The Ottoman Production of Ashkenazi Identity

The grouping of Yiddish speaking Jews, of various origin countries in Central and Eastern Europe, into a single overarching identity of Ashkenazim, was meaningful particularly in multi-ethnic and multi-lingual Jewish contexts. This seminar examines the shaping of the Ashkenazi community in Ottoman Jerusalem, as facilitated by Ottoman legal and political context. Ottoman recognition of Ashkenazim as a corporate identity was crucial to its emergence and continuity. Dr Yair Wallach is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Israeli Studies, and the head of the SOAS Centre for Jewish Studies. He has written on urban and material culture in modern Palestine/Israel, and more recently on race and migration. His book A City in Fragments: Urban Text in Modern Jerusalem (Stanford University Press, 2020) won the Jordan Schnitzer book prize in 2022.

In this talk, Dr Sapir will present her research on the historical development of student volunteering in Israeli higher education and its current implications. Based on archival analysis of two elite universities over four decades, the study identifies three key debates surrounding student volunteering: over the purpose of volunteering; over its mandatory nature; and over the awarding of academic credit. Challenging current critiques which focus on tensions embedded in the current neo-liberal climate, the historical lens reveals that key features – such as individualisation, control mechanisms, and demands for compensation – were shaped in earlier decades. These debates reflect broader questions about the shifting boundaries of the academic mission, student equity, and academic autonomy. Connecting this study to ongoing research on widening participation in Israeli higher education, she argues that mandatory volunteering requirements tied to need-based grants function as mechanisms of disciplinary poverty governance, reproducing inequality through disciplinary practices. Dr Adi Sapir is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Leadership and Policy in Education at the University of Haifa. Her research focuses on higher education and its social, cultural, historical, and organisational contexts. She has studied early academic entrepreneurship, the evolving meanings of basic and applied research, and the commodification of universities’ public roles. Her current work examines equity in higher education, focusing on the experiences and challenges of students from disadvantaged backgrounds and the institutional barriers they encounter.

This study explores the mechanisms underlying the paradox of marginality experienced by middle-class Palestinian professional women in the Israeli labour market through an intersectional analysis of their everyday professional lives. It demonstrates that this paradox—characterised by their marginalisation despite possessing high educational capital comparable to that of highly educated Jewish (both men and women) and Palestinian male professionals—is perpetuated through biopolitical modes of power. The findings reveal that when their professional capital intersects with other axes of power such as ethnicity/racism, gender, religious norms, and tribal affiliations, it fails to receive recognition or legitimacy from colleagues and clients, thereby reinforcing intersectional inequalities. Professor Sarab Abu Rabia-Queder is an Associate Professor at the school of Education at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. In her studies, she focuses on the mechanisms of control, racialisation and marginalisation of minority groups in the fields of higher education, employment and the family. She has published many papers in journals such as Sociology, British Journal of Sociology and Current Sociology and the winner of several competitive grants and prizes, such as the Toronto Prize for Excellent Young Academic Scholars, Businesses for Peace, and has chosen as the sociologist of the month (July) for Current Sociology journal (2019). In May 2024, she received an honorary doctorate from Weizman Institute of Science for promoting epistemic justice for minority groups. Alongside her academic pursuits, Professor Abu-Rabia-Queder is also a feminist activist. She serves as a board member in several NGO’s and academic committees. Her main activity focuses on issues central to Palestinian women’s agenda such as access to education, combating polygamy, and improving employment opportunities.

In this lecture I present Religious Zionism, the right-wing religious nationalist movement, which despite representing 12-16% of Israel’s population, has a prominent and influential place in the current “fully” right-wing government. In contradistinction to previous research, I argue that this movement, which initiated and led the settlement movement in the West Bank and the Golan Heights, is best understood not as a fundamentalist movement, but as a religious romantic nationalist enterprise that at its philosophical core emphasizes modern notions, such as self-expression and self-realization. Thus, not only does it adopt important components of the modern cultural program, it also presents a religious theory of modernity. I briefly examine how opposing religious Zionist sub-streams developed in response to the political and cultural challenges that the broader Israeli society and government posed. Finally, I discuss the impact of recent developments: 1) the increasing acceptance of religious nationalism among the general Israeli public; and 2) the extensive Religious Zionist participation (and sacrifice) in the prosecution of the Israel-Hamas war. Dr. Shlomo Fischer is a Senior Fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute in Jerusalem. Until his retirement, he taught sociology in the School of Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has published extensively on religious Zionism and the Shas movement. His research interests include religion in Israel and its intersections with politics and class, the American Jewish community, and the relations of religious and civic education. His book, Expressivist Religious Zionism: Modernity and the Sacred in a Nationalist Movement was published in December 2024.

In this lecture I present Religious Zionism, the right-wing religious nationalist movement, which despite representing 12-16% of Israel’s population, has a prominent and influential place in the current “fully” right-wing government In contradistinction to previous research, I argue that this movement, which initiated and led the settlement movement in the West Bank and the Golan Heights, is best understood not as a fundamentalist movement, but as a religious romantic nationalist enterprise that at its philosophical core emphasizes modern notions, such as self-expression and self-realization. Thus, not only does it adopt important components of the modern cultural program, it also presents a religious theory of modernity. I briefly examine how opposing religious Zionist sub-streams developed in response to the political and cultural challenges that the broader Israeli society and government posed. Finally, I discuss the impact of recent developments: 1) the increasing acceptance of religious nationalism among the general Israeli public; and 2) the extensive Religious Zionist participation (and sacrifice) in the prosecution of the Israel-Hamas war. Dr. Shlomo Fischer is a Senior Fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute in Jerusalem. Until his retirement, he taught sociology in the School of Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has published extensively on religious Zionism and the Shas movement. His research interests include religion in Israel and its intersections with politics and class, the American Jewish community, and the relations of religious and civic education. His book, Expressivist Religious Zionism: Modernity and the Sacred in a Nationalist Movement was published in December 2024.

In this presentation, Professor Yacobi aims to discuss settler colonial urbanism(s) in Palestine/Israel, while exploring the different spatial and political typologies developed during the last few decades. He will discuss how colonial planning has been used as a tool of social, demographic, and spatial control and how Palestinian claims for the right to the city are meaningful political forms of protest. The presentation will refer to Palestinian cities (such as Lydda) that were transformed into ‘Jewish-Arab mixed cities’, to new ‘Jewish cities’ that are going through a process of ‘Arabisation’, to Jerusalem as a neo-apartheid city, and to the current spatiocide of Gaza. The argument to be articulated in this talk is that moving from the paradigm of separation into a shared homeland is the only sustainable approach which will lead to a shared future. Haim Yacobi is a Professor of Development Planning at the Bartlett Development Planning Unit. With a background in architecture he specialised in critical urban studies and urban health. Between 2006-2007 he was a Fulbright Post-doctorate fellow at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley, and then joined the Department of Politics and Government at BGU. For the years 2010-2012 he received a Marie Curie Grant which has enabled him to work at Cambridge University, where he conducted a research project that dealt with contested cities. The main issues that stand in the center of his research interest in relation to the urban space are social justice, the politics of identity, urban health, and colonial planning. In 1999 he formulated the idea of establishing ‘Bimkom – Planning in Human Rights’ an NGO that deals with human rights and planning in Israel/Palestine and was its co-founder. Currently he holds (together with Prof Omar Dajani) a UKRI ESRC grant: ‘The Shared Homeland Paradigm: Reimagining Space, Rights and Partnership in Palestine-Israel’.

This talk explores the notion of obligation towards others at the intersection of Jewish feminist thought and the lived religious practices of Sephardi women in Israel. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and her involvement in Arevot — the only Sephardi feminist beit midrash in Israel — Dr Cohen examines how women who engage in practices of blessing, healing, and intercessory prayer construct a moral and spiritual authority grounded in caregiving, vulnerability, and responsibility for others. Focusing on figures such as Tamar, Menuja, and Shoshi — women of Moroccan, Bukharan, and mixed Mizrahi backgrounds — she argues that their everyday religious actions constitute a form of ‘domesticated religion’ (Lévy & Lévy), often overlooked by normative Judaism, yet central to the ethical imagination of Mizrahi feminist thought. These women’s rituals challenge the dichotomy between public and private, legal and affective, tradition and innovation. Dr Angy Cohen is a Ramón y Cajal research fellow at the Institute of Languages and Cultures of the Mediterranean and the Middle East at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). She holds a PhD from the Autonomous University of Madrid and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and has held academic positions at Tel Aviv University, Concordia University (Canada), and the University of Calgary (Canada). Her research focuses on Sephardi and Mizrahi communities in Israel and in the diaspora—particularly in Argentina—with special attention to migration memories and experiences, women’s religiosity, Sephardi feminism, and the everyday moral experiences of Sephardi women. She combines ethnographic fieldwork with feminist theory and Jewish thought to explore questions of tradition, care, and ethics and subjectivity.

Although overshadowed by the scale of atrocities in Gaza since October 2023, employment and workers’ rights significantly affect individual lives, non-citizen workers, and the region’s political economy The scale of atrocities in Gaza since October 2023 has overshadowed less catastrophic issues such as employment and workers’ rights. Yet these concerns, while less urgent, significantly affect individual lives, non-citizen workers, and the region’s political economy. Key developments include the replacement of Palestinian workers with migrant workers and the adoption of problematic recruitment mechanisms discarded in the past. These developments reflect a tension between three logics underlying the political economy of non-citizen labour in Israel/Palestine: a capitalist, an ethno-nationalist, and a colonial logic. They show how events since October 2023 have shaped the relationship between the three logics. Conflicts around the use of national security rhetoric following the 7 October attack to promote a far-right political ideology and around domestic and international checks and balances that used to offer (limited) protection of workers’ rights demonstrate these tensions. Dr Maayan Niezna is a Lecturer at the University of Liverpool School of Law and Social Justice. Before joining the School, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Modern Slavery and Human Rights at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, University of Oxford. Her research focuses on trafficking for labour exploitation, the regulation of labour migration, and the rights of non-citizens. She previously worked at the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants-Israel, the Office of the National Anti-trafficking Coordinator, Israeli Ministry of Justice, UNHCR, and worked on issues concerning the rights of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories as a lawyer at Gisha-Legal Center for Freedom of Movement. Dr Niezna's co-author Dr Yahel Kurlander is a sociologist of labour markets specialising in migration and work. Her research explores the intersections of labour migration, agriculture, law, and health, with a focus on Thai and other migrant workers in Israel. She has published extensively in leading academic journals and collaborates on international research with partners from academia and civil society. Her current projects address the impact of war on migrant workers, agricultural policy, and access to healthcare for marginalised groups. She is a Senior Lecturer at Tel-Hai Academic College.

By situating Hebrew textbooks for adults within their historical and social contexts, this lecture sheds light on the intricate relationship between pedagogy, national identity, and the challenges faced by immigrants adapting to a new homeland. Employing the concept of Entangled Histories, it connects global pedagogical knowledge of language instruction with the unique adaptations developed in Mandatory Palestine and the State of Israel for adult learners. Through an examination of Hebrew textbooks, their authors, and their integration into Hebrew classes for adults, often conducted as evening lessons, my research highlights the interplay between imported methodologies and local innovations. The lecture explores how Hebrew textbooks became a medium for navigating the tension between preserving cultural heritage and fostering integration into a rapidly evolving society. Rakefet Anzi is a PhD candidate in Jewish History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a 2024/25 Leo Baeck Fellow of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes. Her dissertation explores Hebrew language education for adults in Mandatory Palestine and early Israel (1930s–1950s), focusing on its role in shaping national identity and society-building. She has been affiliated with the Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Center and the Cherrick Center, contributing to research on German-Jewish history and the Yishuv. In May–July 2025, Rakefet will be a Junior Visiting Scholar at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. Alongside her research, she teaches at the Hartman High School for Girls in Jerusalem, blending her passion for history and education.

What emotional traits are essential for building a nation? More broadly, are there such things as ‘national emotions,’ and if so, what are they? In this lecture, I will explore these questions by analysing the Zionist case through the lens of the history of emotions. I will examine emotions where the national dimension is evident, such as honour and love of the homeland, alongside emotions that may seem less directly national, like fear and happiness.