Association for Israel Studies

October 7: The Wars Over Words and Deeds
Edited by Asaf Romirowsky and Donna Robinson Divine

Academic Studies Press,
2025

ISBN:
979-8897830756

344 pages

October 7: The Wars Over Words and Deeds exposes how Hamas savagery cast a destructive shadow not only over the men, women, and children caught on the battlefields of Gaza but also over the educators and journalists expected to explain why this atrocity occurred. Despite its brutality, Hamas won substantial support on campuses, in the media, and from an array of progressive movements. This terrorist organization's attacks, astonishing in their ambition, can only be fully understood by examining not only what has happened to Israel, Gaza, and to the Middle East, but also to a world forced to respond to domestic protests echoing and supporting Hamas' savagery, the suffering of Gaza civilians, and the devastation of the war. As the introduction describes: Not only does this book belong in the classroom, it is the classroom which has shaped its contents.

The book includes essays by Csaba Nikolenyi, AIS President and Professor of Political Science and Director of the Azrieli Institute of Israel at Concordia University, Jonathan Rynhold, professor at Bar Ilan University and the academic director of the Universitys Jonathan Sacks Institute and senior researcher at Bar-Ilans Begin-Sadat Institute for Strategic Studies, Andrew Fox, Henry Jackson Society, Cole Bunzel, Hoover Institution, Isabella Tabarowsky, Wilson Center, KC Johnson, Brooklyn College, and David Adesnik, Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Asaf Romirowsky is the Executive Director Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa.
Donna Robinson Divine is the Morningstar Family Professor of Jewish Studies and Professor of Government Emerita in the Department of Government at Smith College.

Learn more: https://www.academicstudiespress.com/9798897830756/

Villa in the Jungle? Israel in the Middle East
By Elie Podeh

Carmel/Yedioth Ahronoth,
February 2025

ISBN:
978-965-7815-65-6

468 pages (Hebrew)

Is Israel truly a villa in the jungle? Ehud Barak and Benjamin Netanyahu, who coined and popularized this expression, articulated a widespread and condescending view among Israels leadershipand the broader publicthat sees Israel as separate from the Middle East politically, economically, and culturally. This collection of essays explores Israels place in the region from a range of strategic, political, educational, and academic perspectives. It demonstrates that, contrary to the prevailing Israeli narrative of a besieged state or a people dwelling alone, Israel has played multiple roles in the Middle Eastboth overt and covert, in times of war and in times of peace. The Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, and the ensuing war have once again brought into sharp focus the question of Israels regional standing. This volume is the culmination of two decades of research on this topic.

Elie Podeh is the Bamberger and Fuld Chair in the History of the Muslim Peoples at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Learn more: https://www.e-vrit.co.il/Product/35192/וילה_בג_ונגל_?srsltid=AfmBOopb2tWrIZt9W8P9ihE3lexkjLoDRiOeYnnm6iMEbKROdj8qHV-3

The Association for Israel Studies is pleased to announce the winner of this year's AIS Dissertation Completion Grant,

Gabriela Appel
University of Haifa

For her dissertation project entitled – Food Waste at Hotels in Israel – Drivers and Interventions for Reduction.

Learn more about the recipients: https://aisisraelstudies.org/ais-2026-award-winners/

The Association for Israel Studies is pleased to announce the winner of this year's Kimmerling Award for Best Graduate Paper,

Meirav Iboga Rasumni-Urşar
University of Haifa

For her paper – BDS Protest on TikTok and the Cultural Politics of Delegitimation: BDS Memes, Abjection and ‘No Israel’ Logic.

Learn more about the recipients: https://aisisraelstudies.org/ais-2026-award-winners/

The Serling Institute for Jewish Studies and Modern Israel at Michigan State University presents:

Annual Rabin/Brill Lecture: “From Ruins to Reels: Polish Holocaust Survivors and the Foundations of Israeli Cinema (1950s–1960s)” with Rachel Harris.

"This talk examines the formative role played by Polish Holocaust survivors in establishing the Israeli film industry during the 1950s and 1960s. Drawing on archival materials, early film texts, and production histories, it traces how émigré filmmakers used their experiences and networks in Europe to create a new cinema in Israel. Dr. Rachel S. Harris holds the Elaine and Herbert Gimelstob Eminent Scholar Chair in Judaic Studies and is Director of the Jewish Studies Program at Florida Atlantic University, where she is also Professor of Film and Multimedia Studies. Her research focuses on Israeli cinema, literature, and culture, with particular attention to gender, national identity, and transnational film production. She is the author of An Ideological Death: Su***de in Israeli Literature and Warriors, Witches, Wh**es: Women in Israeli Cinema, and co-editor of Casting a Giant Shadow: The Transnational Shaping of Israeli Cinema."

Co-sponsors: College of Arts and Letters, James Madison College, College of Social Science, Residential College of Arts and Humanities, International Studies and Programs, the Center for European and Eurasian Studies

Watch now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s824qUUpuQ

On behalf of the Murray Galinson San Diego-Israel Initiative,

Teach Israel Studies in San Diego, California

POSITIONS OPEN!
Apply now for the 2027-28 Academic Year

To apply, send your C.V. and two course descriptions about modern Israel that you are proposing to teach to Program Manager Hilary Taylor at [email protected]

*To be considered for the 2027-2028 Academic Year, submit documents by September 30, 2026

The Association for Israel Studies is pleased to announce the winner of this year's Halpern Award for Best Dissertation in Israel Studies,

Dr. Timea Crofony
Charles University

For her dissertation – The Intimate State of Israel: Politics of Desire and Secular Israeli Jews
(Charles University, Prague)

Honorable Mention goes to Dr. Elad Nahshon for his dissertation, Religion and Secularity in the Herut Movement (1948–1977) (Bar-Ilan University).

Learn more about the recipients: https://aisisraelstudies.org/ais-2026-award-winners/

The Association for Israel Studies is pleased to announce the co-winners of this year's Shapiro Award for Best Book in Israel Studies,

Dr. Elizabeth Imber
Clark University

"Uncertain Empire: Jews, Nationalism, and the Fate of British Imperialism"
(Stanford University Press, 2025)

Professor Adam Ferziger
Bar-Ilan University

"Agents of Change: American Jews and the Transformation of Israeli Judaism"
(New York University Press, 2025)

Honorable Mention goes to Dr. Daniel Sobelman for his book "Axis of Resistance: Asymmetric Deterrence and Rules of the Game in Contemporary Middle East Conflicts" (State University of New York Press)

Learn more about the recipients: https://aisisraelstudies.org/ais-2026-award-winners/

The Association for Israel Studies is pleased to announce the winner of this year's Gad Barzilai Early Career Award,

Dr. Gilly Hartal
Bar-Ilan University

(The Gad Barzilai Early Career Award recognizes an exceptional scholar who has made significant contributions to the field of Israel Studies, and whose record of publications and scholarship has demonstrated the potential to shape the field in the future)

Learn more about the recipients: https://aisisraelstudies.org/ais-2026-award-winners/

42nd Conference of the Association for Israel Studies,
Ramat Gan Academic College, now October 19-21, 2026,
“Security, Rehabilitation and Healing – What’s Next?”

Registration is still opened for accepted presenters. To register please click here: https://ws.eventact.com/AIS2026/Registration

The registration deadline is TOMORROW, May 30, 2026.

This year’s keynote speaker will be former Foreign Affairs Minister Ms. Tzipi Livni.