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T H E G O L D S T E I N - G O R E ND I A S P O R A R E S E A R C H
C E N T E R
A N N U A L R E P O R T 2 0 1 7 - 2 0 1 8
Contents
INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 2
COMMITTEES ............................................................................................................. 4
STAFF ......................................................................................................................... 5
PUBLICATIONS .......................................................................................................... 6
RESEARCH PROJECTS PUBLISHED IN 2018-2017 ......................................................... 6 FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS .................................................................................... 6 DIASPORA SERIES ...................................................................................................... 7 RETHINKING DIASPORA SERIES ................................................................................... 7 MANUSCRIPT SERIES ................................................................................................. 8
CONFERENCES AND SYMPOSIUMS ........................................................................ 9
CONFERENCES AND SYMPOSIUMS 2017-2018 ............................................................. 9 FORTHCOMING CONFERENCES AND SYMPOSIUMS .......................................................12
UNITS AND PROJECTS – ONGOING RESEARCH ...................................................14
THE INSTITUTE FOR THE HISTORY OF POLISH JEWRY AND ISRAEL-POLAND RELATIONS .14 ITALIA JUDAICA PROJECT ...........................................................................................18 JEWISH ART AND VISUAL CULTURE RESEARCH ...........................................................19 THE JEWS IN ISLAMIC COUNTRIES IN THE MODERN ERA...............................................21 THE JEWS OF BELARUS IN THE MODERN ERA .............................................................22 THE CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE JEWS OF THE ISLAMIC WORLD IN THE MIDDLE AGES ...32 JEWISH IDENTITY AND CONSCIOUSNESS .....................................................................34 THE JEWISH NEIGHBORHOOD ....................................................................................38 THE JEWS OF CRETE DURING THE VENETIAN PERIOD ..................................................41 THE JEWS OF TURKEY AND THE BALKANS AND LADINO CULTURE .................................42 THE JEWS OF ROMANIA .............................................................................................44 PRAYER, PRAYER BOOKS AND JEWISH CULTURE ........................................................45 JEWISH SOLDIERS IN WORLD WAR II ..........................................................................47
THE CENTER’S WEBSITE .........................................................................................50
THE MEHLMANN LIBRARY ......................................................................................52
THE ARCHIVE ............................................................................................................53
SCHOLARSHIPS FOR PH.D. STUDENTS .................................................................55
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Introduction
The Goldstein-Goren Diaspora Research Center is dedicated to research on the history and
heritage of the Jewish people and its culture throughout the Diaspora in all eras. The Center
is part of the Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities at Tel Aviv University.
The Center's objectives are:
To prepare and coordinate research tools for studying the history and culture of the
Jewish people in the Diaspora.
To initiate and encourage research projects in Diaspora studies, and to assist in their
implementation.
To publish and disseminate the Center's research projects.
The Center’s roots are in the Diaspora Research Institute that was founded in 1964 through
the initiative of Professor Shlomo Simonsohn, who directed the Institute from its
establishment until 1992. Thanks to a generous donation from Mr. Avram Goldstein-Goren
z”l in March 2002, the Institute was able to expand its activities and became a Center bearing
his name. Since then, the Center has been operating through the assistance of an annual
donation from the Cukier, Goldstein-Goren Foundation.
Former directors of the Center: Prof. Shlomo Simonsohn, 1964-1992; Prof. Minna Rozen,
1992-1997; Prof. Aharon Oppenheimer, 1997-2002; Prof. Jeremy Cohen, 2002-2005; Prof.
David S. Katz, 2005-2006. Since December 2006, Prof. Simha Goldin has served as director
of the Center.
Several units and projects, as well as the Institute for the History of Polish Jewry and Israel-
Poland Relations, operate within the Center, carrying out long-term research and
documentation projects, which focus on specific communities, countries and topics. These
include:
Italia Judaica Project
Jewish Art and Visual Culture Research
The Jews in Islamic Countries in the Modern Era
The Jews of Belarus and Ukraine
The Cultural History of the Jews of the Islamic World in the Middle Ages
(9th–13th Centuries)
Jewish Identity and Consciousness
The Jewish Neighborhood: Exploring the Other Side of Medieval Urban Space
The Jews of Crete during the Venetian Period (13th–17th Centuries)
The Jews of Turkey and the Balkans and Ladino Culture
The Jews of Romania
Prayer, Prayer Books and Jewish Culture
Jewish Soldiers in World War II
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Likewise, the Center holds conferences and workshops and regularly publishes books – the
fruit of research by its own researchers and others – conference proceedings, and two
academic journals: Gal-Ed and Michael. The Mehlmann Library and an archive for the history
of the Jewish people in the Diaspora operate under the Center’s auspices as well.
The Center’s website:
http://www6.tau.ac.il/ggcenter/
The Goldstein-Goren Diaspora Research Center
Carter Building, Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv 6997801
Telephone: 6409799-03
Fax: 6407287-03
Email: [email protected]
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Committees
Public Council
Prof. (Emeritus) Shlomo Simonsohn, Chairman
Prof. Simha Goldin, Director of the Center
Mr. Alexander Goren
Mr. James Goren
Ms. Viviana Goren Kasam
Ms. Selina Goren-Komeran
Ms. Micaela Goren Monti
Adv. Pnina Paritzky
Prof. Ra’anan Rein
Prof. Minna Rozen
Dr. Rafi Vago
Academic Board
Prof. Simha Goldin, Director of the Center
Prof. Tova Beeri
Prof. Hanna Naveh
Prof. Aharon Oppenheimer
Prof. Meira Polliack
Prof. Dina Porat
Dr. Yuval Shahar
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Staff
Director of the Center: Prof. Simha Goldin
Senior Administrative Assistant: Sara Appel
Researchers:
Prof. Benjamin Arbel – The Jews of Crete during the Venetian Period
Prof. Tova Beeri – The Jews of Turkey and the Balkans and Ladino Culture
Dr. Konstantin Bondar – The Jews Belarus and Ukraine
Prof. Havi Dreifuss – Director of the Institute for the History of Polish Jewry and Israel-Poland
Relations
Prof. Yoram Erder – The Cultural History of the Jews of the Islamic World in the Middle Ages
Dr. Naomi Feuchtwanger-Sarig – Jewish Art and Visual Culture Research
Prof. Simha Goldin – The Jewish Neighborhood: Exploring the Other Side of Medieval Urban
Space
Dr. Maya Guez – Jewish Identity and Consciousness
Dr. Galit Haddad – Jewish Soldiers in World War II
Dr. Ruth Lamdan – The Jews of Turkey and the Balkans and Ladino Culture
Dr. Yitzhak Lifshitz – The Jewish Neighborhood: Exploring the Other Side of Medieval Urban
Space
Dr. Françoise Simcha Ouzan – Jewish Identity and Consciousness
Prof. Meira Polliack – The Cultural History of the Jews of the Islamic World in the Middle Ages
Prof. Stefan Reif – Prayer, Prayer Books and Jewish Culture
Prof. Liviu Rotman – The Jews of Romania
Prof. Minna Rozen – The Jews of Turkey and the Balkans and Ladino Culture
Dr. Merav Schnitzer – The Jewish Neighborhood: Exploring the Other Side of Medieval Urban
Space
Dr. Tsur Shafir – Prayer, Prayer Books and Jewish Culture
Prof. Zakhar Shibeko – The Jews of Belarus and Ukraine
Prof. Shlomo Simonsohn – Project Italia Judaica
Dr. Leonid Smilovitsky – The Jews of Belarus and Ukraine
Dr. Yaakov Teppler – Prayer, Prayer Books and Jewish Culture
Prof. Yaron Tsur – The Jews in Islamic Countries in the Modern Era
Personnel:
Leon Gershovich – Research Assistant
Shimrit Hadad – Budget Coordinator
Adi Moskovitz – Publications & Conference Coordinator
Ido Rotman – Assistant, Mehlmann Library
Dor Saar – Research Assistant
Dr. Dror Segev – Secretary of the Institute for the History of Polish Jewry and Israel-Poland
Relations
Anat Shimoni – Archivist
Sofia Tels-Abromov – Director of the Mehlmann Library
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Publications
Research Projects Published in 2017–2018
Gal-Ed: On the History and Culture of Polish Jewry, volume 25
Editor: David Engel; Associate Editors: Avner Holtzman and Adam Teller
Editorial Secretary and Book Review Section Editor: Dror Segev
Paperback, 238 pp. Hebrew, 157 pp. English, 2017.
By the Rivers of Babylon: Perspectives on the History of Talmudic Babylonia
Author: Aharon Oppenheimer
Published in cooperation with the Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History.
Hardcover, 232 pp., Hebrew, 2017.
The Karaite Mourners of Zion and the Qumran Scrolls: On the History of an Alternative
to Rabbinic Judaism
Author: Yoram Erder
Published by Brepols Publishers as part of the Diaspora Series
Hardcover, 483 pp. English, 2017.
Forthcoming Publications
Eli Ben Amram, Circles of Poetry and Life: Communication and Society in the
Mediterranean Basin of the Eleventh Century (Hebrew)
Editors: Tova Beeri and Elinoar Bareket
In cooperation with Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi.
Expected date of publication: September 2018.
How Young Holocaust Survivors Rebuilt their Lives in France, the United States, and
Israel
Author: Françoise S. Ouzan
To be published as part of the series: "Studies in Antisemitism" by Indiana University Press.
Expected date of publication: September 2018.
Volume in Memory of Prof. Meir Benayahu z"l: Talmud and Halacha Studies (Hebrew)
Editors: Moshe Assis, Yosef Kaplan, Yehuda Libas, Moshe Bar-Asher
To be published by Carmel Publishing House.
Expected date of publication: December 2018.
The Jews of Italy in the Middle Ages: The South and Papal States, Vol. II
Author: Prof. Shlomo Simonsohn
To be published by Brill Publishers
Expected date of publication: 2019.
An Anthology of Karaite Literature of the Middle Ages (Hebrew)
Editors: Meira Polliack and Yoram Erder
In progress.
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Jewish Soldiers in World War II (Hebrew)
Editors: Kiril Feferman, Simha Goldin, and Dina Porat
Conference proceedings, December 8–10, 2014, Tel Aviv University; to be published as part
of the Center’s academic series Michael.
In progress.
The Jewish Neighborhood in Medieval Europe
Editors: Simha Goldin and Yitzhak Lifshitz
Based on workshop proceedings, January 6–8, 2013, April 7–8, 2014, and April 12–14, 2015,
Tel Aviv University; to be published as part of the Center’s academic series Michael.
In progress.
The Jewish Neighborhood: Exploring the Other Side of Medieval Urban Space (Hebrew)
Editors: Simha Goldin and Yitzhak Lifshitz
Based on findings of the research project of the same name.
In early stages of preparation.
Gal-Ed: On the History and Culture of Polish Jewry, volume 26
Editor: Gershon Bacon; Associate Editors: Avner Holtzman and Adam Teller
Editorial Secretary and Book Review Section Editor: Dror Segev
In early stages of preparation.
Jews in the Regat Economy, 1859-1914: A Case of Minority Economy (Hebrew)
Author: Dafna Cellier
In cooperation with Bar-Ilan University Press.
In early stages of preparation.
Diaspora Series
A book series in cooperation with Brepols Publishers.
This series is dedicated to research into the heritage of the Jewish people and its culture and
the varied ways this culture had an impact on Europe.
Books to be published as part of this series:
Barbarians and Jews: Jews and Judaism in the Early Medieval West
Editors: Yitzhak Hen, Ora Limor, and Tom Noble
Expected date of publication: December 2018.
Rethinking Diaspora Series
A book series in cooperation with De Gruyter Publishing House.
This series publishes monographs and collections of essays that deal with the evolution of
Jewish language, literature, communal life and religious ideology as it occurred in Europe,
and the surrounding areas, from the early medieval until the modern periods.
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Books to be published as part of this series:
Minhagim: Customs and Practice in Jewish Life
Conference proceedings, May 13–15, 2012, Tel Aviv University
Editors: Prof. Hasia Diner, Prof. Jean Baumgarten, Prof. Simha Goldin, Dr. Naomi
Feuchtwanger-Sarig, Dr. Yitzhak Lifshitz
Expected date of publication: December 2018.
Thy Father’s Instruction: Reading the Nuremberg Miscellany as Jewish Cultural
History
Author: Dr. Naomi Feuchtwanger-Sarig
Expected date of publication: January 2019.
Manuscript Series (כתבי ידע)
A new academic series to be published by the Center, each volume of which focuses on a
particular manuscript from Jewish sources, providing in-depth analysis of the text, together
with a comprehensive introduction grounding the manuscript in its historical context.
Books to be published as part of this series:
Chemat Ha-Chemdah of Rabbi Sheshet bar Yefet Ha-Rofe (Hebrew)
Author: Moshe Orfali
Expected date of publication: July 2018.
Corpus Christi Manuscript 133 (Hebrew)
Editor: Tsur Shafir
In progress.
The Origins and Development of the Shemone Esre Prayer (Hebrew)
Author: Yaakov Teppler
In progress.
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Conferences and Symposiums
Conferences and Symposiums 2017–2018
January 15, 2017
Dr. Kamil Kijek, of the University of Wrocław, delivered a lecture entitled “Economic Crisis,
Anti-Semitism or Some Other Factor?: Re-Evaluating the 1935–37 Pogrom Wave in Poland”.
The lecture was organized by the Institute for the History of Polish Jewry, in cooperation with
the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism and the
Israeli Inter-University Academic Partnership in Russian and East European Studies.
January 29–31, 2017
Dr. Bondar represented the Center at the XXIV International Interdisciplinary Conference
on Jewish Studies held in Moscow. He presented a paper entitled “Thinking of Glosses:
On the Question of Jewish Influence on the Biblical Tradition of the Slavs”.
March 9, 2017
The Center held a symposium on the topic “The Jews of Bulgaria: From Destruction to
Deliverance (1939–1944)”. The event was organized in cooperation with the Salvador
Association for the Preservation of the Heritage of Bulgarian Jews and the Association for
Cooperation and Brotherhood between Israel and Bulgaria.
March 23, 2017
The Center helped to organize an evening symposium in honor of the publication of a new
book by Prof. Yaron Tsur, entitled Notables and Other Jews in the Ottoman Middle East,
1750–1830.
April 20, 2017
The Center held a symposium based on the research from its project “Jewish Soldiers in
World War II”. The event was the third of a series of events based on this project. It was
organized by Prof. Simha Goldin, with the participation of Dr. Leonid Smilovitsky, Dr.
Françoise Ouzan, Dr. Galit Haddad, and Dr. Maya Guez.
May 18, 2017
The Institute for the History of Polish Jewry, in cooperation with Weiner Library and the
Moreshet Institute, organized a symposium on the topic “‘To You We Write: Diaries and
Personal Testimonies from the Holocaust’”.
June 18, 2017
Prof. Olga Litvak, of Clark University, delivered a lecture entitled “Judaeophobia and
Palestinophilia: Symptoms of Emancipation Anxiety in Late Imperial Russia”. The lecture
was organized by the Institute for the History of Polish Jewry, in cooperation with the Stephen
Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism, the Israeli Inter-
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University Academic Partnership in Russian and East European Studies, and the Department
of Jewish History.
July 3–6, 2017
Researchers from the Center participated in the annual International Medieval Congress held
in Leeds, England. Session 1527, entitled “Otherness in Jewish Communities, Medieval and
Premodern”, was sponsored by the Center. Prof. Goldin organized the session, in which he,
Dr. Yitzhak Lifshitz, and Dr. Ruth Lamdan presented papers based on their research.
July 17–19, 2017
The Center helped to organize an international conference on the topic “The Long History of
Jews from Islamic Countries in Israel”, in honor of Prof. Yaron Tsur to mark the occasion of
his retirement.
August 6–10, 2017
The Institute for the History of Polish Jewry organized and sponsored a session in the 17th
World Congress of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. In addition, Dr. Merav Schnitzer and Dr.
Naomi Feuchtwanger-Sarig represented the Center and delivered lectures based on their
respective research projects.
October 29, 2017
The Israeli Inter-University Academic Partnership in Russian and East European Studies,
together with the National Erasmus+ program organized a lecture by Dr. Alicja Maślak-
Maciejewska, from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, entitled: “The Revival of Jewish
Studies in Poland”. The Institute for the History of Polish Jewry sponsored the event and Dr.
Dror Segev served as chairperson.
November 7–9, 2017
The Institute for the History of Polish Jewry supported a conference that took place at Bar-
Ilan University entitled: "Polish Jewish History Revisited – A Conference in Honor of Gershon
Bacon and Moshe Rosman". The conference was organized by Bar-Ilan University in
cooperation with the Jagiellonian University and University of Wrocław. Twenty scholars from
Israel, Poland, Germany, the United States, and Canada participated in the conference. Prof.
Havi Dreifuss and Dr. Scott Ury represented the Institute. The Instytut Polski of Tel Aviv, Beth
Shalom Aleichem, the Israeli Inter-University Academic Partnership in Russian and East
European Studies and the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism
and Racism also sponsored the conference.
November 15–16, 2017
Prof. Atina Grossmann from Cooper Union College in New York led a research workshop for
M.A. and Ph.D. students entitled: “Looking for Gender in the Absence of a Master Narrative:
Jewish Refugees from National Socialism in the Soviet Union, Iran and India”. Prof. Havi
Dreifuss served as chairperson and respondent. In addition, the Institute for the History of
Polish Jewry, together with Weiner Library and the Cummings Center for Russian and East
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European Studies, organized a symposium in which Prof. Grossmann presented a lecture
entitled: "Shelter from the Holocaust: Rethinking Polish-Jewish Survival in the Soviet Union".
Prof. Dina Porat also participated, presenting a lecture entitled: "The East European
Survivors’ Brigade: Whom Did the Jewish Postwar Refugees Represent?".
November 20, 2017
The Center held a conference on the topic “The Philippine Schindlers – Saving German Jews
(1938-1939)". The Ministry of Foreign Affairs provided financial support for the event.
December 6–8, 2017
Dr. Bondar represented the Center at the XXIV international conference at the Moscow
Center for University Teaching of Jewish Civilization “Sefer” of the Russian Academy of
Science. The title of Dr. Bondar's lecture was “The Epistle of Feodor the Jew to the Jewish
People”.
February 4–6, 2018
Dr. Bondar represented the Center at the XXV international conference at the Moscow
Center for University Teaching of Jewish Civilization “Sefer” of the Russian Academy of
Science. The title of Dr. Bondar's lecture was "On the Question of Old Belarusian among
the Jews of Grand Duchy of Lithuania".
March 5, 2018
The Center held a workshop on the topic "The Life of the Jews and Jewish Life in the Soviet
Union (1948-1973)". The event was organized in cooperation with the Lev Livshits
Foundation. The workshop was held in Russian. Dr. Bondar participated in the workshop,
delivering a lecture entitled “Kharkov-Tel Aviv: Readings in Memory of Lev Livshits and its
Renewal”.
March 18, 2018
The Institute for the History of Polish Jewry organized a symposium entitled "March 1968:
The Last Chapter in the History of Polish Jewry?" at Beit HaTfutsot. The event was organized
in cooperation with the European Association of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews
(Warsaw), the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and
Racism, the Insytut Polski of Tel Aviv, and the Museum of the Jewish People at Beit HaTfutsot.
The event presented academic research sessions along with personal testimonies and the
screening of a documentary film.
April 22, 2018
The Institute for the History of Polish Jewry organized a lecture for a group of visiting students
from the Jewish Studies Department of the University of Wrocław on the topic “Zionism,
HeChalutz and the Construction of the Yishuv”. The event was held in Mehlmann Library and
the lecture was delivered by Dr. Rona Yona of the Center for the Study of Zionism.
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Forthcoming Conferences and Symposiums
May 24–27, 2018
Dr. Schnitzer will represent the Center at the opening of an exhibition in Rouen, France on
the daily life and material culture of Jews in Northern France during the Middle Ages, entitled
“Savants et Croyants. Les juifs d’Europe du Nord au Moyen Âge”. The exhibition will take
place at the Musée des Antiquités and will feature the decorative key jewelry that Dr.
Schnitzer discovered at the Musée de Cluny in Paris during the course of her research on
the Jewish Neighborhood project.
May 27, 2018
The Center will hold a symposium on the topic "Saving Jewish Children in France during
WWII and their Lives in the Aftermath". Dr. Ouzan and Dr. Guez will participate and deliver
lectures.
June 6, 2018
The Center will organize an evening symposium in honor of the publication of a book by Prof.
Yoram Erder entitled The Karaite Mourners of Zion and the Qumran Scrolls: On the History
of an Alternative to Rabbinic Judaism. Prof. Meira Polliack is organizing the event and will
also deliver a lecture on the topic.
June 10–14, 2018
The Center will take part in organizing a five-day conference marking the occasion of Prof.
Minna Rozen’s retirement, entitled: "People of the Mediterranean: Patterns, Networks and
Conflicts (1492-1945)". Prof. Rozen served as a director of the Center during the period 1992-
1997. This event will be primarily organized by Haifa University and the Center will sponsor
and host the last day of the conference at Tel Aviv University.
July 2–5, 2018
Prof. Goldin and Dr. Lifshitz will represent the Center at the annual International Medieval
Congress held in Leeds, England, presenting papers based on their research in Session 628,
entitled "Zikaron/Memoria: Jewish Memory and Jewish Community, II".
October 2018
The Center will hold a fourth symposium based on the research from its project “Jewish
Soldiers in World War II”.
November 2018
The Center will hold a symposium based on the research from its project “Jewish
Neighborhood”.
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January 2019
The Center will hold an international conference marking the launch of the online database
of Jewish cemeteries in Turkey based on data collected by Prof. Rozen.
February – June 2019
The Center will hold a series of workshops on the collections in its archives, in order to make
students and faculty aware of the remarkable resource available to them for research and
study.
December 2019
The Center will organize a symposium in honor of the forthcoming publication of a book by
Dr. Ouzan, entitled: How Young Holocaust Survivors Rebuilt their Lives in France, the United
States, and Israel.
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Units and Projects – Ongoing Research
The Institute for the History of Polish Jewry and Israel-Poland
Relations
The Institute for the History of Polish Jewry and Israel-Poland Relations was established in a
meeting of the Trustees of Tel Aviv University in 2004, on the basis of a donation by the
industrialist Rami Unger and the yields of special trusts that were at the disposal of the Unit
for the History of the Jews in Poland at the Goldstein-Goren Diaspora Research Center.
The goals of the Institute are to develop and promote at Tel Aviv University critical research
and academic instruction on all matters related to the legacy and culture of Poland’s Jews.
The Institute collaborates with academic and public institutions and organizations in Israel
and throughout the world in promoting its activities.
The following are among the Institute’s areas of focus: publication of books and research
projects, encouragement of young scholars through the distribution of grants, organization of
conferences and sponsorship of academic events, responsibility for instruction of the Polish
language at the University, and study tours to Eastern Europe.
Organization of the Institute
Head of the Institute: Prof. Havi Dreifuss
Secretary: Dr. Dror Segev
Management Board
Prof. David Assaf
Prof. Havi Dreifuss
Prof. Simha Goldin*
Prof. Avner Holtzman
Prof. Avraham Novershtern
Prof. Avi Ohry
Dr. Scott Ury
Prof. Shevah Weiss
Publications Committee Scholarships Committee
Prof. Havi Dreifuss (Chair) Prof. Havi Dreifuss (Chair)
Prof. David Assaf Prof. David Assaf
Prof. David Engel Prof. Avner Holtzman
Prof. Avner Holtzman Dr. Scott Ury
Prof. Avraham Novershtern
* For the duration of his time as Director of the Goldstein-Goren Diaspora Research Center.
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Ongoing Research Projects
Gal-Ed: On the History and Culture of Polish Jewry, Volume 26
Editor: Gershon Bacon; Associate Editors: Avner Holtzman and Adam Teller
Editorial Secretary and Book Review Section Editor: Dror Segev
The volume is in the early stages of preparation. Expected date of publication: 2019.
Yehiel Yeshaia Trunk, Poland: Memories and Images
Editors: David Assaf, Avraham Novershtern, and Ben-Tsion Klibansky
An annotated Hebrew edition of a seven-volume monumental masterpiece. The entire book
was translated from Yiddish into Hebrew (volumes I-II by Ezra Fleischer; volumes III-VII by
Yehuda Gur-Arie). The book is being edited by Benny Mer and will be published in
cooperation with Beth Shalom Aleichem. The book has been annotated and academic editing
of the text began in early 2015.
I Did Not Surrender: Pua Rakowski's Memoirs
This volume – an annotated edition of the memoirs written by Pua Rakowski (1860–1950), a
revolutionary, Zionist-feminist woman from Poland – is being edited by Miriam Szamet, who
will also provide an extensive academic introduction. The book will be published in
cooperation with Beth Shalom Aleichem the expected date of publication is Spring 2019.
Between Two Worlds: The Memoirs of Maksymilian Hartglas
Maksymilian Apolinary Hartglas (1883–1953) was a lawyer, leading Zionist activist, and
member of the Polish Sejm during the interwar period. He succeeded in reaching Eretz-
Yisrael in 1940 and lived there until his death. He left behind a collection of memoirs in
Polish, handwritten in seven notebooks, that was donated by his family to the Goldstein-
Goren Diaspora Research Center Archive of Tel Aviv University. Excerpts from his memoirs
have previously been translated to Hebrew and published in Gal-Ed (Vol. 2, 1975; Vol. 14,
1995), but a complete translation of the text has never been made. Upon request by the
family, Anat Zajdman translated the memoirs. The manuscript will be submitted to the
Institute for review and to determine if it will be published by the university. Dr. Marcos Silber
has taken on responsibility for critical editing of the text and the writing of any necessary
introductions.
Annual Grants and Prizes to Tel Aviv University Students
Stipend scholarships
The Institute offers a program of scholarships for doctoral students at Tel Aviv University
engaged in the history and culture of Polish Jewry. Due to budgetary constraints no stipend
scholarships were distributed during the 2017–2018 academic year, nor will stipend
scholarships be distributed in 2018–2019.
Annual Prizes
The Institute awards annual prizes of encouragement to Master’s and doctoral degree
students whose research is dedicated to the study of the Jews of Poland and their culture.
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During the 2017–2018 academic year the following students received prizes:
Leah Beirach, Doctoral student, School of Jewish Studies
Research topic: The Documentation of East-European Jewry in Alter Kacyzne's Photographic
Work
Irit Eilam-Abadi, Doctoral student, School of Jewish Studies
Research topic: On the Brink of the Abyss: Yiddish and Hebrew Literature in Poland in the
Face of Historical Crisis, 1930-1939
Miri Yahalom, Master’s student, School of Jewish Studies
Research topic: Survival, Morality and Hadar: An Examination of the Revisionists in the Vilna
Ghetto and their Activities as Reflected in the Ghetto’s Historiography
Yoram Tatarski, Master’s student, School of Jewish Studies
Research topic: Four Townlets in the Vilna Region in Belorussia: A Monograph
Financial Assistance for Polish-language Studies
The Institute provides financial assistance to Tel Aviv University students seeking to learn
Polish through academic courses offered in Poland. During the 2017–2018 no applications
were received.
Grants for Students and Researchers from Poland
The Institute awards annual research grants to students and researchers from Poland dealing
with the history of Jews in Poland and their culture. The Entin Fund of the Faculty of
Humanities at Tel Aviv University funds one of the grants.
2017–2018 Recipients:
Dr. Jurgita Verbickiene, Vilnius University
Jews in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Halida Umbarova, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań
The Image of a Jew in the Russian Press Published before the First World War (1864-1914)
in the Polish Provinces of the Russian Empire (the Vistula-Land)
Anna Rataj, who was awarded a scholarship for her doctoral studies, withdrew her candidacy
and cancelled her trip for personal reasons.
During the 2017–2018 academic year the call for papers was expanded to include students
and scholars from universities and research centers in Lithuania. For the 2018–2019
academic year, seven applications were received and of those one researcher and one
doctoral student were selected:
Dr. Agnieszka Karczewska, Catholic University of Lublin
The Anthology of Polish-Jewish Literature for Children (1903-1939)
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Przemek Zawada, University of Wrocław
Israelis with Polish Passports: Political and Legal Analysis
Polish Language Studies
From its foundation, the Institute has funded the cost of the Polish language courses
conducted by the Division of Foreign Languages at Tel Aviv University, with the annual
assistance of 1,500 Euro from the Instytut Polski. However, since the 2013–2014 academic
year, the Instytut Polski has assumed the full cost of the program by hiring a teacher to
conduct the course. A “Beginning Polish” course will be offered during the 2018–2019
academic year, provided that a reasonable number of students register for the course.
Other Activities
Mehlmann Library: Financial assistance for the purchase of research publications
dealing with Eastern European Jewry
The Institute provides financial assistance to the Mehlmann Library for the purchase of Sifrei
Kehila and other publications necessary to the study of the history and culture of Polish and
Eastern European Jewry, both old and new. The Institute sees the Mehlmann Library as the
perfect repository for its own collection and is happy to be associated with it and assist in
nurturing and expanding its “Polish” collection.
Erasmus+: Memoranda of Understanding for Academic Cooperation with Universities
in Poland
As part of the new initiative of the European Commission to promote academic cooperation
– valid and funded until 2020 – universities that are part of the European Union can include
non-EU universities as partners in a variety of academic exchange programs, with particular
emphasis placed on teaching. In keeping with this initiative, several universities in Poland
submitted applications for EU funding of mutual student and faculty exchanges with Tel Aviv
University. Unlike similar initiatives in the past, this program offers greater flexibility with
scheduling, which enables participants (to Poland or from Poland) to take part in exchanges
of shorter duration – several weeks instead of an entire semester. This change makes it
possible – for the first time ever – for participants to take part in studies and teaching abroad
without adversely impacting their study and teaching obligations at home. As a result of the
agreement with Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, several visiting students from that
institution came to Tel Aviv University during the 2015–2016 academic year. Following the
completion of a similar agreement with Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Dr. Maślak-
Maciejewska came to Tel Aviv and delivered a lecture (see Conferences above). Additionally,
two B.A. students from the University of Wrocław – Agata Ganczarska and Anna Michalska
– did a student exchange for a semester at Tel Aviv University. The Institute helped to fund
their Hebrew studies at ulpan during their stay.
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Israeli Inter-University Academic Partnership in Russian and East European Studies
During the 2017–2018 academic year, the Institute became a supporting member of the
Israeli Inter-University Academic Partnership in Russian and East European Studies. Each
year, until 2022, it will provide 7,000 NIS towards the activities of the partnership.
Volume of Collected Articles in Honor of Prof. Israel Bartel, on the Occasion of His
Retirement
This book – entitled Making History Jewish: The Dialects of Jewish History in Eastern Europe
and the Middle East, Studies in Honor of Prof. Israel Bartel – will be edited by Scott Ury and
Paweł Maciejko and will be published in English by Brill Publishers.
Italia Judaica Project
Project Director: Prof. Shlomo Simonsohn
Among the Center’s many scholarly enterprises, one project stands out for its scholarship
and continuity: the “Italia Judaica” Project. Established in 1960 by Professor Shlomo
Simonsohn in collaboration with colleagues from Israel and abroad, the “Italia Judaica”
Project has been investigating the history of Jews in the countries along the Mediterranean
littoral and in Italy in particular. The results are published in print and on the internet, and are
discussed at international conferences dealing with the history of Italian Jewry.
Ongoing Research
A Documentary History of the Jews in Italy
Editor: Shlomo Simonsohn
The aim of this series is to locate and publish documentary material relating to the history of
the Jews in Italy, scattered in archives throughout Italy. The systematic publication of these
historical records serves as a tool for research into the heritage of Italian Jewry.
To date, 33 volumes have been published: Lombardy – 4 volumes; Piedmont – 3 volumes;
Umbria – 3 volumes; Rome – 2 volumes; Sicily – 19 volumes; Genoa – 2 volumes; Calabria
– 1 volume.
Work continues on the following volumes:
Tuscany (Lucca)
Editor: the late Michele Luzzati
Ready for print, following revision by the executors.
Basilicata
Editor: the late Cesare Colafemmina
Ready for print, following revision by the executors.
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Urbino
Editor: Alessandra Veronese
In progress, the book will be ready for print soon.
Historical Lexicon of the Jews in Italy
Editor: Shlomo Simonsohn
The lexicon covers the history of all the Jewish communities in Italy, from the Roman era
through the Emancipation, and is intended for use by scholars and students, as well as
interested members of the public. It is accompanied by a bibliography based on the six
published volumes, and is brought up to date continuously by the editorial board and by the
public.
The Lexicon is presented in Italian, but it is accessible through the Google Chrome browser
to provide translation into Hebrew, English, and a number of other languages. Scholars from
Israel and abroad contributed entries under the editorship of Prof. Shlomo Simonsohn, and
the site will operate under the auspices of the Goldstein-Goren Diaspora Research Center of
Tel Aviv University. The site's editorial board consists of Italian and Israeli historians. An
updated Bibliography accompanies the Lexicon. The possibility of expanding the project to
include additional activities – like tours of Jewish Italy, films on Jewish communities in Italy
past and present, lecture series, publications, and conferences are envisaged as the project
continues.
Publications
Forthcoming Books
The Jews of Italy in the Middle Ages: The South and Papal States, Vol. II, Leiden-Boston: Brill
Publishers; Expected date of publication: 2019.
Jewish Art and Visual Culture Research
Project Director: Dr. Naomi Feuchtwanger-Sarig
The underlying basis of this research is visual testimony, to be investigated as a historical
document and corroborated with textual evidence. The research addresses the technical,
iconographic and stylistic aspects of each object. In order to place the object within the
context of its era and culture, layers of research from the Halacha and the Minhag are
added, as well as comparison to textual sources from the non-Jewish world that are
relevant to the topic.
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Ongoing Research
The Invention of a Textual and Visual Printed Tradition: The Sefer Minhagim by
Shimeon ha-Levi Guenzburg
In the past year, Dr. Feuchtwanger-Sarig dedicated her research to the comprehensive
reconstruction of the woodcuts interspersed in the Minhogim bukh. As the copies of the
book that have come down to us are incomplete, they needed to be compared with one
another to get the full view. Only then could a complete decorative scheme be constructed,
enabling her to identify the thematic sequence of the scenes and discern the various
groups of illustrations in the book. This preliminary work enabled her to write the chapter
on the decorative scheme of the Minhogim bukh.
Another chapter deals with the target readership of the book. In his introduction, the author
writes that it is intended primarily for women and children, as well as for the less educated
members of the community. One would therefore expect that many images would present
women and children performing or taking part in the celebration of the customs. It is for
this reason that the book is written in Yiddish, the lingua franca of the non-elite, which –
according to the author – was not sufficiently versed in Hebrew and could not use books
on halakha and minhag in that language.
The third chapter tackles the issue of the place in which the scenes are depicted. Such an
analysis has bearing on the identification of the sacred or mundane sphere of performance
of the rituals. Some illustrations are naturally placed in the private home; others show the
synagogue interior, while other images suggest that the rites were a public communal act.
Significant progress was made in other chapters as well.
Grants
Dr. Feuchtwanger-Sarig spent the month of November 2017 as senior researcher in the
Max-Weber-Kolleg of the University of Erfurt. The research project of which she is a
member deals with “Dynamics of Ritual Practices in Judaism in Pluralistic Contexts from
Antiquity to the Present”, and is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and
Research. Within this framework, a workshop will take place in the winter of 2018, and the
final research results will be presented in an international conference in 2019.
Publications
Articles
“Synagoga Veritas? Johannes Pfefferkorn and his Synagogue Descriptions in the büchlein
der judenpeicht”, in: Jonathan Adams and Cordelia Hess (eds.), Revealing the Secrets of
the Jews: Johannes Pfefferkorn and Christian Writings about Jewish Life and Literature in
Early Modern Europe, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017, pp. 97–119.
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Forthcoming Books
Thy Father’s Instruction: Reading the Nuremberg Miscellany as Jewish Cultural History,
De Gruyter Publishing House; expected date of publication: January 2019.
Minhagim: Custom and Practice in Jewish Life. A selection of papers based on the
international conference of the same name held 13–15 May, 2012 at Tel Aviv University,
which will be published in December 2018 by De Gruyter Publishing House. Dr. Naomi
Feuchtwanger-Sarig is a member of the editorial board of the volume.
Papers Accepted for Publication
"The Lobed Maẓẓot: A Trialogue of Image, Text and Custom", in: Jean Baumgarten et al.
(eds.), Minhagim: Custom and Practice in Jewish Life, Berlin: De Gruyter; December 2018.
Research in Progress
"The Crown of our Heads has Fallen: Some Mourning Customs of the Portuguese Jews”.
The Invention of a Textual and Visual Printed Tradition: The Minhogim Bukh by Shimeon
haLevi Günzburg (Venice: Giovanni di Gara, 1593), Berlin: De Gruyter.
“Myrrh or Moor: The Iconography of ‘the Other’ in the Havdalah”, Ars Judaica.
Conferences
August 6–10, 2017
Dr. Feuchtwanger-Sarig represented the Center at the 17th World Congress of Jewish
Studies in Jerusalem, where she delivered a lecture entitled “Myrrh or Moor: The
Iconography of ‘The Other’ in the Havdalah”.
November 2017
Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Seminar für Judaistik: “Modern Jewish Art: Seeking
Visual Expressions of a New Identity” (invited lecture).
November 2017
Max-Weber-Kolleg, Universität Erfurt: “Von Außen: Jüdisches Leben in der Frankfurter
Judengasse durch christliche Augen betrachtet” (invited lecture).
The Jews in Islamic Countries in the Modern Era
Project Director: Prof. Yaron Tsur
This unit organizes various research projects which focus on re-examining the heritage,
history and culture of Jews in Islamic countries. The unit operates in cooperation with the
research team for “The Jews of Islamic Countries Archiving Project” and the website
“Historical Jewish Press” (www.JPress.org.il).
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The Jews of Islamic Countries Archiving Project
The Jews of Islamic Countries Archiving Project continues to prepare “A Survey of Jewish
Press in Islamic Countries”. This survey is meant to include all Islamic countries and the
various languages spoken therein, as well as all the Jewish newspapers that were published
there in all the various languages. An initial estimate has indicated that there are over 500
such newspapers and journals, and this survey will enable, for the first time, a comprehensive
look at the developing intellectual elite among the Jews of Islamic countries over a range of
historical periods. The initial results of this survey have already served as the subject of a
lecture delivered by the unit’s director at an academic conference held at Ben-Gurion
University of the Negev.
Young Scholars’ Research Forum: The Jews of Islamic Countries Archiving Project
During the 2017–2018 academic year, the research forum for doctoral students and post-
doctoral scholars examining the Jewish Diaspora in Asia, Africa and the Balkan region
continued for the fifth year in a row. This forum brings together young scholars from different
universities, and its aim is to advance the scholarship in the field by encouraging collaborative
learning and productivity. Building on the activities of previous years, the forum continues to
foster critical, methodological discourse on the various research groups and perspectives
that deal with historical research on the Jews of Islamic Countries.
Conferences
March 23, 2017
The unit held an evening symposium in honor of the publication of Prof. Tsur’s new book,
entitled Notables and Other Jews in the Ottoman Middle East, 1750–1830.
May 19, 2017
The unit, in cooperation with the National Library, held an event in honor of the Ladino section
of the Historical Jewish Press website on the occasion of the addition of the publication La
Epoca to the website.
July 17–19, 2017
The unit held an international conference on the topic “The Long History of Jews from Islamic
Countries in Israel”, in honor of Prof. Yaron Tsur to mark the occasion of his retirement.
The Jews of Belarus and the Ukraine
Researchers: Dr. Leonid Smilovitsky, Prof. Zakhar Shibeko, Dr. Konstantin Bondar
Ongoing Research by Dr. Smilovitsy
Database: The Jews of Belarus in the Modern Period
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Over the course of his research Dr. Smilovitsky has amassed a vast collection of archival
materials, which are in the process of being uploaded to a database on the Center’s website,
which will include scanned documents, photographs and correspondence.
The Jews in Belarus, 1944–1953
Between 1944 and 1946, the remainder of the Jewish community took an active part in the
renovation of the economic, cultural and scientific life of Belarus, and in certain areas even
played a key role. Beginning in 1946, the attitude of the authorities towards Jews became
harsher, reaching a peak of bad relations in 1948-1953. The Jews were blamed for
“bourgeoisie nationalism” on the one hand and “rootless cosmopolitanism” on the other.
Yiddish culture – which to that point was the only expression of Jewish nationalism – was
made illegal and Jewish institutions were shut down. The peak of this attack involved the
Doctor’s Libel in 1953. The short period between the end of World War II and the death of
Stalin turned out to be a time of awakening for those Jews who had survived the Holocaust’s
horrors and expected to reconstruct national Jewish life on Belarusian soil.
This research is primarily based on archival material from Israel, Belarus and Russia, as well
as press clippings, collections of documents, statistical data, memoirs and interviews, and
monographs published on the subject in different countries. Elements of this research have
already been published in various academic journals.
Correspondence and Personal Documents as Historical Sources: Jewish Soldiers in
Belarus
This project examines the correspondence of Jewish soldiers in the Soviet Army during World
War II. Dr. Smilovitsky is collecting and analyzing correspondence and personal documents
(letters, diaries, certificates of awards, commendations, military letters of recommendation,
casualty notifications, etc.), as well as memoirs and photographs, memories and personal
stories from the Red Army soldiers and commanders, as well as members of their families,
prominent figures of culture and science, who were evacuated to the areas of Central Asia,
the Urals, Kazakhstan, Siberia, and the Far East during the period 1941-1945. The aim of
this project is to decipher the military correspondence, compile a scholarly commentary, and
create an online database available to researchers, students and all who are interested in
World War II. The results of this work will serve as a basis for creating an archive of military
correspondence and personal sources, publications of collections of letters, and preparation
of a research monograph on the subject. The collection of wartime correspondence currently
holds letters, documents, and other personal writings and objects relating to 332 different war
participants (amounting to nearly 5,000 items). The documents are being catalogued by Leon
Gershovich, a research assistant on the project.
Jewish Cemeteries as a Historical Source of Study of the Jewish Communities of
Belarus
Dr. Smilovitsky has begun a new research project studying Jewish cemeteries as an
important historical source on the existence of Jewish communities in Belarus. The project
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aims to encourage the preservation of these cemeteries as invaluable resources of the
historical heritage of Belarus in general and the Jews of Belarus in particular by bringing the
topic to the attention of government, academic and public leaders. The project will examine
the role of Jewish communities as an integral part of the broader history of Belarus and will
study the interethnic relations between Jews and the other populations in which they lived
(Belarusians, Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians, and Tatars). This project
has the potential for far-reaching results, not only could it aid in preventing the destruction of
Jewish cemeteries and the installation of Christian cemeteries in their place, but in doing so,
it will raise the question of state responsibility for the preservation of Jewish heritage.
Publications
Articles
“Jews from the USSR Write Abroad (Letters and Diaries of World War II as a Historical
Source)”, Part One and Two, Russian Archives, 2017, № 5 (1), p. 12-32; Russian
Archives, 2017, № 5 (2), p. 106-124.
“Love at the War: Women and Men in the Red Army (On the Pages of the Letters and
Diaries of Soviet Jews in 1941–1945)”, Part 1, Russkaya Starina, (Russian Antiquity)
2017, 8(2): 173-185.
“A Gift in the War in its Personal, Public and State Dimension (Through Pages of Letters
and Diaries 1941-1945)”, Hippocrene: Scientific and Methodical Journal of the Institute
of Parliamentarism and Entrepreneurship of the Republic of Belarus. No. 2 (31), 2017,
p. 160-180.
“War, Reflected in the Child's Mind: Correspondence of Jewish Children with Their
Parents, Servicemen of the Red Army during the Soviet-German War of 1941-1945”,
Wschód Europy. Studia humanistyczno-społeczne, Vol 3, No 1 (2017), pp. 217-276.
“The Holocaust in Loev", Most, No. 900, September 6, 2017, p. 26-27; Banks, No. 9
September 2017, p. 6-7.
"Smilovitsky in Smilovichi", Most, No. 901, September 13, 2017, p. 26-29.
"Cherven. Jewish Cemetery: Past and Present”, Most, No. 902, September 19, 2017, p.
26-28.
"Krichev: Crosses in the Jewish Cemetery", Most, No. 903, September 27, 2017, p. 26-
27.
“Starye Dorogi. New Cemetery”, Most, No. 904, October 3, 2017, with. 22-24.
“Kamai. An Example to Follow”, Most, No. 905, October 10, 2017, p. 16-18.
“Rechitsa. Memory of the Past”, Most, No. 906, October 18, 2017, p. 24-26.
"Tours. Diligence is not According to Reason”, Most, No. 907, October 25, 2017, p. 24-
26.
25
"Cemetery in Loev. Where are the Old Monuments?” Most, No. 908, November 1, 2017,
p. 24-26.
“Loev. Repetition of the Past”, Most, No. 928, March 21, 2018, p. 26-27.
Reports
"Jewish Genes and Great Diligence". On the 90th Anniversary of Mark Taits, Berega,
July 5, 2017 No. 891, p. 22-24.
“For Whom Soviet Censorship Served during the War 1941-1945”, Aviv, No. 3-4, June-July
2017, p. 12.
“Raspberry Beret”, Most, No. 910, November 15, 2017, p. 18-19.
"Purim in Natania", Bridge, No. 926, March 7, 2018, p. 14.
Reviews
The Dr. Kiryl Kascian (Germany) project “Nation and Statehood in the Constitutional Acts
of Post-Soviet Eastern Europe: Finding Equilibrium between Historical Experiences and
Europeanization” for the Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center
for Scholars.
The Ida Shenderovich and Alexander Litin project (Mogilev) "We Lived Side by Side, We
Lived Together", the Genesis Foundation in Yad Vashem, September 3, 2017.
Submitted Articles
"Conditions for Writing Front-line Letters (Pages of Letters and Diaries of 1941-1945)”,
Bulletin of the Brest State Technical University: Scientific and Theoretical Journal – The
Humanities (2018).
“Germany and the Germans through the Eyes of Jews, as Soviet Soldiers and Officers
(On Pages of Letters and Diaries of 1944-1945)”, Annalese, Universitatis Maria Curie-
Sklodowska, section M – Balcaniensis et Carpathiensis, # 3, 2018.
“Postal Items as a Characteristic of the Front Correspondence and Rear in the Years of
the Soviet-German War, 1941-1945)”, Annalese, Universitatis Maria Curie-Sklodowska,
section M – Balcaniensis et Carpathiensis, # 4, 2018.
“About Life and Death in the War (On the Pages of Letters and Diaries of the Jews of
Fighters and Commanders of the Red Army of 1941-1945)”, Studia Zydowski. Almanach
(Jewish Studies. Almanac). Panstwowa Wyzsza Szkola Zawodowa im. Szymona
Szymonowiciu w Zamosciu (2018).
“The Role of Photography in the Correspondence between the Front and Rear. On
Pages of the Red Army Servicemen Letters and Diaries of 1941-1945”, Russkaya
Starina, (Russian Antiquity), 2018.
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“The Attitude to the Soviet State Holidays in Private Correspondence between the Front
and the Rear of 1941-1945)”, Homo Historicus (2018). Alexander Smalianchuk (Ed.).
Vilna, European Humanities University.
Academic Adviser
Leon Gershovich, Ph.D. student whose dissertation examines the topic: “Jewish Life in
South-East Belarus: The Case of Gomel, 1917–1941.”
Boris Maftsir, Until the Last Step. A documentary film on the Holocaust in Belarus during
WW2. Produced by Nonstop Media and Zvi Shefy Productions.
Conferences
August 6–8 , 2017
Dr. Smilovitsky represented the Center at the International Historical and Local Lore
Readings "The Dnieper Ferry", in Loev, Belarus, where he delivered a lecture entitled
“Soviet Jews Write in the Red Army (1941-1945)".
April 20, 2017
Dr. Smilovitsky participated in the Center’s symposium “Jewish Soldiers in World War II”
in which he delivered a lecture entitled “Families of the Soviet Jewish Soldiers Write
Abroad, 1941–1945: Letters and Diaries of World War II as a Historical Source.”
February 14, 2017
Dr. Smilovitsky represented the Center at the Uri Tair Educational Program at the
Ministry of Education of Israel, Jerusalem, where he delivered a lecture entitled “The
Holocaust in Belarus 1941–1944: New Documents and Materials”.
Ongoing Research by Prof. Shibeko
Jews and Jewish Life in Minsk, 1795–1917
Prof. Shibeko specializes in the history of Minsk during the period of 1861–1914. Building
on earlier research, he has started working on a monograph devoted to the history of the
Jews in Minsk. Joining the Center has provided the opportunity to research new sources
and publications, which will allow him to recreate a panoramic image of the life of the
Jews of Minsk during the period of 1795–1917, when the city was part of the Russian
Empire.
This volume, based on careful study of a single, particular city, will provide a detailed
reconstruction of the urban life of Jews in a certain historical epoch. Strangely, there has
until now been no significant research on the history of the Jews in Minsk, which is the
present capital of Belarus and which was one of the most important Jewish centers in
the past. The current availability of sources makes it possible to reconstruct a vast
panorama of the life of the Minsk Jews, in a city typical of the Belorussian region of the
Russian Empire. Prof. Shibeko’s work examines a number of different topics: the Minsk
27
Jewish community in its historical retrospective, the living conditions of the Jews in the
capital of a governorate, the Jews in the structure of the Minsk population, the role of the
Minsk Jews in the economy of the city and the region, the specific features of the Jewish
self-government, the peculiarities of their spiritual, cultural, and everyday life, the
participation of the Minsk Jews in the all-Russian political struggle, and in the national
(Zionist) movement. The book will be concluded with two chapters of a memorial and
reference character: “The Minsk Jews in Memory, Literature, and the Arts,” and “The
Jewish Addresses of the Old City.” The book itself will become a kind of a monument to
Jewish Minsk, where at the end of the nineteenth century the Jews formed 51% of the
inhabitants. Probably, a vast panorama of the research would make it possible to
understand how the Belorussian regionalism influenced the national self-identification of
the Jewish people. At present, it is not completely clear to us why Czarist Russia failed
to assimilate the Lithuanian Jews to the same degree as the Jews in Poland, and even
the Ukraine, to say nothing about France and other European countries. It is possible
that the preservation of their individuality was due also to some Belorussian factors.
Moreover, a study of a single, concrete location, covered by a plethora of sources, will
make it possible to establish methods and experience necessary for working on a
promising international project on the history of the Lithuanian Jews.
During the 2017–2018 academic year, Prof. Shibeko has been conducting research in
libraries of Belarus, analyzing recent research in the field. He made additions to a
previously compiled list of scholarly publications on the history of Jews in Belarus and
Minsk in that period. In the process, he was greatly aided by local Jewish volunteers.
The History of Retail Trade in Belarus
“The History of Retail Trade in Belarus” is a Belorussian-Israeli research project started
in 2013, which is financed by the Belorussian company MENKA and is under the
scholarly supervision by Prof. Shibeko. The goal of the project is to write a research
monograph on the history of trade in Belorussia from ancient times to the 1990s.
Nineteen Belorussian historians, archeologists, ethnographers and economists will take
part in creating scholarly studies to be included in the future monograph. This is the first
time that such a large-scale research project on the history of trade is being undertaken
within the territory of the former Soviet Union. One of the central topics will be the
participation of Jews in trade in Belorussian lands, their role in the development of the
trade, and their interaction with non-Jews in the Belorussian consumer market .
The planned research will consider various aspects of the entrepreneurial activity of
merchants in a close connection with market conditions and consumers’ demands. The
research will study the development of trade through an examination of human activity,
highlighted by the use of an anthropological-historical methodology .
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During the 2017-2018 academic year, Professor Shibeko continued editing the full text
of the monograph The History of Trade in Belarus.
Jewish Trade in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the End of the Fourteenth Century
to the Nineteenth Century
The idea of writing a book on the topic of Jewish trade in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
emerged during the course of work on his collective monograph entitled The History of
Trade in Belarus. The research is being carried out primarily on the basis of published
primary sources, as the main sources on the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
(GDL) have already been published. While the available studies published in Israel,
Belarus, Poland, and Lithuania focus on the spiritual life, culture, and self-government of
the Jews in the GDL, in this monograph, trade, as one of the most widespread economic
occupations of the Jews, is taken as the subject of research. The factors of language,
religion, and self-government kept the Jews largely isolated from other peoples in the
GDL, and it was only at the market that they came into contact with non-Jews. In the
process of trade and the resulting interaction with Gentiles, carriers of the local culture
could not but affect the development of the Lithuanian Jewish community, a subdivision
of the broader Ashkenazi Jewish community. However, very little research has been
conducted on this cultural impact of trade on the Lithuanian Jewish community. The
planned book will study the general context of Jewish life in the GDL, the sources, the
consumer market, the legal and financial conditions for trade activity at the consumer
market, Jewish trade itself, and the relations of Jews with the consumers, non-Jews
included. Prof. Shibeko will try to determine how the interaction between the Jews and
Belarusians was implemented through trade. The source-oriented character of the book
would become a reference point for more detailed studies of Jewish trade in Old
Lithuania by future researchers .
Professor Shibeko is currently working on a chapter focusing on "Conditions for Jewish
Trade in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania".
Publications
Book review: “Lev Smilovitsky: From the Experiences of Life” Memories, Jerusalem, 2016,
19 pp., Przegląd Środkowo-Wschodni. Tom 1. Warszawa, 2017. S. 311-320.) [in Belarusian].
“Loans in Jewish Trade in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (From the End of the XIV Century
tothe End of the XVIII Century)”, Pracy Centra wywutshennja historyi handlju. Wypusk 2/
Minsk 2017, pp. 10-26. [in Belarusian].
“The Drinking Trade of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Participation of Jews (From the
End of the XIV Century to 1572)”, Wschód Europy/ Studia Humanistyczno-Społeczne 2017,
1. Pp. 13-64. [in Belarusian].
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“Why Did Vilnius Not Become the Capital of the Belarusian People's Republic?”, Shljahami
Belaruskaj Narodnaj Respubliki. Managrafija. Vilnus, 2018, pp. 4-12. [in Belarusian].
Editing and Review
Professor Shibeko wrote reviews on:
Olga Volkova, The Economic Policy of the German Authorities in Belarus during World War
I (1915 – February 1918), doctoral thesis, Minsk 2017.
Valentina Balkova, Таможенная служба в системе управления Российского
государства (XVI–XVIII вв.): историко-правовой аспект, doctoral thesis, Moscow 2017.
Sergei Ablomejco, The Politics of the Soviet Authorities Regarding the Old City in Minsk in
1920–1956, doctoral thesis, Bialystok 2018.
Articles in Preparation for Publication
“Trade in Beverages in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Jewish Participation from the
End of 14th century to 1572”.
“The Path to the Belarusian People's Republic under the German Occupation (1915–1918):
The Role of Germany in an Attempt to Restore the Belarusian Statehood” – accepted for
publication in the scientific journal Belarusian Review, Prague.
Consultations
Prof. Shibeko was a consultant to a Belarusian-Jewish group from the Netherlands which is
creating an animated film for children on the main events of Belarusian history.
Prof. Shibeko is an editorial board member of the scientific historical journals: Archivist
(Minsk), Białoruskie Zeszyty Historyczne (Bialystok, Poland), Belarusian Review (Prague),
and Wschód Europy. Studia humanistyczno-społeczne (Lublin). He is also a reviewer for the
scientific journal Acta Baltico-Slavica (Warsaw).
Ongoing Research by Dr. Bondar
Hebrew-Slavic Contacts in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Dr. Bondar’s research examines the relationships and points of cultural contact that existed
between Jews and the Slavic populations among whom they lived in the area of the Grand
Duchy of Lithuania (modern Belarus, Volhynia, Polesia, the Kiev Region and the Upper
Dnieper) during the Middle Ages. During the Middle Ages, Jews in Belarus and parts of
Ukraine that were under the authority of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania lived in compact
communities in close proximity with the surrounding non-Jewish population. As such, the
phenomenon of inter-cultural text translations can be seen as a window into the social,
religious, scientific, and cultural life of the two groups.
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Numerous written sources exist from the period – the works of both Christian scribes and
Jewish scholars – many of them Hebrew texts translated into Slavic languages (particularly
Old Belarusian and Old Ukrainian). These texts, and the subject of Jewish participation in the
translation process, have not yet been sufficiently studied by scholars. Dr. Bondar’s work
seeks to redress this deficiency. Topics of investigation for this study include translations of
Holy Scriptures and prayers, retellings of Midrashim, revisions of biblical texts, and the
influence of Jews on the spiritual and ideological movements in Muscovy.
During the 2017–2018 academic year, Dr. Bondar has focused on collecting and analyzing
primary sources from libraries in Moscow and St. Petersburg; preparing and publishing
articles on the language used in translations of biblical books from the Vilna collection; and
studying the manuscript tradition and sources of Psalms of Feodor and Hebrew glosses of
the Pentateuch.
Publications
Articles
“Texts and Their Interpreters: On the Typology of Translations from Hebrew to Old
Russian”, Contacts and Conflicts in Slavic and Jewish Cultural Tradition. Ed. by
O. V. Belova, Мoscow: Sefer, 2017, pp. 68–79.
“On the Typology of East-Slavic Translations from Hebrew”, Wschód Europy / Studia
Humanistyczno-Społeczne. East of Europe / Humanitarian and Social research. V. 1.
Lublin, Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej, 2017, pp. 155-165.
“Lexical Signs of Translations from Hebrew to Old Russian”, Ukrainian Association of
Russian Language and Literature Teachers, 2017.
“On the Question of Enigmatic Glosses in the East-Slavic Pentateuch”, Ukrainian
Association of Russian Language and Literature Teachers, 2017.
“How to be Gudziy: On the Occasion of the 130th Anniversary of Nikolay Gudziy”,
Scientific Works of the Kamyanets-Podilsky National University n. a. Ivan Ogienko:
Philological Sciences, # 44, 2017, pp. 360-362.
“Miraculous Narrative in Haggada and Hagiography”, Khazar Miscellany, Moscow-Kiev
2017, V. 15, pp. 58-65.
“Those Ten Years: The Renaissance of Kharkov Khazar’s Studies, Khazar Miscellany,
Moscow-Kiev 2017, V. 15, pp. 466-471.
“Texts and Their Translators”, Proceedings of the Conference “Contacts and Conflicts in
the Jewish and Slavic Tradition”, Moscow Center for University Teaching of Jewish
Civilization “Sefer”, December 7–9, 2016; Institute of Slavic Studies, Russian Academy
of Science, 2017.
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“On the Jewish Influence to the Biblical Tradition of Slavs”, Toronto Slavic Quarterly:
International Slavistics Journal, Toronto 2018, V. 63.
“Bohdanko, the Tushino Thief”, in cooperation with Abraham Torpusman (Electronic
Jewish Encyclopedia, Jerusalem); Network portal "Notes on Jewish History", ed. by
Dr. Evgeniy Berkovich, № 2-3 (206), 2018.
Submitted Articles
“On the Typology of East-Slavic Medieval Translations from Hebrew”, Wschód Europy,
vol. 4, Lublin University, 2017.
“The Epistle of Feodor the Jew to the Jewish People”, “Prohibitions and Prescriptions in
the Slavic and Jewish Cultural Traditions”. Proceeding of the Conference of Moscow
Center for University teaching of Jewish Civilization “Sefer”, December, 6-8, 2017 (will
be published in 2018).
Conferences
January 29–31, 2017
Dr. Bondar represented the Center at the XXIV International Interdisciplinary Conference
on Jewish Studies held in Moscow. He presented a paper entitled “Thinking of Glosses:
On the Question of Jewish Influence on the Biblical Tradition of the Slavs”.
December 6–8, 2017
Dr. Bondar represented the Center at the XXIV international conference at the Moscow
Center for University Teaching of Jewish Civilization “Sefer” of the Russian Academy of
Science. The title of Dr. Bondar's lecture was “The Epistle of Feodor the Jew to the
Jewish People”.
February 4–6, 2018
Dr. Bondar represented the Center at the XXV international conference at the Moscow
Center for University Teaching of Jewish Civilization “Sefer” of the Russian Academy of
Science. The title of Dr. Bondar's lecture was "On the Question of Old Belarusian among
the Jews of Grand Duchy of Lithuania".
March 5, 2018
Dr. Bondar participated in the Center’s research workshop “The Life of the Jews and Jewish
Life in the Soviet Union” in which he delivered a lecture entitled “Kharkov-Tel Aviv: Readings
in Memory of Lev Livshits and its Renewal”.
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The Cultural History of the Jews of the Islamic World in the Middle
Ages (9th–13th Centuries)
Project Director: Prof. Meira Polliack
Anthology of Karaite Works Produced in the Islamic Domain
Editors: Prof. Meira Polliack and Prof. Yoram Erder
The purpose of this anthology is to present the Israeli reader – for the first time – with a corpus
of Karaite literature reflecting its great richness. The Karaites made a considerable
contribution to Jewish literature with their biblical commentaries and translations, the
Masoretic Text, theology, Hebrew grammar and more. This prolific range of materials is not
currently accessible to most people, even those in the field. The majority of these sources
are manuscripts, most of which are written in Judaeo-Arabic. Therefore, this book will be of
great significance in bringing Karaite literature into Israeli discourse.
In order to prepare this anthology, the editors turned to the best scholars in the field – both
in Israel and abroad – and requested that they each select the texts related to their research
and expertise. These scholars were asked to provide introductions to each text that would
clarify the Karaite contribution to the subject. All of the scholars submitted their articles, which
have undergone an initial review by the editors.
Prof. Polliack and Prof. Erder have written an initial version of the extensive introduction to
the volume, but their main focus this year has been the final editing of all the texts. After their
academic editing of the volume, it was sent to Dana Reich for linguistic editing, which will be
completed by October 2018. The expected date of publication is December 2018.
Publications
Elinoar Bareket, Yoram Erder, Meira Polliack (eds.): Yad Moshe Studies in the History of the
Jews in Muslim Lands in Memory of Moshe Gil, Teʽuda, 29 (2018)
Yoram Erder, “First and Second Tithes in the Temple Scroll and in the Book of Jubilees
according to Early Karaite Discourse”, Meghillot-Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls, volume
13 (2017), pp. 231–267.
Yoram Erder ,"Daniel al-Qumisi`s Commentary to the Story of the Tabernacle's Construction",
Yad Moshe Studies in the History of the Jews in Muslim Lands in Memory of Moshe Gil,
Teʽuda, 29 (2018), pp. 193–214.
Yoram Erder, The Karaite Mourners of Zion and the Qumran Scrolls, Brepols Publishers,
2017.
Meira Polliack,"'Scribe', 'Redactor' and 'Author' – The Multifaceted Concept of the Biblical
Narrator (mudawwin) in Medieval Karaite Exegesis", Yad Moshe Studies in the History of the
Jews in Muslim Lands in Memory of Moshe Gil, Teʽuda, 29 (2018).
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Meira Polliack, "Implementation as Innovation: The Arabic Terms Qiṣṣa and Ḵabar in
Medieval Karaite Interpretation of Biblical Narrative and its Redaction History", Studies
in Semitic Linguistics and Manuscripts:A Liber Discipulorum in Honour of Professor
Geoffrey Khan, Edited by Nadia Vidro, Ronny Vollandt, Esther-Miriam Wagner, and
Judith Olszowy-Schlanger, Uppsala 2018, pp. 200–216.
Meira Polliack, "Single Script Mixed Code Literary Sources from the Cairo Genizah and
their Sociolinguistic Context", Jewish Languages in Historical Perspective, edited by Lily
Khan, Brill, 2018.
Critical Editions, Translation and Studies of Yefet ben ʿEli’s Bible Commentaries
One of the most preeminent and prolific Bible exegetes of the Karaite “Golden Age” (10th-11th
centuries) was Yefet ben ʿEli ha-Levi. Dr. Zawanowska is currently completing her English
translation of Yefet ben ʿEli’s commentary on Genesis. Dr. Sasson z"l, who passed away in
the autumn after a struggle with cancer, worked on the English translation of her edition of
Yefet ben ʿEli’s commentary on Proverbs. The work will be completed by Prof. Meira Polliack
and Prof. Michael Wechsler, editors of the Karaite Texts and Studies series (Brill).
Publications
Ilana Sasson, "Yefet Ben ʿEli's Introduction to his Translation and Commentary on Proverbs”,
Yad Moshe Studies in the History of the Jews in Muslim Lands in Memory of Moshe Gil,
Teʽuda, 29 (2018), pp. 177–192.
Ilana Sasson, "Who Wrote the Book of Proverbs? Yefet ben Eli's view of the Book's collation
and editing", Peamim 150–152 (2017), pp. 373–388.
Conferences
April 10, 2018
Prof. Polliack organized and chaired a special ceremony marking the granting of a
commemorative scholarship in memory of Dr. Ilana Sasson z"l, who was a valued member
of the project's research team.
Forthcoming Conferences
June 6, 2018
The center will organize an evening symposium in honor of the publication of a new book
by Prof. Yoram Erder entitled The Karaite Mourners of Zion and the Qumran Scrolls: On
the History of an Alternative to Rabbinic Judaism.
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Jewish Identity and Consciousness
Researchers: Dr. Simcha Françoise Ouzan, Dr. Maya Guez
Ongoing Research by Dr. Ouzan
Rebuilding Lives after the Shoah in the United States, France and Israel (1948–1993)
Through memoirs, testimonies, archival material, various writings by Holocaust survivors and
interviews (some of which have been conducted by the author in three languages), Dr. Ouzan
has examined the return to life and the process of rebuilding lives in France, the United States,
and Israel.
Her study explores the Jewish identity of the survivors, their general human approach
towards universal values and their commitments to make this world a better place. In so doing,
her work leans on theoretical writing in sociology, psychology and literature, offering insights
into the reasons why one individual chose one way or another, while acknowledging the
importance of political, social and cultural contexts. The completed research is a longitudinal
study on the experiences and contributions of survivors in three countries over the course of
sixty to seventy years after the war. In that respect, this work differs from previous studies on
Holocaust survivors.
The comparative approach of the volume is crucial in understanding how the diverse political
environment crystalized the differences and the similarities between the various war
experiences of the survivors, whether they were in hiding, camps, fighting in the forests, etc.
Dr. Ouzan corrects a few long-standing, mistaken perceptions and sets a research agenda
for other scholars. As she notes: “This book is destined to be one of the last attempts to
analyze the survivors’ various pasts and present while some still strive to be vocal in the
public sphere. It will hopefully keep alive their legacy and demonstrate their determination to
ensure continuity and endow their lives with meaning, against all odds”. In the context of
today’s international refugee problem, Dr. Ouzan’s work is inspiring as one can derive
knowledge about how victims of genocide may enrich their host countries. The book will be
published by Indiana University Press in Fall 2018.
Jews in the American Army in World War II: Experiences Abroad and Meaningful
Encounters
Dr. Ouzan’s new research concentrates on “the liberators” – in particular, American Jewish
soldiers during World War II. Her current focus is on their presence in Europe, with an
emphasis on French soil.
Among the sixteen million Americans who served in every branch of the military forces, fought
in every theater of World War II and participated in liberating the world from the Nazis and
their Axis partners, there were over 550,000 self-identified Jews.
Drawing on a multitude of in-depth interviews and testimonies, as well as on letters written
by soldiers to their families, this research explores some of the 400 interviews recorded by
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the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York with Jewish veterans from various backgrounds
and all branches of service. It also uses the oral testimonies of Jewish “liberators” at the USC
Shoah Foundation and at the Zionist Archives. This research attempts to recount and
understand the nature of the Jewish GIs’ war experiences, especially in unfamiliar territories
and cultures.
The significance of this research cannot be overstated: through oral history which provides
details that are usually absent from other sources, letters and photographs, as well as war
diaries, the impact of military service on the soldiers’ American and Jewish identities can be
best analyzed. This study also aims at undermining stereotypes about Jewish soldiers such
as “unpatriotic cowards” at a period when antisemitism was at its peak in the United States.
It enables a reassessment of anti-Jewish attitudes in the American military during World War
II.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, Dr. Ouzan conducted two research trips to archives in
the United States to gather materials for this project: The National Museum of American
Jewish Military History, Washington, D. C. (March 2017) and the National World War II
Museum, New Orleans (May 2017).
Publications
Françoise S. Ouzan, “Can Their Voices Go Unheard?”, The Jerusalem Report, December
11, 2017, volume XXVIII, number 18.
Françoise S. Ouzan, “Was Truman’s Missouri the Cradle of the State of Israel?”, The
Jerusalem Report, May 14, 2018.
Françoise S. Ouzan, “Zeev Birger, et le développement de Jérusalem”, in Si c’était Jérusalem,
coll. Schibboleth-Actualité de Freud, Paris, Editions In Press, April 2018 (eds. Bar Zvi M.,
M.G Wolkowicz), pp 481-85.
Forthcoming Publications
Françoise S. Ouzan, How Young Holocaust Survivors Rebuilt their Lives in France, the
United States, and Israel, Studies in Antisemitism, Indiana University Press, 2018.
Françoise S. Ouzan, “From the Jewish Resistance in France to the Jewish State: Intersecting
Roads”, in Jewish Soldiers in World War II, edited by Kiril Feferman, Simha Goldin and Dina
Porat (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2018), vol. 17 of Michael: On the History of Jews in the
Diaspora.
Conferences
April 20, 2017
Dr. Ouzan participated in the Center’s symposium “Jewish Soldiers in World War II” in
which she delivered a lecture entitled “A Meaningful Encounter: Jewish GIs and Jews in
French North Africa (1942–1943)”.
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Forthcoming Lectures and Conferences
May 27, 2018
Dr. Ouzan will participate in the center's symposium: "Saving Jewish Children in France
during WWII and their Lives in the Aftermath". Dr. Ouzan lecture is entitled: "From Victims to
Social Actors: The Case Study of Boris Cyrulnik".
May 9–10, 2018
Dr. Ouzan has been invited to serve as a chairperson in a conference on Jewish
secularism (Colloque des intellectuels francophones d’Israël, organized by Professor
Shmuel Trigano, Tel Aviv, Dialogia).
June 28, 2018
Dr. Ouzan has been invited by Alumim, in Jerusalem, an association comprised of
former hidden children during the Holocaust, to deliver a lecture on “Holocaust Survivor
Menachem Perlmutter and the Transformation of the Negev Desert”.
December 2019
The Center will organize a symposium in honor of the publication of Dr. Ouzan’s
forthcoming book: How Young Survivors Rebuilt their Lives in France, the United States,
and Israel, which will be published in September 2018.
Ongoing Research by Dr. Guez
Mothers in Crisis: Changing Concepts of Motherhood in the Warsaw and Lodz Ghettos
This study explores the metamorphosis of Jewish motherhood in the Warsaw and Lodz
ghettos from their inception until their destruction, during the period of 1940–1944. Over these
four years, traditional maternal roles evolved and charted a new course, comprising behavior
previously unknown among Jewish women in Eastern Europe. The research questions to be
examined are the following: What kind of family life – motherhood and parenthood –
transpired under the constant threat of death and terror? How did the loss of children shape
women survivors, and mothers? This project received funding from the International Institute
for Holocaust Research of Yad Vashem. Based on her research, Dr. Guez will prepare and
publish an anthology of diaries and letters which have been translated from Yiddish to
Hebrew, accompanied by a foreword for each chapter and a comprehensive introduction for
the volume as a whole.
Free Masons in World War II and the Holocaust
This project examines a hidden, little-known chapter of the Holocaust period focusing on Nazi
persecution of Free Masons – both Jewish and non-Jewish – in Germany during World War
II. In Chapter 99 of Mein Kampf, Hitler refers to the Free Masons and their alleged efforts to
take over the world; he emphasizes the critical need to exterminate them. This research
traces the Free Masons who came to Eretz Yisrael during World War II in order to promote
Masonry in the Jewish Yishuv, out of concern for their Masonic brethren who were sent to
37
ghettos and concentration camps. The study considers testimonies, symbols, and
ceremonies practiced by the Masons in the camps as an attempt to preserve the character
of the Masonic order even during the war and under constant threat to their existence.
The Rescue of Jewish Children in France during World War II
This project investigates the OSE organization established in Germany and headed by Albert
Einstein. The OSE was active in France during World War II, and its heroic activities saved
some 5,000 Jewish children from the families of new immigrants who had arrived in France
after 1919. During the course of her research, Dr. Guez has interviewed a number of
members of the Underground movement who belonged to the OSE and took part in rescuing
the children.
Publications
Articles
“The Saving of Jews in the Philippines, 1938–1939”, Yalkut Moreshet, Num. 98, December
2017 (Hebrew), English version published May 2018.
Forthcoming Publications
“Romain Gary, A Gender Pioneer: Representations of Jewish Women in the Writings of
Romain Gary against the Backdrop of World War II”, Alpayim, Carmel Publishing House,
2018.
Things I Wanted to Forget, based on the research project “Mothers in Crisis: Changing
Concepts of Motherhood in the Warsaw and Lodz Ghettos”.
Conferences
April 20, 2017
As part of the Center’s symposium “Jewish Soldiers in World War II”, Dr. Guez delivered a
lecture entitled “Jewish or British Patriotism: The Jewish Identity of Soldiers in the British
Army during World War II”.
November 20, 2017
Dr. Guez initiated and organized the symposium: "Philippine Schindlers: Saving German
Jews, 1938-1939", during which she presented a lecture entitled: "Paul McNutt: The
Compassionate American Organizer of the Rescue Operation".
Forthcoming Conferences
May 17, 2018
Dr. Guez will deliver a lecture at Tel Aviv University entitled "Mothers in Crisis: Changing
Concepts of Jewish Motherhood in the Warsaw Ghetto"; the lecture is part of a series
organized by Weiner Library.
May 27, 2018
38
Dr. Guez initiated and organized the upcoming symposium "Saving Jewish Children in
France during World War II and their Lives in the Aftermath". She will serve as chair of
one of the event’s sessions and will deliver a lecture on the topic "The Marathoner Who
Saved Hundreds of Jewish Children during World War II in France".
The Jewish Neighborhood: Exploring the Other Side of Medieval
Urban Space
Project Director: Prof. Simha Goldin
Researchers: Dr. Yitzhak Lifshitz, Dr. Merav Schnitzer
The medieval European Jewish neighborhood was a physical and social space reflecting
unique adaptations of residential needs according to religious laws and the sages'
interpretations in the Mishnah and Talmud that took place within the Christian cities of
medieval Europe. Understanding the features of Jewish communal life in these cities, as well
as the planning rationale of the Jewish urban landscape, is widely unexplored and requires
a complex set of interdisciplinary tools, combining the disciplines of history, archaeology,
Halacha (Jewish law), folklore, and art. The significance of a unique research of this type is
in its ability to shed light upon a critical phase in the development of Jewish thought and, for
the first time, the various elements composing Jewish neighborhoods in medieval European
cities. This research aims to analyze not only the physical characteristics of the medieval
Jewish neighborhood, but also to address the Jews' self-perception with regard to the space
within which they operate, within their own neighborhood and within the larger Christian city.
Comparing Halachic materials from the Iruvin Tractate concerning the Jewish neighborhood
with non-Jewish historical sources and archaeological data provides a unique glimpse into
the urban landscape of Europe's medieval, city-dwelling Jews, illuminating the many layers
of meaning implicated in their physical surroundings. The research team is analyzing a
number of sources – including medieval interpretations of the Iruvin tractate by key Jewish
scholars in France and Germany; Responsa dealing with neighborly relations and the
problems caused by local landscapes and construction on the Sabbath; medieval real estate
deeds and registrations that took place in Christian cities; and archaeological remains from
medieval cities – in order to understand and reconstruct the medieval Jewish urban space
within the European Christian city.
The research team is led by Prof. Simha Goldin, in cooperation with Professor Dr. Johannes
Heil, the Ignatz Bubis Chair of the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien in Heidelberg, Germany.
Other leading scholars in this field – primarily in Europe – are involved in the project. Within
the framework of this project, a series of annual international research workshops has been
held to examine new findings; the proceedings from these workshops will be published as a
new volume of the Center’s academic journal Michael. In addition, one or more books on the
39
reconstruction of the medieval European Jewish neighborhood will be published upon the
conclusion of the project.
The Economic and Material Culture of Jews in Ashkenaz during the Middle
Ages
Researcher: Dr. Yitzhak Lifshitz
Jewish neighborhoods throughout ancient and medieval times were shaped by halachic
requirements that guided the Jews’ way of life; halachic sources, therefore, serve as an
excellent means of studying the urban landscape of the period. Dr. Lifshitz’s work focuses
on examining medieval European halachic sources, particularly commentary on Tractate
Eruvin, as a basis for establishing the interior dynamics – physical, social, religious, and
cultural – of Jewish neighborhood building during the period.
During the 2017-2018 academic year Dr. Lifshitz has been focusing on two new aspects of
research. The first deals with material culture of the Middle Ages and examines the use of
wooden utensils, which were common at the time, and which were perceived as valuable
commodities. The second considers the theology of memory in Ashkenaz, focusing on the
process of remembering and commemorating, and the purpose it served for the community
socially and theologically. Dr. Lifshitz is continuing his work on a volume dealing with
everyday life and the economy of the Jews of Ashkenaz in the Middle Ages, which will include
all of the articles he has written over the last several years.
Conferences
July 3–6, 2017
Dr. Lifshitz represented the Center at the International Medieval Congress at the University
of Leeds, where he presented a paper entitled “A Gentile is Not the Other: The Unique Case
of Ashkenaz”.
Forthcoming Conferences
July 2–5, 2018
Dr. Lifshitz will represent the Center at the annual International Medieval Congress held in
Leeds, England, presenting papers based on his research in Session 628, entitled
"Zikaron/Memoria: Jewish Memory and Jewish Community, II".
Jewish Women’s Adornment in the Medieval Jewish Neighborhood: Cultural
Exchanges
Researcher: Dr. Merav Schnitzer
During the 2017–2018 academic year, Dr. Schnitzer has expanded her research on Jewish
women’s adornment practices during the Middle Ages to consider Jewish women’s
undergarments. This research is based on both Christian sources on the fashion of the time
and the changes it underwent, as well as the responsa of Halachic scholars on the topic of
40
changes in the fashion practices of Jewish women in the urban milieu of the Middle Ages. As
Dr. Schnitzer had previously discovered was the case with trends in jewelry, so, too, she has
found evidence that the changing fashions of Christian women influenced those of the
neighboring Jewish women. These changes created a conflict between the leading fashion
and the Halachic precepts regarding the laws of Eruv and immersion in the mikveh. The
Jewish women who lived in the commercial and fashion centers of Champagne and Île-de-
France dictated the fashion, which then spread out among women in other communities
throughout France and even beyond. During the past year there have also been new
developments in the earlier aspects of Dr. Schnitzer’s research: the key jewelry that she
discovered several years ago at the Musée de Cluny in Paris will be a central exhibit in the
new exhibition that will open in May 2018 in the city of Rouen, France exploring the daily life
and material culture of the Jews of Northern France during the Middle Ages.
Publications
Rape between Halacha and Reality: Attitudes towards Sexual Coercion of Women in the
Medieval Jewish Communities of Northern France and Germany (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University
Press, 2017).
“The Key of the Colmar Treasure”, Savants et Croyants. Les juifs d’Europe du Nord au Moyen
Âge, Musée des Antiquités, Reunion des Musées Métropolitains, 2018, pp. 229-230, ed.
Nicolas Hatot.
Forthcoming Publications
“The Missing Key in the Treasure: Cultural Exchanges and Women’s Adornment in Medieval
Europe”, Michael, volume 18, Tel Aviv University.
Conferences
August 6–10, 2018
Dr. Schnitzer represented the Center at the 17th World Congress of Jewish Studies which
was held in Jerusalem. She delivered a lecture entitled “Speaking of Style: The Positions of
the Halachic Scholars of Ashkenaz Regarding Women’s Fashion”.
Forthcoming Conferences
May 24-27, 2018
Dr. Schnitzer will represent the Center at the Exhibition Savants et Croyants. Les juifs
d’Europe du Nord au Moyen Âge, Musée des Antiquités, Reunion des Musées Métropolitains.
41
The Jews of Crete during the Venetian Period (13th–17th Centuries)
Project Director: Prof. Benjamin Arbel
Until their extinction during World War II, Jewish life on Crete had lasted for at least 2,000
years, yet rich and detailed documentary materials have survived only from the long period
of the Venetian domination of the island (1211–1669). These documents are kept in the
Venetian State Archives, and they include an impressive amount of sources related to Jewish
life in Crete during that period. Most of these materials are still unpublished and still relatively
neglected in historical research, despite their great interest.
This project has been established in 2005 as a collaboration between the Salonica Chair for
the History and Culture of the Jews of Greece and the Goldstein-Goren Diaspora Research
Center.
The project’s activities involve the following main tracks:
The collection of all of the relevant materials on the Jews of Crete during the Venetian era
(including bibliographies, books and articles, and especially photocopies/scans of archival
material).
The organization of research workshops on the different aspects of the lives of Jews in
Crete, and encouragement of graduate students and research students to devote
dissertations to these subjects.
The promotion of international collaboration between scholars interested in the field.
The publication of studies related to the project.
Archival Research
A great effort has already been invested in the framework of the present project to locate and
collect the relevant materials preserved in this vast archive. Some of this material has
suffered tremendously from deterioration, therefore this project can also be considered as a
rescue operation intended to preserve the memory of this old community that has ceased to
exist following the tragic events of World War II. Since the beginning of the project, a great
amount of archival material has already been located, photographed, scanned or transcribed
in the State Archives in Venice. This work has to be spread over an extended period, being
based on short visits to the archives by Prof. Arbel. Registers belonging to the very rich
Memoriali series, which mainly contains judicial documents, as well as to the immense
notarial archive, are being studied systematically to discover documents related to Jews. A
substantial part of these documents are in a deplorable state of conservation, requiring
meticulous examination in situ. The accumulated collection of documents is already most
impressive, both in its dimensions and in the great interest of the materials that have been
discovered. The collection activity is still far from complete, however during the past year,
Prof. Arbel has focused on preparing articles based on materials that had been discovered,
collected and partly transcribed so far (see the following section).
42
Thematic Research and Publications
2017 saw the completion of the study on the Jewish women in the Jewish neighbourhood
(Giudecca) of Candia (the historical name of modern-day Heraklion) between 1430 and 1530.
This long article is primarily based on 78 wills (47 women and 31 men) that have been
discovered in the State Archives of Venice in recent years in the framework of this project.
There is no other Jewish community of this period for which such a great number of wills has
been preserved. The study examines the world of women in different stages of their lives as
reflected in these sources, while comparing this evidence with the picture obtained from other
sources, especially those that reflect the positions of the rabbinic and communal
establishment. It has been published (in Italian) in a volume of the periodical Thesaurismata,
dedicated to Dr. Francesca Maria Tiepolo, former archive director who re-organized the Duca
di Candia archive, where most of the material is about the Jews of that island.
Another article, focusing on the wills of two exceptionally affluent and independent Jewish
women, has been completed as well, to be included in a volume dedicated to Professor David
Jacoby, one of the pioneers of the study of Cretan Jewry during the Venetian period. The
article also includes a transcription of the two wills, which demonstrates the great interest of
such sources.
International Collaboration
During the last year, such contacts mainly consisted in professional consultations among
scholars, including also Ph.D. students, dealing with issues pertinent to the field of study. In
particular, extensive attention has been dedicated to the activity of Dr. Giacomo Corazzol,
who was a postdoctoral student under the supervision of Prof. Arbel at Tel Aviv University in
previous years. Strong ties were naturally developed with the Hellenic Institute in Venice,
which published Prof. Arbel's article on Jewish women.
Forthcoming Publications
Over the past several years Prof. Arbel has published a number of stand-alone articles based
on his research. The Center intends to publish all of these articles in a single volume, with
the addition of a comprehensive introduction by Prof. Arbel, as part of its academic series
Michael.
The Jews of Turkey and the Balkans and Ladino Culture
Project Director: Prof. Minna Rozen
Senior Researcher: Dr. Ruth Lamdan
The goal of this project is to initiate and implement research and other academic activities
that contribute to research on the Jewish communities of the Balkans and Ladino culture.
43
During the 2017–2018 academic year Prof. Rozen has continued her writing of two books on
which she has been working for the past several years: 1) A History of the Jews of Salonika
under Greek Rule (1912–1943), and 2) the second volume of her trilogy on the Jews of
Istanbul during the Ottoman Period (1566–1808).
Online Database: Jewish Cemeteries in Turkey
The Center is building an online database of Jewish cemeteries in Turkey based on data
collected by Prof. Rozen over the course of many years of research. Her collection includes
over 100,000 photos of 60,000 gravestones from all over Turkey, dating from the sixteenth
through twentieth centuries. This data will provide a unique portrait of the Jewish community
living in Turkey during the sixteenth to twentieth centuries. Over the past year, the rescanning
of the images at high resolution was completed and the structure of the website was built.
Prof. Rozen prepared introductory texts on each of the different cemeteries and their histories,
which have been translated to English and added to the website. In addition, documentation
of various sacred objects and a user’s manual were added to the website; the latter will aid
the user in searching the website.
Publications
Articles
Minna Rozen, "Money, Power, Politics and the Great Salonika Fire of 1917," Jewish Social
Studies Vol. 22, No. 2 (Winter 2017), pp. 74–115.
Minna Rozen, "The Jewish Guilds in Istanbul in the Last Ottoman Century (1833–1920),"
Archivum Ottomanicum 34 (2017), pp. 205-220.
מינה רוזן, "מותן של נשים יקרות: כתובות המצבה של גבירות יהודיות מאסתאנבול במאה השמונה
.163-220(, עמ' 2017)150-152 פעמיםעשרה,"
Minna Rozen, "For the Sake of My Brothers: The Great Fire of Salonika (1917) and the
Mobilization of Diaspora Jewry on Behalf of the Victims," in Αρχείων Ανάλεκτα:Περιοδική
έκδοση μελέτης και έρευνας αρχείων(δεύτερη περίοδος), 2(Θεσσαλονίκη 2017), pp. 183-258.
Forthcoming Publications
Books
Minna Rozen, Between the Spiritual and the Terrestrial: The Perception of Death in the Jewish
Mediterranean Culture of the Early Modern Period, Brepols Publishers.
.1943–1912גשר צר מאד: קהילת יהודי שאלוניקי תחת שלטון יוון ,מינה רוזן,
Articles Accepted for Publication
Minna Rozen, " Jamila Ḥarabun and Her Two Husbands:On Betrothal and Marriage among
Ottoman Jews in Sixteenth-Century Salonika," Journal of Family History July 2018 (30 pp.).
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Minna Rozen, " On Nationalizing Minorities: The Education of Salonikan Jewry, 1912–1941,"
in Αρχείων Ανάλεκτα: Περιοδική έκδοση μελέτης και έρευνας αρχείων (δεύτερη περίοδος),
3(Θεσσαλονίκη 2018) (80 pp.).
The Attitude towards Old Age in Ottoman Jewish Society
Senior Researcher: Dr. Ruth Lamdan
Dr. Lamdan is conducting a comprehensive research project on the attitude towards old age
in Ottoman Jewish society during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Her research
particularly examines the status of widows and elderly women in Jewish society. Her work
is based on a broad range of sources: Responsa literature, Halachic sources, eulogies and
gravestones, sermons, contemporary correspondence, and documents from the Sharia court
of law. Over the past year Dr. Lamdan has sorted and evaluated the vast array of findings
that were collected and she is now in the process of analyzing and summarizing the relevant
data. She is also devoting significant time to the preparation of a comprehensive introduction
to the book which will summarize her findings.
Conferences
July 3–6, 2017
Dr. Lamdan represented the Center at the International Medieval Congress at the University
of Leeds, where she presented a paper entitled “Otherness in Ottoman Jewish Communities
in the 16th and 17th Centuries”.
The Jews of Romania
This project was established in December 1987, following a donation from Mr. Avram
Goldstein-Goren z”l, with the aim of initiating and promoting research on the heritage of Jews
in Romania.
To date, more than twenty books have been published based on research conducted under
the auspices of this project.
The Pulse, Character, and History of the Romanian Jewish Community
Researcher: Prof. Liviu Rotman
One of the characteristics of the Jewish community in Romania is that it serves as a bridge
between Jewish communities of Eastern and Western Europe, as well as between Sephardi
and Ashkenazi Jews.
The goal of the research was to illuminate the special character of the Jewish community in
Romania and the social-cultural processes that shaped it. The research focused on the
following issues:
The basic characteristics of the community: the family, school and other community
institutions – social, religious and cultural.
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The community in its geographical context.
The relationship between the community and the wider Romanian society, and
relationships within the communities themselves.
The relationships between the Jewish communities in Romania and Jewish communities
in the neighboring countries (the Balkans, Poland, Galicia and others).
The great influence that German Jewry extended upon the Jewish communities of
Romania.
Forthcoming Publications
Dafna Cellier, Jews in the Regat Economy, 1859-1914: A Case of Minority Economy. In
cooperation with Bar-Ilan University Press, in early stages of preparation.
Prayer, Prayer Books and Jewish Culture
Project Director: Prof. Stefan Reif
Researchers: Dr. Tsur Shafir, Dr. Yaakov Teppler
This project demonstrates the commitment of Tel Aviv University in general, and the Diaspora
Research Center in particular, to the innovative examination of traditional Jewish sources
and customs and the ways in which they have significantly impacted later Jewish life. The
project hopes to attract more researchers to the field of Jewish history and thereby lead to an
expansion and deepening of Jewish self-understanding. One aspect of this project is a
thorough study of the Jewish prayer book and its development in Europe during the Middle
Ages – an exciting and varied history that has yet to be fully uncovered and explained. The
goal of the project is to clarify the Jewish liturgical adjustments made in the Franco-German
world on the one hand and in the Islamic world on the other, and ascertain whether the
reasons for these have common historical elements and factors lying behind them. Towards
this end, the researchers will analyze outstanding manuscripts and early printed editions that
shed light on how the Jewish prayer book was evolving in Franco-Germany in the Middle
Ages and how this laid the foundation for its later development. Particular attention will be
paid to the common daily prayers, with the goal of identifying the factors that most influenced
which kinds of texts and formulations were preferred.
Another area of the project concentrates on mourning liturgy in the Ashkenazi communities
of the medieval period. Based on liturgical poetry, statutory prayers, confessions, final
testimonies, acts of charity, funeral and mourning rites, and evidence from tombstones,
researchers examine the degree to which these communities were innovative in this area of
communal activity and expanded the traditions inherited from the Talmudic and Geonic
authorities. The treatment is interdisciplinary, ranging from the historical, sociological,
economic and folkloristic to the linguistic, literary, and theological.
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The study is headed by Professor Stefan Reif, Emeritus Professor of Medieval Hebrew and
Fellow of St. John's College at the University of Cambridge. The research team also includes
Dr. Tsur Shafir of Bar-Ilan University and Dr. Yaakov Teppler of Beit Berl College, who each
concentrate on different aspects of the subject of the Jewish prayer book.
Corpus Christi Manuscript 133
Researcher: Dr. Tsur Shafir
A central question in researching liturgical texts of the early Middle Ages is the antecedence
of the French liturgical rite and its relationship to that of Ashkenaz. One of the problems facing
researchers in this field is the lack of early manuscripts, particularly those from before the
thirteenth century. The primary source available to researchers is the Vitry Mahzor, however
the wide dissemination of this text throughout the “Ashkenazi” region led to a situation in
which the surviving manuscripts demonstrate Ashkenazi influences without providing an
indication as to which rite came first. Of all the available manuscripts of the Vitry Mahzor, only
a single example can be dated to the twelfth century.
The purpose of this research is the publication of a critical edition of Corpus Christi
Manuscript 133 (Oxford Library Collections), with an extensive critical introduction. This
manuscript was a personal prayer book owned by one of England’s wealthy Jews, and it has
been dated to the last quarter of the twelfth century. This manuscript, written in England –
which during the period in question was part of the French cultural sphere – can greatly
contribute to the inquiry regarding the relationship between the French and Ashkenazi
regions, as well as add a significant new layer to our understanding of the history of prayers
and prayer books.
Dr. Shafir is currently in the process of writing the lengthy critical introduction to the annotated
edition of the manuscript, as well as a supplementary appendix with the French and
Ashkenazic rites found in the Goldshmidt Edition. Upon completion of the introduction, Dr.
Shafir will submit his work to Prof. Reif for review and editing.
The Origins and Historical Development of the Shemone Esre (Amidah) Prayer
Researcher: Dr. Yaakov Teppler
The main purpose of Dr. Teppler’s work is to shed light on the very beginning of the Shemone
Esre prayer and its original form, as well as the question whether it was composed (or “fixed”)
in the Yavneh period as a whole or if it was just a process of re-assurance of a structure that
already existed.
The main source of his research is the Talmudic literature on its wide range of subjects,
genres and compositions. This kind of research involves many difficulties when dealing with
different sources from different places and times of composition and redaction, and dealing
with those is the most significant challenge of this research.
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The research of these questions consists of a deep investigation into other sources of the
history of the time under discussion, such as Greek Jewish prayers, Judeo-Christian prayers,
Early (pre-Nicenean) Church Fathers literature, prayers and benedictions in the New
Testament, Apocryphal and Pseudo-epigraphic literature, Philo of Alexandria and the Dead
Sea Scrolls. Dr. Teppler has collected and analyzed this broad range of sources, upon which
the work is based. Though the initial intention of the project was to investigate the Shemone
Esre prayer over a number of historical periods, his findings have led to a decision, approved
by Prof. Stefan Reif, to narrow the period of investigation to the fifth and sixth centuries.
Dr. Teppler is currently in the process of writing up his findings and has completed the first
four chapters of the book. He anticipates completing the volume by March 2019, at which
time it will undergo academic and linguistic editing.
Jewish Soldiers in World War II
Researchers: Dr. Galit Haddad, Dr. Françoise Simcha Ouzan, Dr. Leonid Smilovitsky
During World War II more than 1.5 million Jews participated in the fight against Nazi Germany
as soldiers in the armies of the nations in which they lived. This fascinating phenomenon of
Jewish history – the recruitment and service of Jewish soldiers across a number of countries
– is ripe for critical investigation. In December 2014 the Center held an international
conference on the subject with the participation of leading scholars in the field from Israel,
Europe and North America. As Derek Penslar – a participant in the conference who
presented the keynote address – has written in his seminal book Jews and the Military, “The
Jewish soldier in the Diaspora deserves to be rescued from oblivion and subjected to serious
historical study”. This new project proposes to do just that. As a result of the conference and
its surrounding publicity, the Center has received a significant amount of archival materials
from individuals whose family members served as soldiers in World War II. It is the intention
of this project to organize these materials and upload them to a searchable online database
so that they will be accessible to scholars and students in the field, as well as interested
members of the public.
New research projects initiated by Dr. Simcha Ouzan and Dr. Leonid Smilovitsky – senior
researchers in the Center's Jewish Identity and Consciousness and Jews of Belarus
projects, respectively – also examine various aspects of the experience of Jewish soldiers
in World War II.
The Experience of Captivity: Jewish Prisoners of War (1940–1945)
Researcher: Dr. Galit Haddad
After the stinging defeat of the French army, 1.8 million French soldiers fell into captivity at
the hands of the German enemy, among them over 10,000 soldiers of Jewish descent.
Thanks to the Geneva Convention of 1929, which required humanitarian protection of all
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prisoners of war, the Jewish POWs escaped the tragic fate meted out upon the Jews of
France under the Vichy regime. The purpose of this research is to track and examine the
experience of captivity among the Jewish prisoners in the German POW camps. How did
their Jewish roots turn into a central element of their identity in the complex context of the
POW camps in German territories? How did their Jewish origin distinguish them as a
separate social group from the non-Jewish prisoners captured with them? In addition, Dr.
Haddad considers the treatment these prisoners received from their fellow, non-Jewish
captives – treatment that ranged from a sense of brotherhood arising from a shared fate and
national identity to outright Anti-Semitism.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, Dr. Haddad has continued her collection and analysis
of materials from archives in France. She has located and scanned a number of documents
and testimonies, some of which are extremely rare and have never been studied. The
collection of such documents is a difficult task as most of the material is not catalogued or
located in a single section of the archives.
During the last several months, Dr. Haddad’s work has been focused on the following
archives and materials:
The Shoah Memorial Documentation Center of the Mémorial de la Shoah in Paris:
journals and correspondence of Jewish soldiers in the French army, testimonies of
non-Jewish POWs on their attitude towards Jews, letters from the prisoners’ families,
postcards, and photographs that were donated by the families.
Archives Nationales: correspondence of the Vichy government regarding Jewish
POWs, diplomatic files (Les archives Scapini), correspondence with the German
authorities, documents discussing incidents of early release of Jewish POWs,
petitions from prisoners claiming they had no connection to the “Jewish Race”, as well
as the policies towards the Jewish POWs’ wives and children.
The National Library of Israel: testimonies and journals of French POWs which
provided extensive information on life in the camps, forced labor, the humiliation
inflicted by the German guards, relations between the prisoners, religion, and ritual.
La Contemporaine Library: this library houses many documents which require
meticulous sorting, since most of the collections on POWs do not appear in the
library’s digital sources. Nevertheless, Dr. Haddad found several pertinent
testimonies and important information on the Vichy regime and its policies towards
the French POWs (as part of their collaboration with the Nazi regime).
Private archival collections: Dr. Haddad has accessed materials found in private
archival collections held by the descendents of former Jewish POWs, including copies
of correspondence and testimonies that were preserved (for example, Leon Bloom,
the Rothschild Family, and the descendents of Jewish POWs from the Lubeck camp).
The initial findings of this project were presented at symposiums organized by the Center on
the subject of Jewish soldiers in World War II. Dr. Haddad’s lectures focused on the policies
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of the Vichy regime and the attitude of the French POWs towards their Jewish brethren. An
additional lectures planned for June 2018 will focus on the Jewish POWs in the Lubeck camp.
After consultation with Prof. Simha Goldin and historians in France – who provided very
positive feedback regarding the impressive originality of the research – Dr. Haddad has
prepared an initial outline of chapters in preparation for the writing of a book based upon her
research.
Dr. Haddad will present her new findings and discuss her progress in a symposium which the
Center plans to hold in October 2018.
Conferences
April 20, 2017
As part of the Center’s symposium “Jewish Soldiers in World War II”, Dr. Haddad delivered
a lecture entitled “The Experience of Captivity: French Jewish POWs in German Camps
(1940–1945)”.
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The Center’s Website
Website Administrator: Adi Moskovitz
In 2014 the Center launched a new website which was built in accordance with its changing
needs in order to provide a more user-friendly interface and greater operational
independence to the Center’s various projects. The new website constitutes a significant
upgrade in terms of both aesthetics and content, making it more professional and convenient
to users. The new structure of the website will also allow access to databases of research
materials from various projects. Some databases will be uploaded as additional websites
under the umbrella of the Center’s website, while others will be uploaded to the Aleph Catalog
of the Center’s archival collection. The goal is to make these research materials universally
accessible to scholars, students and the interested public. These collections include unique
sources on different communities throughout the Diaspora.
Databases on Website
The Historical Lexicon of the Jews in Italy
Editor: Shlomo Simonsohn
This lexicon covers the history of all the Jewish communities in Italy, from the Roman era
through the Emancipation, and it is intended for use by scholars and students of the field, as
well as interested members of the broader public. The website operates under the Center’s
auspices and is accessible in Italian, with the option to translate to other languages.
The Jews of Turkey: Jewish Cemeteries
The Center will soon launch the upload of a digitized collection of the Jewish Cemeteries in
Turkey, created by the former director of the Center (1992–1997), Prof. Minna Rozen. The
collection includes over 100,000 photos of 60,000 gravestones from all over Turkey, dating
from the sixteenth through twentieth centuries. This data provides a unique perspective on
the Jewish community that lived in Turkey during the period.
Databases on Aleph
Jewish Soldiers in World War II
For a number of years Dr. Leonid Smilovitsky has collected – and continues to collect –
correspondence and personal documents (letters, diaries, certificates of awards,
commendations, military letters of recommendation, casualty notifications, etc.), as well as
memoirs, photographs, and personal stories from the Jewish soldiers and officers who served
in the Red Army. In addition, as a result of a series of conferences on the topic “Jewish
Soldiers in World War II” which have been held at Tel Aviv University since 2014, the Center
has received a significant number of documents relating to Jewish soldiers who served in the
various Allied armies during World War II. The Center intends to organize these documents
and upload them to its catalogue of archival materials on Aleph so that they will be accessible
online.
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The Jews of Belarus in the Modern Period
Over the course of his career, Dr. Leonid Smilovitsky has accumulated a vast collection of
original archival material (documents, photographs, newspapers and correspondence) from
dozens of archives and research institutions around the world. These documents present a
unique, invaluable new perspective on the Jewish communities of Belarus. Dr. Smilovitsky
is currently working diligently on organizing the material of his collection to facilitate the
process of uploading said material to the Center’s catalogue of archival materials on Aleph,
which will be accessible online.
The Pulse, Character and History of the Romanian Jewish Community
Throughout his many years of research, Dr. Liviu Rotman has accumulated an enormous
collection of research materials relating to the Jewish community of Romania, from both local
and national archives as well as Jewish cemeteries. Among his collection are materials from
Romanian archives that had for many years been closed to researchers. The Center has
unified this collection, translated abstracts of each document to English, and begun the
process of uploading it to the Center’s catalogue of archival materials on Aleph. To date
around 170 entries have been uploaded to the Archive’s online catalogue.
Jewish Heritage and Visual Culture
Over the course of her research, Dr. Naomi Feuchtwanger-Sarig has amassed an impressive
collection of high-quality images of Judaica objects, as well as covers and illuminations from
old books, siddurim and manuscripts, most of them dating to the Middle Ages. The Center
intends to upload this collection to the Center’s catalogue of archival materials on Aleph so
that it will be accessible to scholars, students and the broader community.
The Carpatho-Russian Jewry Project
Over the period of 1993–2000, the Center funded a research project on Carpatho-Russian
Jewry. During those years two books were published on the topic of the Jewish history and
folklore of Carpatho-Rus. In addition, 1,200 documents from the Hungarian National Archives
in Budapest were transferred to microfilm and brought to the Center. These archival
documents – amounting to nearly 10,000 pages in Hungarian, most of them handwritten –
have been converted to digital files. The time period covered by the documents is 1867–
1945. These materials have already been catalogued in Hungarian, and Dr. Zvi Hartman
continues to work on a translation of the catalogue to English, together with the preparation
of abstracts of each entry. Upon completion of this work of translation and preparation of
abstracts, these items will be uploaded to the Center’s catalogue of archival materials on
Aleph.
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The Mehlmann Library
Library Director: Sofia Tels-Abromov
The library is located at Tel Aviv University, Carter Building, ground floor.
The library is open to the public during the following hours: Sundays, Tuesdays and
Thursdays 9:00–16:00; Mondays and Wednesdays, 9:00–19:30.
The library was named in honor of Dr. Yisrael Mehlmann, who – in the early 1970s – donated
to Tel Aviv University a collection of books dealing with various fields of Judaism. Over the
years, many books and periodicals have been added to the library’s holdings, which cover
many topics on Jewish studies in general and the history of the Jewish people in Israel and
the Diaspora in particular.
The Mehlmann Library contains more than 100,000 volumes. Among the many collections
which have been donated to the Library are the bequests of Anschel Reiss, Prof. Berl Mark,
and Adv. Kosoy – all devoted to the history of Polish Jewry – as well as the library of the
researcher Hersch Smolar, containing some 400 books, which is also devoted to Polish
Jewry.
The Library also holds a special collection in Spanish on the history of Spanish Jewry, and a
collection on the history of Canadian Jewry. Enhancing the library are two important bequests
– one from the estate of Prof. P. Czerniak devoted to the Holocaust and accounts of several
survivors, and the other, a collection of hundreds of books from the estate of the late Menuha
and Moshe Gilboa – as well as the private collections of Prof. S. Shapiro and Dr. Ilana Kedmi,
which include historical and literary materials in Hebrew and other languages. Of special note
is its collection of approximately 2,500 rare books.
A large portion of the Mehlmann Library collection is electronically catalogued as part of the
Sourasky Central Library's catalogue. The rest of the collection is catalogued non-
electronically by author’s name, book title and subject. Likewise, a large collection of journals
has been catalogued. The physical, non-electronic catalogues are available to the public.
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The Archive
Archivist: Anat Shimoni
The archive of the Goldstein-Goren Diaspora Research Center concentrates archival
material of all sorts, related to the past of the Jewish people in all countries of the Diaspora.
The materials maintained in the archives include mainly documents (originals and copies),
correspondence, registers, posters and photographs. The material is registered in the
catalogues of the archives and can be called up through lists of collections and assistance
cards (geographic locations, persons, institutions and organizations, and subjects). The
archive is home to some 40,000 files that contain approximately 250,000 documents on the
history of the Jewish people, which have been collected from individuals and communities
worldwide.
Since 2016, a primary goal has been to implement proper preservation of the materials, such
as the removal of staples and paperclips – many already rusted and causing damage – and
the replacement of acidic file folders and pages with non-acidic material. This process has
been completed for over 2,400 files in the Institutional Collections (Section A) and some 1,500
files in the Territorial Collections (Section T).
In February 2016, the archive received the entire archival collection of the Association of
Lithuanian Jews in Israel, which contains around 1,500 books – some of which are extremely
rare – and over 5,000 files. Included in this collection are photographs from the Kovno
Ghetto; documents on Polish Jewish Refugees in Lithuania during the period 1939-1941;
correspondence from the Holocaust period; and a collection on Jewish participation in the
fight against the Nazis, as partisans and soldiers in the Red Army and other forces. This new
material is in the process of being incorporated into the Center’s holdings.
Until now the collections of the T (Territorial Collections) and D (Published materials from
Jewish institutions and organizations) sections of the archive have been catalogued only in
a card index. However, the archivist is currently in the process of organizing the card
catalogue into files which will be uploaded to the Aleph system and eventually fully integrated
in the online catalogue.
Catalogue and Digitization Projects
The computerization of the archive catalogue continues steadily. Over the past several years
the Center has worked together with Tel Aviv University’s Sourasky Central Library to create
a new online catalogue that is integrated with the university library system Aleph. Thus far,
over 1,300 listings have been entered into the online catalogue. All of the Personal
Collections (Section P) and the Institutional Collections (Section A) have been added,
including scans of the detailed catalogues of each collection. File names in foreign languages
have been translated to Hebrew and English and are now included in the online catalogue.
The online catalogue currently provides users with a broad range of information on the
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archival holdings, including the ability to search by subject headings in accordance with the
Library of Congress system.
As of 2014, the archive’s online catalogue is also accessible through the inter-university
search system Data. This change, as well as the conversion of the archive’s catalogue from
physical to online, has significantly increased the number of inquiries and requests for
material that are regularly received. Where previously there were isolated requests each
week, there are now multiple inquiries each day. These inquiries include applications from
parties outside of Israel – scholars from universities in the United States, England, France,
Poland, and Russia; museums; and Jewish institutions around the world.
In 2014 the digitization project of the archive began. To date over six collections, comprising
some 7,800 documents, have been fully scanned and uploaded to the online catalogue,
including the complete digital collection of Zalman Pevzner’s bequest of posters and leaflets.
The content of all the scanned collections is available and accessible to view through the
online Aleph Catalog.
During the current academic year – and continuing into the next – all collections of Sections T
and D will be entered into the online catalogue, accompanied by a scanned copy of the detailed
catalogues of each collection. With the entry of the collections of Sections T and D, the first
stage in the process of making the archive wholly accessible online will be completed: all of the
detailed catalogues for all collections of the archives holdings will be available through the Aleph
system. At that point, the second stage of the process will begin, in which each collection and
file will be entered into the online catalogue. In addition, scanning of the archival holdings will
continue, with the order of preference set on the basis of two primary criteria: the physical
condition of the material and the academic significance and frequency with which the material
is requested.
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Scholarships for Ph.D. Students
The Goldstein-Goren Diaspora Research Center offers annual scholarships for doctoral
students whose research falls within the Center’s areas of interest. These scholarships are
available to Tel Aviv University students who demonstrate academic excellence and whose
research proposals have been approved.
2017–2018 Recipients
Roni Cohen – full scholarship
Research topic: Carnival and Canon: Medieval Parodies for Purim
Aviad Recht – Partial scholarship
Research topic: Babylonian Talmudic Medicine – A Diachronic Perspective