Resume

Jackie Feldman April, 2013
CURRICULUM VITAE AND LIST OF PUBLICATIONS
Personal Details
Jackie Feldman
Born: August 31, 1956, New York, N.Y.
Date of immigration: October 1978.
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Ben Gurion University
Beersheba, Israel
Tel.: 08-647-2083
jfeldman@bgu.ac.il
Home address:
Anusei Mashhad 3, Apt. 20
Jerusalem 93784
Israel
Tel. 052-8704489
Education
B.A. - 1973-77: City College of New York – Departments of Mathematics and
Philosophy, magna cum laude.
M.A. - 1978-88: (with interruptions)- Hebrew University - Department of Jewish
Thought. Thesis (1988): “The Pull of the Center and the Experience of
Communitas in Pilgrimage to the Second Temple”, with honors. Thesis
advisors: Prof. M. D. Herr, Prof. R. J.Z. Werblowsky.
Ph.D. - 1991-2000: Hebrew University, Jerusalem - Department of Religious Studies.
Thesis (2000): "It Is My Brothers I Am Seeking: Israeli Youth Voyages to
Holocaust Poland", with highest honors (me’uleh). Advisors: Prof. R.J.Zwi
Werblowski, Prof. D. Handelman.
Employment History
May 2012 – Guest Lecturer, Department of Ethnology, Martin Luther University,
Halle, Germany.
Spring 2012 – Guest Lecturer, Departments of Sociology/Jewish Studies, University
of Pennsylvania.
2009-present: Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben Gurion
University (tenured).
2002–2009: Lecturer, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben Gurion
University.
2001-2002: Lecturer, Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology, Bar Ilan University.
1999-2001: Adjunct lecturer, Department of Sociology, Jordan Valley Academic
College.
2000-2001: Adjunct lecturer, Department of Land of Israel Studies, Beit Berl
Teachers’ College.
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1999-2000: Adjunct lecturer, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Haifa
University.
1999: Adjunct lecturer and guide, “Religions and interrelegious conflict in
Israel/Palestine”, Eastern Mennonite University, Middle East Program.
1998-99: Adjunct lecturer and guide, “Jerusalem throughout the Ages: Archaeology
and Religious History”, Ratisbonne Christian Institute of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem.
Professional Activities
(a) Positions in academic adminstrations:
January 2013 – Organized International Seminar, “Museum, Memory, Performance –
Commemorating the Past in Conflicted Presents, Ben Gurion University.
October 2012 – June 2013 – Organized Departmental Seminars, Department of
Sociology and Anthroplogy.
November 2009 – September, 2011, head, Anthropology section.
November 2007 – 2009, BA advisor.
November 2006- 2007, 2012-2013, Organized sociological-anthropological forum
(2006-7 with Lev Grinberg).
November 2005 – present, Organized "Teimot Antropolgiyot" evening meetings for
BA students.
2004 - 2005: Head of Anthropology Section, Department of Behavioral Sciences, Ben
Gurion University.
January 2004 – 2005, Teaching Committee, Department of Behavioral Sciences, Ben
Gurion University.
November 2005 – June 2006, Territory (shtachim) Committee.
(b) Professional functions outside universities/institutions:
2010 – Council Member, European Society for the Anthropology of Religion.
2010 – 2011, 2012-2013: Head, Rabb Insittute for Holocaust Studies, Ben Gurion
University. Board Member, Institute for German and Austiran Studies.
2003- 2005: President, ACTE, Association for the Advancement of French Theatre in
Israel.
1989-90: Co-director, Bet Midrash for French-speakers, Shalom Hartman Institute,
Jerusalem.
(c) Significant professional consulting:
2010 – Academic consultant – Faith Journeys Pilgrimage and Travel. Writing Holy
Land programs for American Christian pilgrims.
2008-10 – Academic advisor, www.jerusalem.com. Advising ebstie on content for
Jeish and Christian pilgrims to Jerusaelem.
2004-5 – Academic advisor, German-Israeli "Third Generation" project sponsored by
the foundation "Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft".
2002-present – Educational Consultant to Nesiya Educational Institute.
2001-2002 - Consultant and researcher, Jewish Agency, Department of Jewish Zionist
Education, Division of One Year Programs – evaluation of Israel-Diaspora youth
meetings, adminstration and follow-up activities.
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Translated academic books: Gideon Katz, The Pale God: Israeli Secularism and
Spinoza’s Philosophy of Culture, Academic Studies Press, 2011 (with Myriam Ron).
Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin, The Censor, the Editor, and the Text: The Catholic Church
and the Shaping of the Jewish Canon in the Sixteenth Century, Princeton University
Press, 2007. Moshe Halbertal, Concealment and Revelation Esotericism in Jewish
Thought and its Philosophical Implications, Princeton University Press, 2007. Israel
Knohl, The Sanctuary of Silence: The Priestly Torah and the Holiness School,
Fortress Press, 2004.
(f) Membership in professional/scientific societies:
Fellow, Van Leer Institute for Advanced Study.
American Association of Anthropology, European Society for the Anthropology of
Religion, European Association of Social Anthropology, Israeli Academic
Organization for Tourism Research, Association of Israeli Tour Guides, Society for
the Anthropology of Religion, European Association of Social Anthropologists,
American Ethnology Association, Association for Humanistic Anthropology.
Educational activities
(a) Courses taught:
Required M.A. courses: Ethnographic Genres (Ben Gurion University).
M.A. seminars: Pilgrimage: Anthropology and History [with Effie Shoham];
Anthropology of Museums: Power, Idenitity and Memory (Ben Gurion University).
B.A./M.A. seminars: Christianities and Cultures, Anthropology of Pilgrimage and
Religious Tourism, Strangers and Tourists [with Nir Avieli]. Pilgrim, Tourist,
Backpacker: the Pull of Place; Ritual: Theory and Praxis; Israeli Lieux de Mémoire:
Sites and Rites (Ben Gurion University). Pilgrimage Rituals (Bar Ilan University).
B.A. elective courses: Anthropology of Religion (Ben Gurion University, Bar Ilan
University, Jordan Valley College). Sites and Rites of Israeli Collective Memory (Ben
Gurion Univeristy, Overseas Program). Collective Memory (Ben Gurion University,
Bar Ilan University, Haifa University, Jordan Valley College). Second Temple
Judaism (Beit Berl College). Religions and Interreligious Conflict in Israel/Palestine,
(Eastern Mennonite University, Middle East Program).
Required B.A. courses: Introduction to Anthropology, (Ben Gurion University, Jordan
Valley College).
Seminary courses: Jerusalem throughout the Ages: Archaeology and Religious
History (Ratisbonne Christian Institute of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem).
(b.) Research students:
PhD students: Shai Ben-Tal – with Boaz Huss (in progress), Lea David -
with Lev Grinberg (in progress), Hila Zaban – with Haim Yacobi (in
progress), Gilli Topper – with Nir Avieli (in progress).
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MA students: With Fran Markowitz: Einat Libel (completed 2005), Orna
Shani (completed 2006). With Yishai Tobin: Joshua Schmidt (completed
2006). Unassisted: Yoel Tawil (completed 2007), Michal Padeh
(completed 2010), Kobi Bayer (completed 2010), Shibi Alon (in progress),
Ahikam Sperber (in progress), Racheli Ben David – with Nir Avieli (in
progress), Ofer Dagan – with Niza Yannai (in progress), Hadas Shavit (in
progress), Iris Gellter (in progress).
Sebastian Geisslinger, Hebrew University, 1998.
Awards, Citations, Honors, Fellowships
(a) Honors, Citations, Awards:
2002: Goldhirsch Prize for thesis on Holocaust and Rebirth, Ben Gurion Research
Institute, Sde Boker
2001: Asher Cohen Prize for outstanding dissertations, Strochlitz Institute for
Holocaust Studies, Haifa University.
1999: Sternberg Prize, Department of Religious Studies, Hebrew University.
1997: Schechter Award for Outstanding research paper, Yad Vashem.
(b) Fellowships:
2012 – Fellow, Katz Institute for Advanced Jewish Studies, University of
Pennsylvania. Sabbatical fellowship.
2001-2002 – Lady Davis Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Hebrew University – $15,000. To
do research using resources available at the Department of Sociology and
Anthropology, Hebrew University.
Scientific Publications:
(a) Authored Books:
Between the Death Pits and the Flag: Youth Voyages to Holocaust Poland and the
Performance of Israeli National Identity, New York and Oxford: Berghahn Press,
2008. Paperback edition, 2010 (320 Pages). Reviews: see Journal of Israeli History
Vol. 28, No. 2, September 2009, 237–239; American Ethnologist , fall 2010, Journal
of Israel Studies, 2009, Humanities-net??**
(c) Chapters published in peer-reviewed collected volumes:
1. “Vehicles of Values: Souvenirs and the Moralities of Exchange in Christian Holy
Land Pilgrimage”, in Towards an Anthropology of Nation Building and Unbuilding in
Israel: Essays in Honor of Alex Weingrod, Fran Markowirtz, Stepehen Sharot and
Moshe Shokeid, eds., University of Nebraska Press, forthcoming.
2. “Die lange Reise eines Sozialanthropologen - Israelische Schülerreisen nach
‚Holocaust Polen’ – Rückblickende Reflexionen“ in Zeitschaften. Zugänge zu den
Orten ehemaliger Konzentrationslager Cornelia Siebeck, Christian Gudehus, Jürgen
Straub (Hg.), forthcoming.
3. “Writing the Conflict in Christian. Christian Pilgrimages in the Footsteps of the
Israeli and Palestinian Jesus”, in Empty Spaces in Israeli Sociology: Memorial Book
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in Honor of Baruch Kimmerling, Keren-Or Schlesinger, Gadi Elgazi, Yaron Ezrachi,
eds., Magnes Press, forthcoming (Hebrew).
4. Anja Peleikis and Jackie Feldman, “Der Shop als Spiegel des Museums:
Ausstellungsobjekte, Souvenirs und Identitätspraktiken im Jüdischen Museum
Berlin und im Yad Vashem, Jerusalem“, in Kultur all inclusive: Identität,
Tradition und Kulturerbe im Zeitalter des Massentourismus, Burkhard Schnepel,
Felix Girke, Eva-Maria Knoll (Hg.), Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, forthcoming
(December 2012).
5. “Les voyages scolaires israéliens vers les sites d’extermination en Pologne : un
parcours d’anthropologue », Le tourisme mémoriel en Europe centrale et
orientale, série "Europes Centrales, Delphine Bechtel, ed., Belin, Paris,
forthcoming.
6. Israeli Youth Voyages to Holocaust Poland – Through the Prism of Pilgrimage,
Compostela International Studies in Pilgrimage History and Culture 7, Anton
Pazos and Carlos Gonzalez Paz, editors, Ashgate: Aldershott, forthcoming.
8. “How Guiding Christians Made me Israeli”, in Ethnographic Encounters in
Israel, Fran Markowitz, ed., University of Indiana Press, forthcoming.
9. “Now There’s a Bridge between them: The Linking Path between Yad Vashem
and Mount Herzl’, Memory, Forgetting and the Construction of Space, Haim
Yakobi and Tobi Fenster, eds., Van Leer, Jerusalem, 2012, pp. 56-84.
10. "Passer a Bethleém: Sur les traces de Jésus, Palestinien et Israélien", in A
l'ombre du mur: Israéliens et Palestinitens entre séparation et occupation,
Stephanie Latte Abdullah and Cédric Parizot, eds., Actes du Sud/CNRS, 2011,
pp. 255-279.
11. Jackie Feldman and Amos Ron, American Holy Land: Orientalism,
Disneyization and the American Gaze", in Burkhard Schnepel, Gunnar Brands,
Hanne Schönig (Hg.), Orient - Orientalistik - Orientalismus. Geschichte und
Aktualität einer Debatte, Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2011, pp. 151-176.
12."Nationalizing Personal Trauma, Personalizing National Redemption:
Performing Testimony at Auschwitz-Birkenau", in Remembering Violence:
Anthropological Perspectives on Intergenerational Transmission, Nicolas Argenti
& Katharina Schramm, eds., Berghahn Press, 2010, pp. 103-128.
13. "Souffrance Individuelle et Consolidation de la Nation – La Memoire
Israelienne non-universelle de la Shoah", in La Memorie de la Shoah, Francoise
Ouzan et Dan Michman, eds., CNRS/ Yad Vashem, 2009.
14. "Between Personal and Collective Memory: The Role of the Witness in
Voyages to Poland" (Hebrew), in Zehava Solomon and Julia Chaitin, eds., Shoah
and Trauma, Hakibbutz Ha me'uchad/ Tel Aviv University, 2008.
15. "'A City that Makes All Israel Friends': Normative Communitas and the
Struggle for Religious Legitimacy in Pilgrimages to the Second Temple", in
Marcel Poorthuis and Joshua Schwartz, eds., A Holy People: Jewish and
Christian Perspectives on Religious and Communal Identity, Leiden: Brill, 2006.
pp. 109-126.
16. Yael Guter and Jackie Feldman, "Holy Land Pilgrimage as a Site of Inter-
Religious Encounter", in Studia Hebraica, (6) 2006, pp. 87-94.
17. “In Search of the Beautiful Land of Israel: Youth Voyages to Poland”, in Erik
Cohen and Hayim Noy, eds., Israeli Backpackers and their Society: From
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Tourism to Rite of Passage. New York: State University of New York Press:
Israeli Studies Series, 2005, pp. 217-250.
18. "The Experience of Communality and the Legitimation of Authority in
Second Temple Pilgrimage" (Hebrew), in Ora Limor and Elchanan Reiner, eds.,
Pilgrimage: Jews, Christians, Moslems, eds. The Open University and Yad Ben
Zvi, Tel Aviv, 2005, pp. 88-109.
19. "Israel als Enklave: Inszenierungen jüdisch-israelischer Identität in Polen", in
Margrit Frölich, Yariv Lapid, Christian Schneider (eds.), Repräsentationen des
Holocaust im Gedächtnis der Generationen. Zur Gegenwartsbedeutung des
Holocaust in Israel und Deutschland. (Arnoldshainer Interkulturelle Diskurse 4)
Frankfurt am Main: Brandes & Apsel 2004, pp. 172-202.
20. "Israel-Diaspora Relations the Morning After: How Will Peace Change
Relations between Israel and the Jewish Communities in the Diaspora?", in The
Morning After: An Era of Peace - Not a Utopia, Jerusalem: Carmel, Harry
Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace, Hebrew University, 2002, pp.
477-519.
21. “In the Footsteps of the Israeli Holocaust Survivor: Israeli Youth Pilgrimages
to Poland, Shoah Memory and National Identity”, Building History: The Shoah in
Art, Memory, and Myth, McGill European Studies Series, Vol. 4, Peter Daly, Karl
Filser, Alain Goldschläger, Naomi Kramer, eds., Peter Lang: New York, 2001,
pp. 35-63.
22. “Roots in Destruction: The Jewish Past as Portrayed in Israeli Youth Voyages
to Poland”. In: Harvey E. Goldberg (ed.), The Life of Judaism, Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2001, pp. 147-171.
23. “Bearbeitungsformen der Nachkommen und ihre ländspezifischen Kontexte -
Israel” (“The Working Through of the Holocaust by the Post-Holocaust
Generation within Culturally-Specific Contexts: Israel”). In: Christian Staffa und
Katherine Klinger (hg.), Die Gegenwart der Geschuchte des Holocaust;
Intergenerationelle Tradierung und Kommunikation der Nachkommen (The
Presence of the Past of the Holocaust: Intergenerational Transmission and
Communication of the Descendants). Berlin: Institut für vergleichende
Geschichtswissenschaften, 1998, pp. 233-242.
24. "Über den Gräbern mit gehisster Fahne Israels - Die Struktur und Bedeutung
israelischer Jugendreisen nach dem Polen der Schoah". In: Helmut Schreier und
Matthias Heyl (hg.), ‘Das Auschwitz Nicht Noch Einmal Sei...’; Zur Erziehung
nach Auschwitz. Hamburg: Krämer, 1995, pp. 335-366. (English translation:
“Over the Death-Pits with the Flag of Israel Waving on High; The Structure and
Meaning of Israeli Youth Voyages to Holocaust Poland”. In: Helmut Schreier,
Matthias Heyl (Eds.), Never Again! The Holocaust’s Challenge for Educators,
Hamburg: Krämer: 1997, pp. 117-142).
25. "Les pélerinages au second Temple" ("Pilgrimages to the Second Temple").
In: Shmuel Trigano (ed.), La Societé Juive à Travérs L'histoire, Paris: Arthème
Fayard, 1993, Tome 4, pp. 161-178.
26. "Le sécond temple comme institution economique, sociale et politique" ("The
Second Temple as an Economic, Social and Political Institution"). In: Shmuel
Trigano (ed.), La Societé juive à Travérs L'histoire, Paris: Arthème Fayard,
1992, Tome 2, pp. 155-180.
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(d)Refereed articles in scientific journals
(all articles single-authored by Jackie Feldman, except where
indicated):
1. “Making Absent Jews Present: Representation and Performance at the
Jewish Museum, Berlin”, Anthropological Journal of European Cultures
Autumn 2013, forthcoming (with Anja Peleikis).
2. "Abraham the Settler, Jesus the Refugee: Contemporary Conflict and
Christianity on the Road to Bethlehem *P, History and Memory, 23(1),
Spring/Summer 2011, pp. 62-96.
3. Amos Ron and Jackie Feldman, "From spots to themed sites - the evolution of
the Protestant Holy Land”, Journal of Heritage Tourism,4:3, 2009, 201 — 216
(with Amos Ron).
4. "Between Yad Vashem and Mount Herzl: Changing Inscriptions of Sacrifice on
Jerusalem's 'Mountain of Memory'", Anthropological Quarterly, Autumn 2007,
pp. 1145-1172.
5. "Constructing a Shared Bible Land: Jewish-Israeli Guiding Performances for
Protestant Pilgrims", American Ethnologist 34(2), May 2007, pp. 349-372.
6. “Individuelles Leid und die Stärkung der Nation. Nichtkosmopolitisches
Gedenken an die Shoah in Israel, Mittlweg 36 - Zeitschrift des Hamburger
Insituts für Sozialforschung, 14, Oktober/November 2005, pp. 3-28.
7. "Marking the Boundaries of the Enclave: Defining the Israeli Collective
through the Poland ‘Experience’”, Israel Studies, 7/2 (Fall 2002), pp. 84-114.
8. “In the Footsteps of the Israeli Holocaust Survivor: Youth Voyages to Poland
and Israeli Identity” (Hebrew), Theory and Criticism 19 (October 2001), pp.
167-190.
9. “National Identity and Ritual Construction of Israeli Youth Voyages to
Poland”, Neue Sammlung, Vol. 40, No. 4, October-December 2000, pp.
499-517.
10. “`It Is My Brothers whom I Am Seeking'; Israeli Youth Pilgrimages to
Holocaust Poland”, Jewish Ethnology and Folklore Review, Vol. 17, no. 1-
2, Winter, 1995, pp. 33-36.
(f) Unrefereed professional articles and publications:
1. Review of Ties that Bind, Shaul Kelner, ed., and Ten Days with Birthright Israel,
Leonard Saxe and Barry Chazan, eds., Studies in Contemporary Jewry, 24, 2012,
forthcoming.
2. Review of Gevald, Religion.com, The Midwife and the Rabbi’s Daughter, Yohai
Hakaka and Ron Offer, dirs., Religion and Society, 2, Autumn 2011, pp. 199-201.
3. Review of Rebecca Stein, "Itineraries of Conflict", Review of Middle Eastern
Studies,43(2), 2009, pp. 286-289.
4. "Tourism", The Cambridge Dictionary of Judaism and Jewish Culture, Judith R.
Baskin, ed., New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011, pp. 613-614.
5. "Shoah, Security, Victory: A Critique of Israeli Youth Voyages to Poland",
Jewish Educational Leadership 8(1), 2009, pp. 16-20.
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6. Review of Yoram Bilu, "Agents of Sanctity", Magamot 74, Winter 2006, pp. 759-
763.
7. "Kosmopolitisch versus nationales Errinern", Mittlweg 36 - Zeitschrift des
Hamburger Insituts für Sozialforschung, 15 Februar/März 2006, pp. 102-107.
8. “Israeli Youth Pilgrimages to Holocaust Sites: Ritualization, Identification with
the Victim and National Identity”, Holocaust and Education: Proceedings of the
First International Conference. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1999, pp. 125-143.
9. “Above the Death-Pits and under the Flag of Israel Waving Aloft” - The Structure
of Israeli Youth Missions to Holocaust Poland and their Significance” (Hebrew),
in Yalkut Moreshet 66, October 1998, pp. 81-104.
10. “Pilgrimage to Extermination Sites in Poland” (Hebrew), Bishvil Hazikkaron 7
(October 1997), pp. 8-11.
Lectures and Presentations at Meetings and Invited Seminars
(a) Presentation of papers at conferences/meetings:
1. “Of Artifacts and Voids: Telling Holocaust Stories in Yad Vashem and Jewish
Museum Berlin, Bridging the Divide in Holocaust and Genocide Studies:
towards a Cross-Cultural Interdisciplinary Dialogue, Haifa University, June
12-14, 2012.
2. “Tour Guiding as Identity Praxis: Self-Seducing Performances in the Holy
Land”, Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg, May 24,2012.
3. “Making absent Jews present: Representation and performance at the Jewish
Museum, Berlin” (with Anja Peleikis), Jewish Spaces – Reloaded”,
European Ethnology Seminar, May 21, 2012.
4. “Playgrounds of History, Shrines of Memory: Guided Tours as
Performances of Citizenship in Memorial Museums” , Memory, Migration
and Citizenship workshop, Humboldt University, Germany, Humboldt
University, May 14,2012.
5. “Black, Gray, White and Green: The Colors of Pilgrim Money”, American
Ethnographic Society, New York City, April 18-20, 2012.
6. “Interactive Communication in Holocaust Commemorative Museums”,
Israel Communications Association annual conference, Tel Aviv, April 4-5,
2012.
7. “How Christian Pilgrims Made Me Israeli”, American Anthropological
Association, Montreal , Canada, Dec. 2-4, 2011.
8. "Artifacts, Souvenirs and Authority: Representing the Holocaust and the Jewish
Past in Jewish Museum, Berlin and at Yad Vashem", lecture as part of panel:
"Beyond the Walls of the Historical Site. Branding, Souvenirs, and the (Re-)
Production of Heritage", "Wa(h)re Kultur", bi-annual conference of the German
Anthropological Association (GAA-DGV), Vienna, 14 - 17 September 2011.
9. "Souvenirs, Artefakte und die (Re-)Produktion von Kulturerbe. Das Jüdische
Museum Berlin und das neue Yad Vashem Museum im Vergleich", paper
presented at conference “Kulturerbe im Zeitalter des Massentourismus: aktuelle
Herausforderungen und zeitgemäße Herangehensweisen”, Center for
Interdisciplinary Area Studies (ZIRS), Martin-Luther-University Halle-
Wittenberg, Germany, 3 – 5 February 2011.
10. "Customer or Witness? National Visions and the Imagination of the Tourist in
New Memorial Museums", paper presented at conference "CFP: Tourism and
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Seductions of Difference. A Critical Tourism Studies Conference", Centro em
Rede de Investigacao Antropologia, CRIA/FCSH-Universidade Nova de Lisboa,
Portugal – 9-12 Sept 2010.
11. "Playgrounds of History, Shrines of Memory: Guided Tours as Performances of
Citizenship in Memorial Museums", paper presented as part of panel
"Experience, Witnessing, Spectacle: Performance and Commemoration in the
New Museum", European Association of Social Anthropology, bi-annual
conference, Maynooth, Ireland, 24-27 August 2010.
12. "Making Absent Jews Present: Performances of the Past in Jüdisches Museum
Berlin (in comparison with the New Yad Vashem Museum)", Conference: "Jews,
Race, Color", Abrahams-Curiel Department of Foreign Literatures and
Linguistics, Ben Gurion University, 6 - 9 June 2010.
13. "Bringing the Text to Life, Bringing the Body to Life: Two Ways of
Walking with a Story", in "Traces of Time, Story and Body: Pilgrims,
Wanderers and Voluntary Exiles", Israel Anthropological Society, Annual
Conference, Achva College, May 9, 2007.
14. "Bible Land or Living Stones? Two Approaches to Touring a Conflicted
Land", Confernce on Tourism and Politics, Truman Institute/ University of
Tübingen, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, May 8, 2007.
15. "As it Is Written: Performing the Bible Land under the Pilgrim Gaze",
Thinking through Tourism, Conference of the Association of Social
Anthropologists of Great Britain and the Commonwealth, London, April 11,
2007.
16. "Inscriptions of Sacrifice: From Mt. Herzl to Yad Vashem", "One Place,
Many Memories", an International Conference on New Approaches to
Urban Planning, Van Leer Insitute, Jerusalem, December 26-29, 2006.
17. "Wrestling with the Fifth Gospel: Evangelical Pastors and Jewish Guides
Perform the Bible Land", American Anthropology Association, Annual
Conference, San Jose, California, Nov 18, 2006.
18. "'And when I See You Kids…'; Performing Testimony on Israeli Youth
Voyages to Poland", European Association of Social Anthropology, Bristol,
England, September 20, 2006.
19. "Changing Landscapes of Sacrifice and Heroism: The Linking Path
between Yad Vashem and Mt. Herzl", Israel Anthropology Association,
Annual conference, Ashdod, 7-8 June 2006.
20. "Narrations of Inclusion and Othering: The Paths leading to Yad Vashem
and the Kotel", Conference on Mapping Social Forgetting, Truman Institute
and Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Jerusalem, February 13-14, 2006.
21. "Appropriating Spaces of the Bible Land: Jewish-Israeli Guiding
Performances with Protestant Holy Land Pilgrims", Society for the Study of
Symbolic Interaction, Annual conference, Philadelphia, August 15, 2005.
22. "A Rabbi for the Gentiles: The Negotiations of Identity in Jewish Guiding
Performances for Christian Holy Land Pilgrims" (with Yael Guter), Israel
Anthropological Association, Sederot, Israel, May 26, 2005.
23. Teaching Anthropology in the Multi-Ethnic Classroom", Israel Anthropological
Association, Sede Boker, May 29, 2004.
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24. "Right of the Nation, Rites of the Tribe: Performing Jewish-Israeli Identity in
Holocaust Poland", American Anthropological Association, Annual Conference,
Chicago, November 23, 2003.
25. "The Place of the Shoah: Holocaust Poland on the Israeli Map", Seminar on
"Makom: Place and Places in Judaism", Moses Mendelssohn Institute,
University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany, February 26, 2003.
26. "Finding the Beautiful Land of Israel: Youth Voyages to Poland", European
Association of Jewish Studies Conference, Amsterdam, July 21-24, 2002.
27. "A Rabbi for the Gentiles: The Negotiations of Identity in Jewish Guiding
Performances for Christian Holy Land Pilgrims", Seminar on “A Holy People:
Jewish and Christian Perspectives on Religious Community”, Leiden, July 14-17,
2002.
28. "Christian Pilgrim, Jewish Guide, Holy Land: Commitment, Role Distance and
Intereligious Boundaries in Tour Guiding Performance", (with Yael Guter), Israel
Anthropology Association, Annual Conference, Nazareth, May 30, 2002.
29. "Above the Death Pits, Beneath the Flag: Israeli Youth Voyages’ (Re)claiming
of Holocaust Poland", American Academy of Religion, National Conference,
Denver, November 17-20, 2001.
30. "To Become a Witness: Transmitting the Sense of Victimhood to Israeli Youth
at the Site of Auschwitz", Israel Sociological Association Annual Conference,
Jerusalem, February 5-6, 2001.
31. "Inscribing National Identity, Excluding the Other: The Case of Israeli Youth
Voyages to Poland", 3 rd Leo Baeck Institute Seminar for European and Israeli
Historians on: Culture, Religious Pluralism and Jewish Society in Historic and
Contemporary Context, Jerusalem, March 2-8, 2000.
32. Conference on Memory and National Identity, State of Israel Studies, Ben
Gurion University, Beersheba, January 10, 2000.
33. "Voyages to Poland: Sensitizing Educators to non-Verbal Elements", Second
International Conference on Holocaust and Education, Yad Vashem International
School of Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, October 11-14, 1999.
34. “Israel, World Jewry and the International Arena”, Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Jerusalem, December 28-31, 1998.
35. “From Memory to History: Teaching, Researching and Transmitting the
Holocaust on the Threshold of the 21st Century”, Kingsborough Community
College/ Graduate School and University Center, CUNY: Department of Judaic
Studies, Jerusalem, December 28-31, 1998.
36. "From Victims to Victorious Survivors to Olim: The Rituals of Israeli Youth
Pilgrimages to Holocaust Sites", Association of Israel Studies conference,
Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA, June 14-16, 1998.
37. "Building History: Art, Memory and Myth", Kleinmann Family Foundation/
Montreal Holocaust Center/ Government of Bavaria, Munich and Dachau,
November 9-14,1997.
38. "The Presence of the Holocaust in the Present", Second Generation Trust/
Institut fuer Vergleichende Geschichtswissenschaften, Berlin, January 26-
28,1997.
39. "Das Echo des Holocaust", Hamburg, Hamburg University, January 18-22,
1995.
(b) Presentations at informal international seminars and workshops:
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40. "Narrating Objects: The Guided Presentations of Holocaust/Jewish Past
Relics for the 21 st Century at Yad Vashem and at the Jewish Museum,
Berlin" (with Johannes Schwarz), Beyond Memory: The Significance of the
Holocaust for the Younger Generation in Israel and Germany', Stiftung
Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft, Volksbühne, Berlin, October 28-
29, 2005.
41. Lecture on "Holocaust Ritual in Israel", Seminar on "Meeting: But how Shall
We Begin?", Neue Impulse and ConAct, Institute for Israeli-German Youth
Exchange, Ravensbrück, Germany, October 27-29, 2003.
42. "Israeli Memory of the Shoah: Appropriation, Ritualization and Contestation",
Seminar on Traditions of Historical Consciousness, Institute of Advanced
Studies, Essen, Germany. March 27, 2003.
43. "Education on the Shoah in Israel", Conference on "The Remembrance of the
Shoah – A Challenge for Multicultural Societies", University of Erfurt, March
26, 2003.
44. "Das ist nicht nur gestern, das ist morgen und heute"; Zur nachtraeglichen
Wirksamkeit der Geschichte der Shoah und ihrer Bearbeitung in Ost und West",
(“It’s not just yesterday, it’s tomorrow and today: On the effects of the history of
the Shoah on its descendants and its working-through in East and West”)
Evangelische Akademie Berlin Brandenburg/ Institut fuer Vergleichende
Geschichtswissenschaften, Berlin, December 13-17, 1995.
(c) Seminar presentations at universities and institutions:
"Temples of Memory, Playgrounds of History: The New Yad Vashem and Jüdisches
Museum Berlin in Comparative Perspective", Departmental Seminar, Department of
Sociology and Anthropology, Ben Gurion University, 26 April 2010.
"Does Israeli Civil Religion Lack Life-Cycle Rites?", Department of Folklore, Ben
Gurion University, March 5, 2007.
"Black, White, Gray, Green: The Colors of Money in Guiding Holy Land Pilgrims",
Depatment of Sociology and Anthropology/ School of Tourism and Management,
Ben Gurion University, November 6, 2006.
"'And When I See You, Kids', The Role of the Witness on Trips to Poland", Raab
Institute for Holocaust Research/Amcha, Ben Gurion University, Beersheba, January
31, 2005.
"Educational Aspects of Poland Trips", Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem, November
10, 2004.
"Methodology in Researching Holocaust Memory", Strochlitz Institute of Holocaust
Studies, Haifa University, Haifa, May 15, 2003.
"Ritual as Border Markers in Encounters between Israeli and Diaspora Jewish Youth,
Research Seminar of the Department of Jewish Zionist Education", The Jewish
Agency, Jerusalem April 8, 2003.
"Hassidic Pilgrimage in Eastern Europe – Paradigms and Practice", Beit Hatefutzot,
Tel Aviv. December 31, 2002.
"Jewish Travel to Polish Deathscapes", Seminar on Jewish Travel, Van Leer Institute,
Jerusalem, October 27, 2002.
"To Travel to Exile – in order to Negate It", Cherryk Institute for Contemporary
Jewry, Hebrew University, April 15, 2002.
Departmental seminar, Dept. of Behavioral Sciences, Ben Gurion University, 2001.
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Departmental Seminar, Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology, Hebrew University,
2001.
Departmental Seminar, Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology, Bar Ilan University,
2000.
Lectures for Bundeszentral/Landeszentral fur politische Bildung (German National
Institute/ State Institutes for Political Education), Tel Aviv, Jerusalem. Periodically
between 1998-2004.
Research Grants:
2009-2012: Research Grant, German Israel Fund – 3 years @ 59,000 Euros per year -
177,000 euros - "After the Survivors: Performing the Holocaust and the Jewish Past in
the New Yad Vashem Museum and in the Jewish Museum, Berlin" (with Burkhard
Schnepel/Anja Peleikis).
2007-2010: Research Grant, Israel Academy of Sciences – 3 years @ $7,300 per year
- $22,000, " Narrating Traumatic Pasts: The Guided Presentations of the
Holocaust/Jewish Past for the Younger Generation at the New Yad Vashem Museum
and at the Jewish Museum, Berlin".
2003-6: Research Grant, Israel Academy of Sciences – $45,000, "Jewish Guide,
Christian Pilgrim, Holy Land: Negotiations of Identity".
2005, 2006: Research grant - $1,500 - Rabb Center for Holocaust Studies, Ben Gurion
University.
2002: Goldhirsch Prize for thesis on Holocaust and Rebirth, Ben Gurion Research
Institute, Sde Boker, 2,500 shekels.
2001: Asher Cohen Prize for outstanding dissertations, Strochlitz Institute for
Holocaust Studies, Haifa University. 5,000 shekels.
1999: Sternberg Prize, Department of Religious Studies- Hebrew University - 3,000
shekels,
1995-96, 1994-95: Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture grant - $3,500 each year.
Synopsis of Research:
After the completion of my doctoral studies in 2000, I sought to broaden my
background in anthropology through reading in various fields of classical and
contemporary anthropology, to a great extent in preparation for classes in Introduction
to Anthropology, which I taught at Ben Gurion University in 2002-2006. I have also
read widely on the anthropology of pilgrimage and tourism (courses taught at Bar-Ilan
and BGU in 2001-2007). A major interest of mine has been how ritual, in particular
pilgrimage and pilgrimage-like rituals, create and transmit meaning. To what extent
are those meanings laid down in sacred texts or paradigmatic traditions and to what
extent does meaning emerge from the dynamic and often contested performances of
rituals?
During my first years at Ben Gurion University, I sought to explore further several
issues dealt with in my doctorate on youth voyages to Poland (2000) and apply other
theoretical perspectives to the materials gathered in previous research. Among the
publications that resulted were an article in Israel Studies ("Borders of the Enclave",
2002) – applying Mary Douglas' understanding of the enclave and its border-
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controlling practices, and articles confronting the notion of the "cosmopolitan
memory of the Holocaust", as developed by Daniel Levy, Natan Sznaider and Ulrich
Beck (Mittelweg 36, 2005, 2006; CNRS, 2009). These perspectives, along with
additional reflections on the nature of collective memory and on the implications of
my study for ritual theory were incorporated into the substantially revised final two
chapters of my book (Above the Death Pits, beneath the Flag, Berghahn Press, 2008).
Besides substantially abridging entire manuscript, I rewrote the introductory chapter
in response to readers' comments, framing the questions within a broader
anthropological perspective, updating the literature on collective memory and the
social construction of trauma, and revising the discussion on the limits of
representation. I also added a reflexive prologue and epilogue. Additional material on
the role and performance of the eye-witness on Holocaust pilgrimages, emerging from
my research in Poland, but not included in the doctorate, will appear in two articlesone
in Shoah and Trauma (2008), and the other (based on a lecture delivered at the
EASA conference in September 2006) in an article in a collected volume entitled
Violence and Memory, published by Berghahn Press (2010).
Another issue which arose from my doctoral research is how the weakening of the
Zionist ethos and the increased mobility of people, ideas and images led to the rise of
new practices, which incorporate diasporic spaces or their representations into Israeli
rituals. To further my understanding of the contemporary Israeli relations with and
conceptualizations of the diaspora, I participated in a project examining current Israel-
Diaspora relations and speculating on their future following the Oslo accords (The
Morning After, 2002), and worked on a project with the Jewish Agency examining
ritualized encounters of Israeli and diaspora Jewish youth groups (Feldman and Katz,
2001). Some of these perspectives engendered reflections on the relations between
Israeli backpackers' voyages and Israeli adolescents' trip to Poland (in the book edited
by Cohen and Noy, Israeli Backpackers, 2005).
A second area of research has been the analysis of guided tours performed by Jewish
guides with and for Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. This research, which grew
out of my long-term experience as tour guide, was awarded an ISF grant for 2003-
2006. With the help of several research assistants, I collected new data through
participant-observation of tour groups, interviews of guides, travel agents and group
leaders and surveys of websites promoting the Holy Land. I examined how embodied,
historically-entwined practices of Zionism and Protestantism coincide and overlap in
facilitating the creation of a Bible Land, one which marginalizes Palestinians and
Muslims. I also questioned how Jewish-Christian tour-guiding interactions result in
shaping or revising the identities of pilgrims as well as guides. I believe that the
guide-pilgrim-land encounter can teach us a great deal about cultural mediation,
place-making performances and the interplay between habitual ways of seeing and
classifying, bureaucratically reproduced tour frames and bodily performance. The
results of this research have recently been published in an article, "Constructing a
Bible Land: Jewish-Israeli Guiding Performances for Protestant Pilgrims", in
American Ethnologist (May 2007), and in a short article in Studia Biblica (with Yael
Guter, 2006). This has also yielded an artcle on the political intepretations transmitted
through religious language in Christian pilgrimage (History and Memory,2011) and
an autoethnography of the influiece of guiding pilgrims on my Jewish and Israeli
identities (arrticle in edited volume on Israeli ethnography, forthcoming). With the
addition of an article on pilgrim monies, and perhaps one on the relations of Israeli
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guides and Palestinain drivers, I plan on working these diverse articles into a book on
contemporary Christian pilgrimage.
Another area of research has been the influences of cosmopolitan and national
discourses on the representation of the Holocaust to the "third generation" in new
museums. I have collected observations of guided tours and interviews with guides at
the new Yad Vashem museum, as well as material on the history of planning and
construction of the site from administrative archives, newspapers, websites and press
announcements. I have also done parallel preliminary research (along with Johannes
Schwarz) in the Jewish Museum Berlin, as part of a joint Israeli-German "Third
Generation" project sponsored by the foundation "Erinnerung, Verantwortung und
Zukunft", for which I served as academic advisor (2004-5). A proposal for a smallscale
comparative study for 2007-2010 was accepted by the ISF in October 2007. A
much broader proposal on the subject, (along with Prof. Burkhard Schnepel and Dr.
Anja Peleikis of Martin Luther Institute, Halle) was accepted and awarded 177,000
euros for the 2009-2012 period. We have presented our results at three international
conferences (Jews: Race, Color, Nation in June 2010, at a panel on museums at the
Euoropean Assocaiton of Social Antrhopology in August 2010 and at the Seductions
of Tourism conference in Lisbon in September 2010. We foresee several future
articles and abook on the subject. In the meantime, the research has produced an
article on the Linking Path between Mt. Herzl and Yad Vashem, published by
Anthropological Quarterly in November 2007. Beginning in 2009, I taught seminars
in the anthropology of museums in order to improve my knowledge of the field.
In both my research and my teaching (ethnographic genres, collective memory, ritual
theory and praxis and anthropology of pilgrimage and tourism), I have found myself
frequently returning to explorations of the interaction of text, bodily performance and
landscape. After completing my pending projects, I hope to further explore the
interactions of sacred texts and bodily practices in explaining cultural enactments. I
have made an initial attempt in my application of theoretical issues derived from the
anthropology of tourism to Second Temple sources (in articles in Pilgrimage: Jews,
Christians, Muslims, 2005 and in Holy People, 2006). I am currently exploring how
Biblical texts and their accepted interpretations may influence tipping and shopping
conduct on Protestant pilgrimages ("Black, White, Grey and Green: The Colors of
Money"). I am also interested in exploring if Jewish charity prescriptions can yield a
'native theory' to enrich our understanding of the exchanges, flows and reciprocities of
money, objects and symbolic displays in a global world.
This is part of a larger aim I have of using texts that have been constituted in
intercultural and inter-religious encounters in the past to question and enrich
anthropological and sociological theory (without exalting the text to the position of a
'great tradition' that explains and encompasses current practice). These aims have
been inspired by two books I have recently translated – the first, The Censor, the
Editor and the Text, by Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin, shows how modern Judaism and
modern Jewish studies were constituted through the practices of the 16 th -century
convert-censor. The second, Rituals of Exile, by Haviva Pedaya, demonstrates how
bodily movement can serve as performance of cosmological or eschatological texts
and even constitute communities.
Present Academic Activities:
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(a) Research in progress:
I plan to gather in the research of all articles published on Christian pilgrimage, and
with the addition of research yet to be processed, and submit a book manuscript on
contemporary Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Land to University of Indiana Press by
late 2013.
I have recently submitted a proposal to the Israel Science Foudnation, alng with
medieval historain Prof. Yvonne Friedman, called “Gudie my Sheep: Catholic
Pastoral Guides of Holy Land Pilgrims – Historical and Ethnographic Aspects”.
I am also currently engaged in a research project (with Anja Peleikis) comparing Yad
Vashem and Jewish Museum, Berlin (funded by the German-Israel Foundation),
which we expect to complete in January 2013, including sponsoring an international
conference, and publishing a book on the topic.
(b) Books and articles to be published:
Submitted:
1. Black, White, Gray and Green: The Colors of Money in Christian pilgrimage, to
Anthropological Quarterly, awaiting peer review.
2. The Seductions of Guiding Pilgrims, In review for The Seductions of Pilgrimage,
Michael diGiovini and David Picard eds., Palgrave.
Refereeing and reviews:
I have reviewed articles for American Ethnologist, Nations and Nationalism,
Religion, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Journal for Educational
Media, Memory and Society, Annals of Tourism Research, Middle East Review,
Israel Studies, Theory and Criticism, Soziologia Israelit, Dapim – for the Research of
the Shoah, Etnografica, as well as proposals for the Israel Science Foundation and the
BSF.
Languages:
English (mother tongue), Hebrew, French, German and Dutch, reasonable command
of Yiddish and some Arabic.
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