Center for the Study of the Jews of Spain and Islamic Lands:

Members

Head of the Center for the Study of the Jews of Spain and Islamic Lands: Past and Present

Prof. Tamar Zewi
Head of the Joseph & Racheline Barda Chair for the Study and Research of Jewish Heritage in Egypt
Senior faculty member of the Department of Hebrew Language, University of Haifa
Eshkol Tower, Floor 18, Room 1817

Members of the Academic Board:

Prof. Yehudit Henshke
Head of the “Mother Tongue” project
Department of Hebrew & Semitic Languages, Bar-Ilan University
Member of the Academy of the Hebrew Language

Prof.  Aharon Maman
The Department of Hebrew Language, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Vice President of the Academy of the Hebrew Language

Dr. Micha J. Perry
Department of the History of the Jewish People, University of Haifa
Previously a visiting lecturer at Yale University

Research Associates

Dr. Anatoly Mishaev
Research interests: Russia and the USSR, the Ottoman Empire and Turkey, Jewish sects in the Caucasus and the history of the Khazars.
Graduated his MA studies Summa cum laude at the University of Haifa and won the Rector’s Excellence Award for his PhD research at Bar-Ilan University. The research defined periods of political stability and instability in Turkey, the USSR and Israel based on documents from the archives of Baku, and demonstrated their reflection in historiographic discourse. Dr. Mishaev developed for that end a model that simulates the political dynamics and historiographic writing at the subject countries.

Dr. Gilat Brav
She is a historian studying the Egyptian and the Tunisian Jewry. She graduated her Master’s studies from the University of Haifa in the Hebrew and Comparative Literature Department and her Doctoral studies from Haifa University in the Israel Studies Department. Her doctoral thesis was awarded the Renée and Nissim Gaon prize (Yad Ben-Zvi, 2021). Her thesis analyzes the figure of the North-Tunisian Jew who emigrated to France, as reflected through memoirs, testimonies, journals and letters, and by doing so we also learn about the figure of the whole Tunisian Jewish community in Tunisia and in its migratory provinces. Dr. Brav worked for many years in education and instruction within various settings.
Areas of research: The history, culture and folklore of Egyptian and Tunisian Jewry as reflected through literature; the status of women in traditional society; Jewish-Muslim relations; Immigration from Islamic countries; Memoirs; North African Jewry as reflected in 19th-century travelers’ literature; National identity and political activity in Egypt and Tunisia; Prisoners of Zion in Egypt (1948-1970). In 2021, Dr. Brav published six entries about Jewish-Tunisian Francophone writers in the Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. She also translated into English Prof. Yosef-Yuval Tobi’s book, “Yemenite Jewry in the Shadow of Islam from Its Advent to the Present,” and co-authored with Dr. Zivia Tobi a book entitled “The Land of Tarshish: Tunisian Jewry in Modern Times”, which is in the process of being published. 

Dr. Amir Ashur
Dr. Amir Ashur received his PhD in 2006. His doctoral dissertation, ‘Engagement and Betrothal Documents from the Cairo Geniza’ was written under the supervision of Prof. M.A. Friedman from Tel Aviv University. Dr. Amir Ashur is working on various projects related to the Cairo Geniza. His major field of study is the ‘documentary Geniza’, letters, legal documents and other documents reflecting the daily lives of the Genizah Society, Maimonides and Judeo Arabic Bible translations. He has published dozens of papers on these subjects. He serves as a research fellow in Tel-Aviv University, University of Haifa, and Princeton University and in the project: Legado judeo-árabe de al-Andalus: patrimonio lingüístico / The Judeo-Arabic Legacy of al-Andalus: The Linguistic Heritage. founded by FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades – Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Spanish Government.