An article written by Dr. Shaiel Ben-Ephraim, visiting scholar of the Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, was recently published in the academic journal Comparative Strategy, Vol. 39, No. 2. The article, "From strategic narrative to strategic culture: Labor Zionism and the roots of Israeli strategic culture,” examines the military and strategic culture of the Zionist leadership in the pre-state era and its influence on the development of the State of Israel.
Professor Dov Waxman, director of the Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, published an opinion piece January 29, 2020, with The Forward regarding President Trump's peace plan for the Middle East. The piece in the Jewish daily examined whether the long-awaited plan is the historic breakthrough Trump has touted, even though the proposal doesn't meet core demands of the Palestinians. "It will certainly not bring Israelis and Palestinians peace, since the latter will overwhelmingly reject a plan that is so heavily skewed in Israel's favor," wrote Waxman.
Y&S Nazarian Center Postdoctoral Fellow Assaf Bondy is slated to receive the 2020 Allen Ponak Award at the International Labour and Employment Relations Association (ILERA) Congress next summer in Toronto. The Canadian Industrial Relations Association, host of ILERA 2020, gives out the award to recognize research excellence across several disciplines relating to employment relations among master, Ph.D., and post-doctoral students. Bondy received his Ph.D. in Labor Studies from Tel-Aviv University in Israel. He is a sociologist who studies the political-economy of labor and industrial relations systems in advanced economies.
Research Fellow Dr. Liron Lavi's co-authored paper "The Representation Deficit and the Crisis of Democracy: Shifting the Focus to Subjective Perceptions" was presented at the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) conference in Wrocław, Poland (September 2019). The paper explores subjective perceptions of political representation in Israel from a comparative perspective. It was co-authored by Liran Harsgor and Michal Shamir.
Dr. Assaf Bondy (Postdoctoral Fellow 2019-2020), a sociologist who studies labor issues, earlier this month published an article “Disputing Strikes – Solidarity as an Answer to the Challenges on Strikes” in Telem, an Israeli-Hebrew journal. In face of harsh attacks on the right to strike in Israel from both sides of political spectrum, the paper analyzes strikes' legitimacy as depending on their solidaristic goals, suggesting political activists should embrace strikes as an important tool for wide social change.
Visiting Assistant Professor Daniel Stein Kokin presented his project "'Kol ha-Nekudot'/'All the Points'/'Kull al-Nuqaṭ' An Interactive, Online Map of Israel and the Palestine Territories" at the June 24-26 Association for Israel Studies Annual Conference held at Kinneret College in Israel. Center Postdoctoral Fellow Shaiel Ben-Ephraim gave a talk titled "Neither Vertical nor Horizontal: The Failure of the 1974 Plan for a Jordanian Disengagement" and also participated in a book roundtable on Gerald M. Steinberg and Ziv Rubinovitz's work "Menachem Begin and the Israel-Egypt Peace Process: Between Ideology and Political Realism." Former Visiting Lecturer and Graduate Student Research Fellowship recipient Melissa Melpignano also gave a talk titled “Let the Sunshine in? Dancing Sabra in the IDF Pahad Dance Troupe."
Dr. Omri Asscher presented research at the National Association of Professors of Hebrew's International Conference on Hebrew Language, Culture and Literature yesterday. Dr. Asscher's talk - "Israel faces itself in the (Jewish American) mirror" - addressed Israeli responses to Jewish American moral critique.
Center Visiting Assistant Professor Uri Dorchin presented at the organization's annual conference held yesterday at UCLA. Prof. Dorchin's talk was titled "Black Music in Israel and the Poetics of Diasporic Consciousness."
Center Research Fellow Dr. Liron Lavi and Postdoctoral Fellow Shaiel Ben-Ephraim participated in the event "The 2019 Elections: What Do They Say about Democracy in Israel?" Yesterday's proram was organized by the Y&S Nazarian Center, the Luskin Center for History and Policy and the Sady and Ludwig Chair in Jewish History.
Visiting Professor Uri Dorchin spoke at UC Berkeley's Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies on Tuesday. Prof. Dorchin's lecture "Hip Hop, Not Passing: What Israeli Rap Can Teach Us about Ethnicity in Israel” was part of the Institute's Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Israel Studies Colloquium.
Listen to the latest episode of our "Israel in Depth" podcast to make sense of dramatic events happening in Israeli politics. Professor Dov Waxman interviewed a leading Israeli public opinion expert and political consultant, Dahlia Scheindlin, about how the coronavirus has upended Israeli politics.Monday, March 2, 2020
A symposium on blackness in Israel drew scholars from the U.S. and abroad to a packed conference room on the UCLA campus.Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Y&S Nazarian Center postdoctoral fellow Scott Abramson looks at Israeli sympathy for the Syrian Kurds in light of recent American policy.Monday, December 16, 2019
In her "Guest Column," History Department doctoral candidate Sarah Johnson compares German immigration to Pre-State Israel with the modern influx of Israelis into Berlin.Wednesday, May 8, 2019
UCLA Law School student and study abroad scholarship recipient Amit Liran shares insights from his semester abroad at Tel Aviv University where he immersed himself in Israeli and international law in and outside of the classroom.Monday, March 18, 2019
Thanks to a scholarship from the Y&S Nazarian Center, transfer student Sebastian Feldman was able to study abroad in Israel - an experience he hoped for, but didn't expect would be possible.Thursday, February 28, 2019