Israel Mitchell Bard American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise | Mitchellbard@gmail.com Mitchell Bard is the Executive Director of the nonprofit American Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE) and one of the leading authorities on U.S. Middle East policy. Dr. Bard is also the director of the Jewish Virtual Library (www.JewishVirtualLibrary.org), the world’s most comprehensive online encyclopedia of Jewish history and culture. For three years he was the editor of the Near East Report, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's (AIPAC) weekly newsletter on U.S. Middle East policy. TOPICS: U.S.-Israel Relations Bard holds a Ph.D. in political science from UCLA and a master's degree in public policy from Berkeley. He received his B.A. in economics from UC Santa Barbara. Dr. Bard has appeared on local, national, and international media outlets including the BBC, MSNBC, and al-Jazeera. The Holocaust The Peace Process Media Bias His work been published in academic journals, magazines and major newspapers. He has written and edited 22 books, including Will Israel Survive?, Myths And Facts: A Guide to the Arab Israeli Conflict, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Middle East Conflict and 48 Hours of Kristallnacht. His latest books are The Arab Lobby: The Invisible Alliance That Undermines America's Interests in the Middle East and Israel Matters: Understand the Past – Look to the Future. Ela Bauer University of California-Davis | elabau@gmail.com Ela Bauer is the chair of the Department of Media & Film at Ha-Kibbutzim College in Tel Aviv. In addition she teacher in the Jewish History Department at Haifa University and the academic coordinator of the Posen Research Forum at Faculty of Law at Haifa University. Her academic interests include modern Jewish history; Zionism, modern Jewish cultural history and cultural of Polish Jewry and history of Jewish press. Her book Between Poles and Jews; the Development of Nahum Sokolow Political Though published at the Hebrew University Magnes Press, Jerusalem. She is also academic adviser of the Posen Foundation in Israel. TOPICS: Development of Modern Israeli Culture Israeli Media and Cinema Modern Jewish Identity Modern Israeli Identities Sariel Birnbaum Click here to enter text. SUNY Binghamton | Sarielb@gmail.com Dr. Sariel Birnbaum is working as a Brenda Danet post-doc at the Smart Institute of Communication, Hebrew University. He received his Ph.D. from Hebrew University after conducting research in the field of history in Egyptian films. From 2008 until 2010, he was a Research Fellow at the Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace, Hebrew University. He has worked in many institutions, including "Jewish People Planning Policy Institute."He has also published many articles about film and media including, "Historical Discourse in the Media of the Palestinian National Authority," and “Iraq in contemporary Egyptian Cinema – Impotence and lack of interest”. Click here to enter text. TOPICS: Image of the Jew in Arab Cinema Revolutions in the Arab World Cinema predicting revolutions, in the Arab World and beyond Image of the Jew in World Cinema PLO, Hamas, and their historical narratives Yoni Bloch New York | yonibloch@gmail.com Yoni Bloch is a successful Israeli musician and performer. As an avid believer and early adopter of the Internet, Yoni first entered the public's eye in 2003, with the debut of his first album over the Internet. Since then, he has been able to successfully launch various creative online initiatives and constantly strives to find innovative ways to promote and deliver music through innovative means. In 2009 Yoni founded Interlude, a digital media start-up company that designs, develops, and markets interactive video technology. The company raised over $3 million from Sequoia and currently has offices in the US and Europe. Interlude has customers all over the world including Nokia, Microsoft, J.Crew, Old Navy, NBC and more. TOPICS: Israeli Society Israeli Innovation Chen Bram Click here to enter text. University of Florida | chen.bram@mail.huji.ac.il Dr. Chen Bram is an anthropologist and organizational psychologist. He is a research fellow at the Truman Institute of the Hebrew University, involved in anthropological research. He also teaches in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University. Bram is a graduate of the Mandel Institute for Educational Leadership, and has completed additional studies in comparative religion and philosophy. He has also worked with various organizations and projects as an organizational counselor and group facilitator Bram received his PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His dissertation was entitled "Ethnic Categorization and Cultural diversity – A View from the Margins: Caucasus Jews between Europe and Asia." His work focuses on issues of diversity, multiculturalism and ethnic relations in Israeli society and other societies. Combining his academic interests with practical applications, he has worked with immigrants from the Former Soviet Union; initiated and managed a project to promote immigrant leadership in the Mandel School of Educational Leadership; and served as an advisor to the Ministry for Immigrant Absorption. TOPICS: Click hereDiaspora to enterin text. A Different the Holy-Land: Circassians-Muslims in Israel Pioneers of the Post-Soviet Migration to Israel: the Dramatic Story of Central Asian Jews from Fergana Valley Diversity in Israel: from Challenge to Resource Maina Chawla Singh American University| Maina_singh@hotmail.com Maina Chawla Singh, is an Associate Professor at the University of Delhi, a Senior Associate Fellow, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University and a Scholar-in-Residence, American University, Washington DC. Dr. Singh’s previous research has focused on gender and colonialism especially the work of missionary women and the history of colonial medicine. In addition to numerous essays and articles, Singh is the author of Gender, Religion, and “Heathen Lands”: American Missionary Women in South Asia (1860s – 1940s), (New York: 2000). 2005-2008: Singh researched and lectured in Israel at Bar-Ilan, Haifa and Tel Aviv universities. Her recent book “Being Indian, Being Israeli” (2009) is based on field-work done among Indian Jews in Israel. It examines issues of ethnicity, migration, gender and identity. Singh is currently working on the Migration Narratives of first-generation IndianJewish women who came from Bombay, Calcutta and Cochin in the 1950s, ‘60s, and ‘70s and were settled in moshavs, “development towns‟ and elsewhere in Israel. In 2008, Singh was Scholar-in-Residence, HadassahBrandeis Institute In 2009, and Fellow at Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University. Since 2010, Singh has offered courses on “Migration, Ethnicity and Identity in Israeli Society” at Georgetown University and on Indian Diaspora at American University. TOPICS: Being Indian, Being Israeli: Aliya and Identity Among Indian Jews in Israel We are Not Mizrahi, we are Indian Jews: Indian Jewish Women in Israel Jewish Girlhood in India: Narratives of Indian-Israeli Women Sarina Chen Click here to enter text. UCLA | Chen.sarina@gmail.com Dr. Sarina Chen is a Jewish studies professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research focuses on Jerusalem, ethnography, Jewish thought, national-religious society in Israel and women and Judaism in modern times. She received her Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from the Hebrew University’s Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies. She has written several articles addressing Jewish Studies and Jewish art, including the textbook Jerusalem and Art (1996) for a televised course by Israeli Educational Television. She has taught classes on memory and folklore, Jewish culture, women and Judaism, Jewish art and Jerusalem. TOPICS: The Temple Mount- Juncture of Beliefs, History and Politics Click here to enter text. The “Art” of Zealots The Jewish-Israeli Case Jewish Women and Revolutionary Movements Liberal or Zionist? Adam Danel Virginia Tech | adamdd@netvision.net.il Dr. Adam Danel holds a B.A. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He is a senior lecturer of Political Science and Philosophy at Ben Gurion University and a senior lecturer of Political Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Dr. Danel has authored two books: A Case for Freedom: Machiavellian Humanism, and A Jewish and A Democratic State: A Multiculturalist Perspective. He has also written extensively on politics and democracy. TOPICS: Israeli Politics Israeli Democracy Israeli Society Religious & Ethnic Minorities in IsraelComparative & Normative Perspectives Arie Dubnov Click here to enter text. Stanford University | Dubnov@stanford.edu Dr. Arie Dubnov is a Lecturer of history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research interests focus on modern intellectual history, with an emphasis on the history of Zionism in comparison to other European nationalisms and the history of British liberal thought. He has written several articles, many of which address Isaiah Berlin, Jacob Talmon, Jewish nationalism and Zionism. He received his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and has taught classes there as well as at the Open University of Israel and Stanford University. Courses Professor Dubnov recently taught include What is Anti-Semitism?; History of the Zionist Movement; European History 1914-1945 Though the Lens of Popular Cinema and Tel Aviv: State, City, Symbol. TOPICS: Click here to enter text. Ambiguity or Ambivalence? The Anti-Cosmopolitan Liberal Isaiah Berlin The Voyage of a Metaphor “Jewish Normalization‟ and the Dialects of Zionism Tel Aviv: State, City, Symbol Yarden Fanta–Vagenshtein Harvard University | Fantavya@gse.harvard.edu Dr. Yarden Fanta-Vagenshtein is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, department of human development and psychology. In 1985 when she emigrated from Ethiopia to Israel, she did not know how to read or write. In 2005, she completed her Ph.D. in education, becoming the first Ethiopian woman to earn a doctorate in Israel. Dr. Fanta-Vagenshtein was a teaching fellow at Tel Aviv’s School of Education, Science and Technology (2002-2007); presented key Israeli educational and political issues to world leaders as Emissary for the State of Israel, the Jewish Agency for Israel (1997-2005); and served on the board of directors overseeing Israel’s Community Centers for the Ministry of Education (1994- 2000). Dr. FantaVagenshtein’s field of research examines how illiterate immigrants’ adapt to modern societies, specifically Ethiopian assimilation in Israel. TOPICS: Adaption of Illiterate Immigrants to Modern Countries: Ethiopian Assimilation in Israel Rafael D. Frankel Georgetown University | rafaeldfrankel@gmail.com Rafael D. Frankel is an international relations Ph.D. candidate at Georgetown University and an international business development consultant. His research focuses on deterrence of Hamas and Hezbollah and he teaches a course at Georgetown on the conflict between Israel and those Islamist militant organizations. Previous to his studies, Mr. Frankel was a freelance foreign correspondent for nine years, living and working in the Middle East (4 years), Southeast Asia (4.5 years), and South America (4 months). Mr. Frankel reported mainly, but not exclusively, for the American press, including: MSNBC, The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, The Atlantic online and The San Francisco Chronicle. Among the major stories Mr. Frankel covered were the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War, Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and its aftermath, the 2004 Asian Tsunami, and the 2003 crackdown in Burma on democracy activists associated with Nobel Peace-Prize Laureate Ang Sun Suu Kyi. Since Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, Mr. Frankel has traveled to the territory eleven times on reporting assignments. Most recently, he reported from Gaza in the summer of 2011 on the changing political positions and internal dynamics within Hamas. He also covered the 2011 summer protests in Israel for The Atlantic online. Mr. Frankel holds an M.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University where he served as the president of the Middle East and North Africa Forum and as a teaching assistant to then professor and now Israeli Ambassador Michael B. Oren. He holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of California Santa Cruz where he worked as the editor-in-chief and production manager of the student newspaper, City on a Hill Press. Mr. Frankel was awarded the Edward Weintal Fellowship by the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy (2007-2009) for his master’s degree studies. He was also awarded a Rumsfeld Fellowship (2009-2013) and a Schusterman Israel Scholar Fellowship (2012-2013) during his Ph.D. studies. In undergraduate school, he won two individual and two team awards for collegiate news reporting. Mr. Frankel speaks Hebrew, Thai, and Spanish and is originally from Chico, California. TOPICS: Israel and its conflict with Hamas and Hezbollah Hamas Hezbollah The Connections between Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Syria Israeli Deterrence The Modern Arab-Israeli Conflict Israel's Security Paradigm in the New Middle East Michal Frenkel Smith College | michal.frenkel1@mail.huji.ac.il Michal Frenkel is a Senior Lecturer at the department of Sociology and Anthropology, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 2012-13 she is also an AICE Fellow at Smith College. Her research focuses on the transformation of Israeli society in the age of globalization, with special emphasis on the transformation of gender, class and ethnic relations and state and organizational policies. Her empirical and theoretical publications, which appeared in top international and Israeli journals, have looked at the role of geopolitical and centerperiphery power relations in the cross national transfer and translation of management practices within multinational corporations, and across national boundaries. Her recent work focuses on Work-Family balance policies in Israel, from a comparative and global point of view. Click here to enter text. TOPICS: The Paradoxes of Gender Relations in Israel Israel's Identity Politics: Recent Debates and Struggles Israel in the Age of Globalization Dan Gincel Click here to enter text. Johns Hopkins University | Gincel@gmail.com Dr. Dan Gincel is a Director at the Israeli Foundation BioAbroad, with the mission for helping Israeli scientists, physicians and entrepreneurs abroad return to Israel and keep connected with Israel while they are abroad with the aim of reducing the “brain-drain”. Dr. Gincel serves on a scientific advisory board for a new stem cell center in Ben-Gurion University, and serves on the Life Science Advisory Board with the Maryland-Israel Development Center to assist Israeli companies to enter the US market. Dr. Gincel is also the Director of the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund (MSCRF) at the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), before joining TEDCO, Dr.Gincel completed four years of postdoctoral fellowships at Johns Hopkins University, researching the involvement of glutamate transporters in neurological diseases. Dr. Gincel has over 15 years of extensive experience in research and management Dr. Gincel published his research in over 10 peer review articles; he acquired his leadership, management and strategic skills as an officer in the Israeli armed forces and further developed those skills through his work in university environments. Dr. Gincel has a Ph.D. and a B.S. from the BenGurion University in Israel. TOPICS: Stem Cell Research Aryeh Green Ben-Gurion University | Aryeh.green@gmail.com Aryeh Green is the Director of MediaCentral, a Jerusalem-based project providing support services to foreign journalists based in or visiting Israel; high-tech business consultant and executive; public diplomacy (“hasbara”) spokesman; regional democracy activist; reserve briefing officer in IDF Spokesperson’s Unit. He was born in Washington, DC, grew up in San Francisco, and made Aliya in 1984 with wife Katie (Wagerman) from London. He is the policy advisor to Natan Sharansky since mid-1990s; on executive staff of Sharansky’s Yisrael B’Aliya party 2001-2003; senior member of minister Sharansky’s staff in the prime minister’s office 2003- 2005, responsible for contacts with Palestinian and other Arab democracy activists as well as for relations with ‘next generation’ Jewish leaders, coordinating support for Jewish students and faculty at universities around the world, combating anti-Semitism, and public diplomacy activities. He has a BA in psychology from UC Berkeley, MA in international relations from Hebrew University, MSc in business management from Boston/Ben Gurion Universities. Publications include articles in Haaretz, The Jerusalem Post, Israel21C, Washington Jewish Week, SF Northern California Jewish Bulletin, Israel Insider, and on http://aryeh-israel.blogspot.com. Click here to enter text. TOPICS: Current Events in Israel and the Middle East A New Approach to Israel’s Media Relations Human Rights & Freedom in the Middle East Human Rights in Jewish Sources ClickNew here to enter text. The Anti-Semitism Dr. Gideon Greif University of Texas | dr.gideon.greif@gmail.com Dr. Gideon Greif, an Israeli historian, educator and pedagogue, since August 2011 is Professor for Jewish and Israeli History at the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Texas in Austin. He also is Chief Historian and Researcher at the "Shem Olam" Institute for Education, Documentation and Research on Faith and the Holocaust, Israel, and at the Foundation for Holocaust Education Projects in Miami, Florida. Dr. Greif has been working at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, Jerusalem and Givatayim, Israel for more than 30 years. In his many positions at Yad Vashem he has introduced pioneer projects: He established the educational contacts between Yad Vashem and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, and created the seminars for guides, educators and priests from Poland in Yad Vashem, which have become a tradition since 1991. TOPICS: The Holocaust Auschwitz-Birkenau Amos Guiora University of Utah | Amos.guiora@law.utah.edu Professor Amos Guiora, SJ Quinney College of Law, The University of Utah, teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, International Law, Global Perspectives on Counter-terrorism, and Religion and Terrorism. In addition, Guiora incorporates innovative scenario-based instruction to address national and international security issues and dilemmas. Prof. Guiora is a Research Fellow at the International Institute on Counter-Terrorism, The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel, a Corresponding Member, The Netherlands School of Human Rights Research, University of Utrecht School of Law and has been awarded a Senior Specialist Fulbright Fellowship for The Netherlands in 2008. Prof Guiora has published extensively both in the US and Europe on issues related to national security, limits of interrogation, religion and terrorism and the limits of power. Professor Guiora served for 19 years in the Israel Defense Forces Judge Advocate General’s Corps (Lt. Col. Ret.). He held a number of senior command positions, including Commander of the IDF School of Military Law, Judge Advocate for the Navy and Home Front Command, and the Legal Advisor to the Gaza Strip. TOPICS: Counterterrorism TOPICS: Counterterrorism International Security International Security Israel Defense Forces Israel Defense Forces Yehuda Halper Tulane University | yshalper@gmail.com Dr. Halper’s research examines topics at the intersections of philosophy and religion and of Judaism and Islam in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. He focuses on the history of philosophical concepts and their use in mainstream religious texts and approaches Israel studies through the lens of the history of concepts. He is particularly interested in the philosophical background underlying Zionist thought and the intellectual movements that drew from religious and philosophical sources to form the Zionist enterprise. He grew up in the U.S. and made Aliyah in 2004 after completing a B.A. in classical studies and mathematics at the University of Chicago. He warned an M.A. in philosophy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2006) and a Ph. D. (with highest distinction) in Jewish philosophy from Bar Ilan University (2010). He has held research and library fellowships at the Shalem Center (2005-2007) and at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute (2007-2010), where he directed work groups on philosophy, mysticism and poetry. For the last two years, he has been a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Liberal Arts at Tulane University in New Orleans and is now beginning as a Schusterman scholar at Tulane University. TOPICS: TOPICS: The Jewish Concept of Homeland The Jewish Concept of Homeland God Given or Originally Grounded? God Given or Originally Grounded? Jewish Attachment to the Land from Jewish Attachment to the Land from Biblical Times to Today Biblical Times to Today Judah Halevi’s Kuzari and the Modern Judah Halevi’s Kuzari and the Modern Concept of Aliyah Concept of Aliyah Theological Issues in Modern Judaism: Theological Issues in Modern Judaism: the Holocaust and the Founding of the the Holocaust and the Founding of the State of Israel State of Israel Modern Hebrew Poetry between Modern Hebrew Poetry between Jerusalem and New Orleans Jerusalem and New Orleans Adam Harmon Israeli Defense Forces | Adam.harmon@yahoo.com Born and raised in New Hampshire, Adam has served with the Paratroopers and a Special Operations reserve unit since 1990. As an expert in counter-terrorism and strategic communications, Harmon has consulted for the US Marine Corps, the US Army, and RAND Corp. He has helped develop US counter-insurgency doctrine, participated in US Army war games, and lectured at the US military symposiums. He is a regular guest on CNN, Fox, and NPR during moments of crisis in the Middle East. In 2006, Random House published his first book, Lonely Soldier: Memoir of an American in the Israeli Army, which describes his experiences with the IDF from 1990 to 2003. Publishers Weekly gave it a Starred Review and wrote “Harmon's voice is so consistent and genuine that it's impossible not to identify with his steadfast journey.” In 2012, Penguin will publish Harmon’s next book – Unstoppable: Making Success Inevitable by Adopting the Core Principles of the IDF. Whereas Start-Up Nation made millions aware of the success of the Israeli high-tech industry, Harmon’s new book goes several steps further by identifying the fundamental flaws that plague all organizations today and by demonstrating how the unique aspects of the IDF approach can make success inevitable. Harmon’s research is based on his experience at Fortune 500 companies, start-ups, and the IDF as well as interviews with over 50 leaders, including HP, Salesforce.com, 3M, Cisco, Green Mountain Coffee, the US Army, and Wharton. The Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM) has had Harmon speak about his research at their annual Strategy Conference. Harmon can speak frankly about current events in the Middle East and bring a fresh perspective of the IDF, which has more in common with Google and 3M than it does with the US military. TOPICS: Unstoppable: Making Success Inevitable by Adopting The Core Principles of the IDF Leadership Best Practices Counter-Terrorism How to Lose a Winning Argument: The Political Cost of Failing to Master the Art of Information Warfare Shlomo Hasson Hebrew University | Mshasson@gmail.com Shlomo Hasson is a full time professor at the department of Geography, School of Public Policy, and the Leon Safdie Chair at the Institute of Urban and Regional Studies, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His main fields of interest are: geopolitical studies, urban and socio-political studies, urban and regional planning and strategic planning. He published 30 books and monographs and about 100 articles. Among his books are: "State, Religion and Society in Israel", "Sustainable Jerusalem", "Between Nationalism and Democracy", "Arabs in Israel: Barriers to Equality", "Jerusalem in the Future: The Challenge of Transition", and "Future Borders between Israel and the Palestinian Authority: Principles, Scenarios and Recommendations". He is currently writing about the relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel, and is editing a book about the production of space in Israel. Click here to enter text. TOPICS: Israel's geopolitical dilemma: A Jewish and democratic state within defensible borders The future borders between Israel and the Palestinian Authority Jews and Arabs in Israel: Scenarios and recommendations Jacob Jaffe Click here to enter text. Georgetown University | jdj37@georgetown.edu Jacob Jaffe is currently completing his Ph.D. in political science at Georgetown University. His graduate research has centered on the study of states’ foreign policies as products of their leaders’ philosophical beliefs. His dissertation uses this theoretical approach to account for the formation of enduring international rivalries; its empirical chapters explain the Arab-Israeli conflict in terms of a philosophical clash between political Zionism (which represents an extension of Enlightenment liberalism) and various Arab nationalist and political Islamist ideologies (which are grounded in more recent collectivist and nationalist thought). Jacob received his B.A. in political science from Brown University in 2006. He speaks Hebrew, Arabic, and some Spanish and French. TOPICS: The Arab-Israeli Conflict Evolution of Zionist Thought Arab Nationalism and Political Islamism Middle East History Middle East Historiography History of Jerusalem or the Temple Mount Political Philosophy Edward Kaufman University of Maryland | Ekaufman@cidcm.umd.edu Edward (Edy) Kaufman was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He completed the first two years of Political Science and Diplomacy at the Universidad del Litoral (Rosario) and the School of Architecture (Buenos Aires), and then came to live in Israel. Kaufman holds BA and MA degrees in Political Science, International Relations and Sociology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a doctorate in diplomatic history from the University of Paris and conducted post-doctoral studies in quantitative social research methods at the University of Michigan. Edy was the first to introduce the subject of human rights within the teaching of the social sciences at Hebrew University and UCLA and has dedicated a great part of his time in the teaching and training of conflict resolution in Israel and worldwide, lecturing in more than forty countries and fifty two universities within the United States and Canada. He is the author and editor of thirteen books and close to seventy academic articles, including co-authoring with eight Palestinian colleagues. Through his involvement in human rights and peace organizations, Edy has contributed to the ‘international citizens lobby’ on both issues. He has committed himself to the protection of human rights within Israel he has been Honorary Secretary of the Public Council for Jews in the Arab Countries. At the global level Edy was the founder of Amnesty International in Jerusalem and spent a sabbatical working at the International Secretariat, later to become one of the longest serving members of Nobel Peace laureate organization’s International Executive Committee. Click here to enter text. TOPICS: The Arab-Israeli Conflict Latin American and Human Rights Conflict Resolution Israeli and Palestinian Refugees Click here to enter text. Martin Kramer John Hopkins University | mkramer@shalem.org.il Martin Kramer is the Schusterman Visiting Israeli Professor at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins. He is Senior Fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem, and President-designate of Shalem College (in formation). He is also the Wexler-Fromer Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. An authority on contemporary Islam and Arab politics, Dr. Kramer earned his undergraduate and doctoral degrees in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University. During a twenty-five-year career at Tel Aviv University, he directed the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies; taught as a visiting professor at Brandeis University, the University of Chicago, Cornell University, and Georgetown University; and served twice as a fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. He was later a senior fellow at Harvard University's Olin Institute for Strategic Studies, where he founded and co-convened Middle East Strategy at Harvard (MESH). TOPICS: The Arab Spring: What Went Wrong? What’s “Special” About the US-Israel Relationship? Fred Lazin American University | Lazin@bgu.ac.il Fred Lazin received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago. He joined the faculty at Ben Gurion University (BGU) in Israel in 1975. At BGU, he established an Interdisciplinary Urban Studies Program and the Department of General Studies and chaired the Department of Behavioral Science. He served as the Director of the Hubert H. Humphrey Center of Social Ecology and the Overseas Student Program (OSP). During his tenure at OSP, the student body increased five fold. In 1991 Fred became the Lynn and Lloyd Hurst Family Professor of Local Government. He recently completed two terms as Chair of the Department of Politics and Government at BGU. During 2008- 2009 he was the Natan Visiting Professor in the Taub Center for Israel Studies at the Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at NYU. In April 2010 Fred was the Mandelbaum Scholar in Residence in Jewish Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia. Professor Lazin has authored over sixty scholarly articles and chapters in books. He has written and edited ten books dealing with public policy in the United States, Israel and developing countries, Israeli politics and society and Jews in American politics. He received the Israel Political Science Association's award for the outstanding English language book on politics in 2005 for The Struggle for Soviet Jewry in American Politics; Israel versus the American Jewish Establishment. His pioneering research on the response of American Jewish organizations to German Jewish refugees in the 1930s opened a new field in Holocaust Studies. His latest book Higher Education and Equality of Opportunity: Cross-National Perspectives was published in October 2010. TOPICS: Topics: Jews in American Politics Israel American Relations Israel’s Changing Collective Identity Israeli-Palestinian Conflict; a Historical Perspective American Christian Leaders and the Struggle for Soviet Jewry Religious & Ethnic Conflict among Jews in Israel Geoffrey Levin Johns Hopkins University | levingeo@gmail.com Geoffrey Levin is a Schusterman Israel Scholar Award recipient and Bologna Fellow at Johns Hopkins University's Department of Political Science. He has written on Middle Eastern affairs for several organizations abroad, including the Center for Constitutional Studies and Democratic Development in Bologna, Italy, the Berlin-based Atlantic Initiative, and the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council in Melbourne. His research interests include Israeli politics and diversity, the Arab Spring, and perceptions of Israel in America, Europe and the Middle East. Geoffrey holds a Diploma in International Studies from the Johns Hopkins SAIS Bologna Center and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Michigan State University. Click here to enter text. TOPICS: Israeli Domestic Politics: Past, Present, and Future The First Intifada: Roots, Results, and Relevance Policy vs. Perception: How the World Anat Maor University of California-Irvine | maor@negba.org.il Dr. Anat Maor served as a member of the Israeli Knesset from 1992 to 2003. During that time she passed 41 laws that she initiative and she was the Chairperson for the Science and Technology committee, the SubCommittee of Women at Work & Economy and the head of the Lobby for Children. Dr. Maor has been a Lecturer at the Open University and Ruppin Academic Center in Israel from 2003 to 2012. She was written and edited 5 books and has attended twelve academic conferences in countries outside of Israel. Click here to enter text. TOPICS: Contemporary Israeli Politics Social and Economic Policies in Israel Women in Israel Legislation in Israel Menachem Mor Click here to enter text. University of Denver | Mmor@univ.haifa.ac.il Dr. Menachem Mor is a Jewish history scholar and the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Haifa. His research focuses on the Second Temple, Mishnaic and Talmudic periods. He has written scores of scholarly articles and books about the Jews, pagans and Christians of these historic periods. He received his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and spent six years as the Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization at the Creighton University, a Jesuit university in Omaha. Professor Mor’s expertise centers on Jewish revolts in the ancient world, such as the BarKochva Revolt, the topic of his first book, The Bar-Kochva Revolt – Its Extent and Effect (1991). TOPICS: Jewish Revolts in the Ancient World and During the Time of Jesus Jews, Pagans and Christians in Ancient Palestine Bar Kochba: Inventing Jewish Radicalism Higher Education in Israel History of Israel Moshe Naor San Diego State University | moshenao@yahoo.ca Moshe Naor is a Visiting Professor of Israel Studies at San Diego State University. He received his Ph.D. in History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Dr. Naor has taught Israeli History at the University of Toronto, Tulane University, and York University, Toronto, Canada. His research interests focus on Israeli History, War and Society, History of the Jewish community in Palestine, and Jewish-Muslim Relations in the Middle East. His book, On the Home Front: Tel Aviv and the Mobilization of the Yishuv in the 1948 War of Independence, was published in 2009. He is also the editor of State and Community (Magnes Press, 2004) and Army, Memory and National Identity (Magnes Press, 2007). Among his recent articles are: "The 1948 War Veterans and Postwar Reconstruction in Israel", Journal of Israeli History (2010); "The Israeli Volunteering Movement Preceding the 1956 War", Israel Affairs (2010); and "Welfare and Reconstruction in the Aftermath of War: The Ministry of War Sufferers, 1948-1951", Cathedra (2010). His current research deals with Israeli Post-War Reconstruction and State Building in the early 1950s, and on the Jews from Islamic Countries and Jewish-Arab Relations in Mandatory Palestine. Click here to enter text. TOPICS: Israel and the Arab Spring War and Society in Israel The 1948 War History of Jewish-Arab Relations Click here to enter text. Jason Olson Brandeis University | jolson@brandeis.edu Jason Olson is a 3rd year PhD student in Brandeis University's Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies. He holds fellowships at The Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. Last summer he was a Research Fellow at the Hertog Global Strategy Initiative at Columbia University, on the topic of Religious Violence and Apocalyptic Movements. There he worked on the history of Revisionist Zionism's relationship with Evangelical Zionists. That relationship reached its climax in the Menachem Begin-Jerry Falwell friendship. More generally, Jason has expertise in U.S.-Israel relations, and Iranian history and its nuclear program. He is teaching a course on U.S.-Israel relations to Brandeis undergraduates this fall. TOPICS: Non-Jewish Zionists in the United States U.S.-Israel Relations The Bible and Zionism The Iranian-Israeli conflict Islamism and Israel Yoram Peri University of Maryland | Yoramp@post.tau.ac.il Professor Yoram Peri is the Head of the Rothschild Caesarea School of Communication and the Head of the Chaim Herzog Institute for Media, Politics, and Society. He is also professor of Political Sociology and Communication in the Department of Communication at Tel Aviv University. He is former political advisor to the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and former Editor-in-chief of the Israeli daily, Davar. Professor Peri published extensively on Israeli society, media and politics. Click here to enter text. TOPICS: Israeli Army Media and Politics in Israel Yitzhak Rabin Middle East Peace Process Aviad Raz Click here to enter text. University of California-San Diego | aviadraz@bgu.ac Aviad E. Raz earned his B.Sc. and Ph.D. from Tel-Aviv University. He has been a Post-doctoral Fellow at Harvard and held fellowships from the Japan Foundation and Alon. His research focuses on religious/ethnic groups and identities in contemporary Israeli society, especially in the context of health and family studies. He studies the social and bioethical aspects of medical organizations, community genetics and patient support organizations. He also conducts research in the fields of organizational culture and cross-cultural management, and organizational development. Raz has written 7 books and over 43 articles and book chapters on topics in organizational and medical sociology, anthropology, culture, and science. Aviad Raz will be a Visiting AICE Professor at the Dept. of Sociology, University of California in San Diego in 2012-13. TOPICS: Medical Ethics and Israeli Society The bioethics of the beginning and end of life in Israeli society Community, Genetics, and Public Health in Israeli Society Israeli culture and organizations Israeli high-tech entrepreneurship and organizational culture Gender and the Military: The Case of Israel Maoz Rosenthal SUNY Binghamton | mrosenthal@idc.ac.il Dr. Maoz Rosenthal is currently an AICE visiting professor of Political Science at SUNY Binghamton. He received his doctorate from Tel Aviv University in 2007, with a dissertation titled "Political Instability as a Strategic Choice." He has written articles about the political situation in Israel, including "Israel's 1993 Decision to Make Peace with the PLO: Or How Political Losers (this time) Became Winners", in International Negotiation (2009) and "Two-Way Barriers: The 'Occupied Territories' and Israel's Domestic Politics". He is also a multiple winner of the Tel Aviv University Faculty of Social Sciences Dean's excellence prize. Click here to enter text. TOPICS: Government and Politics in Israel Coalition Politics in Israel Elections and the Public Sector in Israel Nimrod Rosler Click here to enter text. University of Kansas | nimrod.rosler@mail.huji.ac.il Nimrod Rosler, PhD, is currently a Visiting Israel Professor at the Center for Global and International Studies, the University of Kansas, on behalf of AICE-Schusterman foundation. He has previously been a lecturer in the Conflict Management and Resolution Program, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and in the International School and School of Government, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. Until recently, he was also a research associate in the Israel Democracy Institute, Jerusalem, in the "national security and democracy" and "Jewish-Arab relations" projects. He received his PhD from the Swiss Center for Conflict Research, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His dissertation dealt with political leaders in ethno-national conflicts and their resolution process. His research interests include political and psychological dynamics of intractable conflict and peace process, political leadership, and emotions in conflict. TOPICS: Psychological aspects of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict: perceptions, attitudes and emotions The role of leaders in peace process Jonathan Rynhold George Washington University | Jonathan.Rynhold@biu.ac.il Dr Jonathan Rynhold (PhD International Relations, L.S.E.) is the Shusterman visiting professor of Israel Studies at George Washington University, in Washington DC. He holds a permanent position in the Political Science at Bar-Ilan University, where he is also a senior researcher at the BESA Center for Strategic Studies. Between 2010-2012 he served as the director of the Argov Center for the study of Israel and the Jewish Peoples at Bar-Ilan University. Dr Rynhold's research has focused on both U.S.-Israeli relations and Israeli political culture and foreign policy. In this vein, he has authored many academic articles on, for example, the rise and fall of the Oslo process, the separation barrier, the Gaza disengagement, and the role of peace and security in the last three Israeli elections. He is also frequently quoted in the international media on these matters, including in the LA Times and USA Today. Dr Rynhold is currently completing a book manuscript on American political culture and attitudes towards the Arab-Israeli conflict. Finally, Dr Rynhold took a leading role in combating the campaign to boycott Israeli universities in the United Kingdom, representing Israeli academics in various forums in Israel, the UK and internationally. He remains involved in the campaign to combat the assault on Israel's legitimacy. TOPICS: Israeli Domestic Politics Israeli Foreign Policy Israel and the Peace Process U.S.-Israel Relations The Assault on Israel's Legitimacy and BDS Shalom Sabar University of Washington | Sabar@mscc.huji.ac.il Shalom Sabar is Professor of Jewish Art and Folklore at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Sabar is the last Jewish baby born and circumcised in the ages old neo-Aramaic speaking Kurdish-Jewish community of Zakho. He earned his PhD in Art History from UCLA (1987), writing on the illustrated marriage contracts of the Jews in Renaissance and Baroque Italy. His research joins together the disciplines of art history and folklore, highlighting issues pertaining to the folk nature of Jewish art and Jewish material culture, visual materials and objects associated with rituals in the life and year cycles, and the evidence these materials provide about the relationships between the Jewish minorities and the societies that hosted them in Christian Europe and the Islamic East. He serves as a visiting professor and lectures widely in universities, museums, and public institutions in Israel, Europe and the US. Prof. Sabar additionally guides travelling seminars to Jewish sites in Europe, North Africa and Central Asia. TOPICS: Childbirth and Jewish Magic—Amulets and Popular Beliefs among the Jews in Europe and Lands of Islam The Binding of Isaac in Jewish, Christian and Islamic Art The Sabbath in Jewish Art and Folklore The Image of Jerusalem in Jewish, Christian and Muslim Art Jewish Visual Symbols and their Development (Menorah, Magen David, the Ten Commandments, etc.) Ari Sacher Ari Sacher is a rocket scientist. He has briefed nearly one half of the US Congress on Israeli Missile Defense, including a briefing on Capitol Hill at the invitation of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren. Ari is a highly requested speaker at AIPAC events, enabling even the layman to understand the "rocket science", and his speaking events are regularly sold-out. Ari also speaks regularly in Israel on Science and Torah. His shiur on the weekly parasha is read in synagogues in five continents. Ari came on aliya from the USA in 1982. He studied at Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh, and then spent seven years in the Technion. He lives in Moreshet in the Western Galil along with his wife and eight children. TOPICS: Missile Defense International Defense Cooperation Ilai Saltzman Claremont McKenna College | ilais@poli.haifa.ac.il Dr. Ilai Z. Saltzman is a Schusterman-AICE visiting Israeli professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in California. In the past academic year he thought at the department of International Relations (IR) and the Rothberg International School in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He holds a MA in International Relations from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (magna cum laude) and earned his PhD. from the University of Haifa. Dr. Saltzman was a research fellow at the International Security Program (ISP), Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He is the author of Securitizing Balance of Power Theory: A Polymorphic Reconceptualization (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2012). Currently, he is working on projects dealing with American foreign policy, cyberwarfare, US-Russian relations, the rise of China and Soviet interwar grand strategy. Click here to enter text. TOPICS: American Middle Eastern Foreign Policy U.S.-Israeli Relations Israeli Foreign and Security Policy The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict E.U.-Israel Relations Click here to enter text. Rhona Seidelman University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign | Seidelma@bgu.ac.il Dr. Rhona Seidelman’s field of expertise is in quarantine, disease, and immigration in Israel. She received her Ph.D. in Israeli History and the History of Medicine from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and her dissertation is the first scholarly work written on the history of Shaar Haaliya, “Israel’s Ellis Island.” She has published widely on the subject of health and immigration in Israeli history. Her recent publications include “Immigrants, Disease and the “Zionist Ethos” in Haaretz (2009) and “That I Won’t Translate: The Experiences of a Family-Member Medical Interpreter in a Multi-Cultural Environment” in the Mt. Sinai Journal of Medicine (with Bachner, forthcoming). Professor Seidelman challenges conventional definitions of quarantine and highlights the contradictions involved in the quarantine of immigrants during Israel’s foundational years. She uses the issues of health, disease and medicine as an entry into discussion on belonging, exclusion and power. TOPICS: A History of Shaar Haaliya, Israel’s Ellis Island Health and Zionism Between Bombs and Bread: Working for Co-Existence in Israel during the Second Intifada The History of Medicine in Israel Assaf Sheleg Washington University | Shelleg@live.com Assaf Sheleg is a musicologist who focuses on the music of Israel and the Jewish people. He has analyzed the songs of Israeli pioneers through the aftermath of Israel’s wars, to see the challenges confronting Israel and the Jewish people as reflected in their music. He was the visiting Israeli Scholar at Washington University in St. Louis in 2009-2010. Click here to enter text. TOPICS: The Soundtrack of Israeli History Music in the Holocaust Sheera Talpaz Click here to enter text. Princeton University | sheera.talpaz@gmail.com Sheera Talpaz is a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature at Princeton University. Her research focuses on Near Eastern poetry, history, and politics. In particular, it engages in parallel readings of Modern Hebrew and Palestinian poetry in light of and in response to major crises and historical turning points. Sheera holds an M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Michigan and a B.A. with Honors in Comparative Literature from the University of Chicago, where she studied Modern Hebrew Poetry under Professors Menachem Brinker and Neta Stahl and wrote a thesis on Natan Alterman and Yehuda Amichai. TOPICS: Israeli Literature Alternative Modes of Understanding the Middle East Conflict Ilan Toren Brandeis University | Troen@brandeis.edu Ilan Troen is director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and is the Stoll Family Chair in Israel Studies at Brandeis University. Before joining Brandeis, he served as director of the Ben-Gurion Research Institute and Archives in Sede Boker, Israel, and dean of the faculty of humanities and social sciences at Ben-Gurion University. He has authored or edited numerous books in American, Jewish and Israeli history. He is also the founding editor of Israel Studies (Indiana University Press), an international journal that publishes three issues annually on behalf of Brandeis and Ben-Gurion University. His most recent book publications include Divergent Jewish Cultures: Israel and America (Yale, 2001), with Deborah Dash-Moore; Imagining Zion: Dreams, Designs and Realities in a Century of Jewish Settlement (Yale, 2003); and, with Jacob Lassner, Jews and Muslims in the Arab World; Haunted by Pasts Real and Imagined (Roman and Littlefield, 2007). Forthcoming in 2011 is Tel-Aviv at 100; Visions, Designs and Actualities. Annie Tracy Samuel TOPICS: War of the Word: how language has been hijacked in the campaign against Click to enter text. Israel’shere legitimacy Click here to enter text. Harvard University | annietracysamuel@gmail.com Annie Tracy Samuel is a research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and a Ph.D. candidate in history at Tel Aviv University (TAU). She is also a junior research fellow at TAU’s Center for Iranian Studies and the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies. Her doctoral dissertation examines the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and the Iran-Iraq War and analyzes how the Guards have documented the war and their roles in the conflict. She is a recipient of the Schusterman Israel Scholar Award, given by the AmericanIsraeli Cooperative Enterprise. TOPICS: Iranian Security and Foreign Policy Iranian Politics and History Ms. Tracy Samuel’s research interests include Iranian security and foreign policy, civil-military relations, the role of Islam in military and foreign policy, and U.S. policy in the Middle East. Her research and writing on those subjects have been published by the Harvard Kennedy School, CNN, Tehran Bureau, and the Global Post, among others. She has spoken at several conferences and universities, including the Harvard Kennedy School, the University of Exeter, and Brandeis University. Ms. Tracy Samuel earned an M.A., magna cum laude, in Middle Eastern history from TAU in 2008 and a B.A. in history and political science from Columbia University in 2006. She has working proficiency in Farsi and Hebrew. U.S. Policy in the Middle East, especially in historical perspective Middle Eastern History The Iranian-Israel Relationship and Nuclear Standoff Dan Valsky Drexel University | Valskyd@gmail.com Dan Valsky is a PhD candidate at the Department of Neurobiology and the Department of Neurosurgery at the Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Medicine. He is doing research under the supervision of Professor Hagai Bergman from the Hebrew University and Professor Allon Guez from the Drexel University. In 1995, when he was 10 years old, he immigrated with his family to Israel from Ukraine. After high school he joined the military and served in the Israeli Intelligence Corps. From 2005 to 2010, he studied at the Ben Gurion University for a BS in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and worked at Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. as a researcher for an engineering project. In 2012, he received his Master Degree in Electrical Engineering from Drexel University. He is an active member of the Health Sciences and Academic Affiliations Committee of the Philadelphia Chapter of American Associates of the Ben Gurion University. He has been promoting student exchanges, as well as scientific collaboration between faculty members of Drexel University and Ben Gurion University. His research is devoted to understanding the computational physiology and the pathophysiology of Parkinson's disease. Particularly, he is interested in understanding the mechanism by which Deep Brain Stimulation alleviates the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and develop new strategies for Deep Brain Stimulation treatment of neurological disorders. Click here to enter text. TOPICS: Medical Devices Robotics Click here to enter text. Yaacov Yadgar UC-Berkley | yadgary@gmail.com Dr Yaacov Yadgar arrived as a visitor at UC Berkeley's Institute for Jewish Law and Israeli Law, Society and Economy from the Department of Political Studies at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. He has published several books and numerous articles dealing mainly with issues of the interplay between identity, tradition, secularism, modernity and politics. TOPICS: Israeli Masortim: Overcoming the "Religious-Secular" Dichotomy Jewish-Israeli Secularism: A Critical Assessment National Identity in Israel: Background and Current Developments Ben-Dror Yemini Maariv | bdyemini@gmail.com Ben-Dror Yemini was born in Tel-Aviv, Israel. He studied Humanities and History in Tel Aviv University, and later on he studied Law. After his university studies, he was appointed advisor to the Israeli Minister of Immigration Absorption and then became the spokesman of the Ministry. After a short term in the public service, as the advisor of the Minister of Immigration and the spokesman of the Ministry, Yemini began his career as a journalist and essayist. In 1986 Yemini published the book "Political Punch" which deals in a critical way with politics and society in Israel. He worked as a lawyer and was a partner in a law firm. In 2003 he became the opinion-editor of the daily newspaper Maariv and also published many articles and essays in other journals. In recent years Yemini researched and published many articles about the "industry of lies" - the endless publications against the State of Israel and its Jewish character, which he considers false. In this framework, he published a series of research articles about the Israeli-Arab conflict in which he examined the issues of genocide, refugees, human rights violations, the status of Israeli Arabs, Multiculturalism, and the status of women. All these articles included a comparative study about each topic. According to Yemini, "the modern Anti-Zionism is a politically correct AntiSemitism". He argued that the same way Jews were demonized, Israel is demonized, the same way the right of Jews to exist was denied, the right for Self-determination is denied from Israel, the same way Jews were presented as a menace to the world, Israel is presented as a menace to the world. In his comparative studies, he presents the huge gap between the myths against Israel, from one hand, and the real facts, from the other hand. Yemini supports the Two-state solution and opposes the settlements in the West Bank. He argues that the extreme right and the extreme left lead to the same goal of One-state solution. His articles concerning the IsraeliArab conflict and his comparative studies led him to become the most translated Israeli journalist and a widely invited speaker about the “Industry of Lies”, against Israel. TOPICS: The Industry of Lies - Myths and Facts About the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Daniel Zisenwine United States Naval Academy | dzisenwine@gmail.com Daniel Zisenwine is a research fellow at Tel Aviv University's Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies. He also teaches modern North African history at the university's Department of Middle Eastern and African history and at the Hebrew University's Rothberg International School. His research focuses on modern North African and Middle Eastern history and politics. He is the author of The Emergence of Nationalist Politics in Morocco (I.B.Tauris, 2010) and co-edited, with Bruce Maddy Weitzman, The Maghrib in the New Century (University Press of Florida, 2007) and Mohammed VI's Morocco (Routledge, 2012). Dr. Zisenwine, born in the U.S., has lived in Israel since childhood. He received his PhD in History from Tel Aviv University in 2005. He is currently a visiting Israeli professor at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. TOPICS: Modern Middle Eastern and North African History and Politics Contemporary Middle Eastern Affairs The Arab-Israeli Conflict Israeli History
