Ohad is interested in the interface between classical Hebrew and Halacha literature and German culture. He studied for his first degree in the Department of German Literature and Talmud at the Hebrew University and his second degree in the Department of the History of Israel at the Hebrew University. He writes his research work on the Halachic Responsa literature in the Weimar Republic - focuses on the appearance of the new woman figure in this literature and its relation to the German literature of the time.

Ohad is a fellow of the MA HONORS PROGRAM 2022/23 of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School for Advanced Studies at the Humanities of the Hebrew University. 

He particpated in the Annual Workshop for German Studies in 2022 and 2023 lecturing on 

- “'The Messiah does not come': On Hebrew and German Sources of the Messianic Image in the Work of Heinrich Heine" (2022)

- "Pride and Early Halacha: Gender, Sex and Sexuality in Halachic Literature of the Weimar Republic" (2023;  https://youtu.be/EDnkSXOILuc?si=Moy4vqabgmdEXtmO )

 

 

Yuval Rivlin is a post doc fellow at the History Department/Koebner Minerva Center of the Hebrew University and also serves as the Managing Editor of the online publication of the Koebner Center "Slil – Journal for History, Film and Television".

He earned his PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2019. He wrote his PhD study under the guidance of Prof. Richard I. Cohen on the subject: “Traditional and Modern Identity in the Films by Jewish Immigrants to Hollywood” (1933 – 1942). The book adaptation of his doctoral dissertation – "From Berlin to Hollywood" - won the "Shlomo and Bela Bartal Prize" for 2021 and will be published in 2024 by The Hebrew University Magnes Press in the book series of the Koebner Minerva Center

Yuval teaches in the field of history and film at a variety of institutes including The Hadassah Academic College and Ma’aleh School of Television, Film and the Arts. 

Selected Publications

Books:
Yuval Rivlin, The Mouse that Roared: Jewish Identity in American and Israeli Cinema. Jerusalem: Tobypress 2009.

Yuval Rivlin, From Berlin to Hollywood: Immigration and German-Jewish Immigrants in the American Film Industry 1933-1942, Jerualem: The Hebrew University Magnes Press, forthcoming Nov 2024 in the book series of the Koebner Minerva Center.

Articles:

Yuval Rivlin, 'Proto-noir: Alienation and Homelessness in the films of the German Jewish émigrés to Hollywood' in: Uzi rabhon and Richard I. Cohen (Eds.) Studies in Contemporary Judaism. Institute for Contemporary Judaism at the Hebrew University 2024.

Cecile is an MA student in the Department of Comparative Religion at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI), writing her thesis on "Religious Motivations Behind Christian-Protestant Protest Movements Against Nazism" under the supervision of Dr. Karma Ben Johanan. Her research - which is also supported by a fellowship of the Koebner Minerva Center - examines protest actions against the Nazis from 1933 to 1945, focusing on the Christian-Protestant religious ideas that motivated opposition - from a historical and intellectual perspective. It explores theological arguments against Nazism, the perception of Nazism as "neo-paganism" during the Nazi era and in the post-war period and shows how these views shaped the protestors' activism and Christian identity.

In 2023, she received The Sir Sigmund and Lady Hazel Sternberg Prize for Interfaith Understanding.   

Cecile is also a research assistant at the Koebner Center for the research project "Between Aliyah and Escape. Jewish Youth Movement and Zionist Education under the Nazi Regime and in pre-State Israel 1933-1945" funded by the DFG.

 

Matthias Schmidt studied Theology, Jewish Studies and History in Berlin, Heidelberg and Jerusalem. Since 1989 he is the administrative director and research coordinator of the Richard Koebner Minerva Center for German History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem being responsible for budgets/project funds, personnel/fellowships, national and international scientific cooperation and guest lecture programs.

Having received his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University in 2004 for a thesis on ethnic identities in the Hellenistic period, he is currently also an adjunct lecturer for Ancient History at the Jacob Robinson Institute for the History of Individual and Collective Rights at the History Department of the Hebrew University, and works as a freelance translator for a range of academic publications.

Publications
Books (editorial)
Susanne Düwell, Matthias Schmidt (eds.), Narrative der Shoah. Repräsentationen der Vergangenheit in Historiographie, Kunst und Politik, Paderborn München: Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag, 2002.
Yotam Hotam, Matthias Schmidt, Noam Zadoff (eds.), History as vocation. A Collection of essays in honor of Moshe Zimmermann on the occasion of his 60th Birthday, Jerusalem: The Hebrew University Magnes Press, 2005.
 

Articles
“Marcus Tullius Cicero Recontexualized: Latin Political Writings in Cultural Exchange and Individual Crisis”, in: Dan Diner, Gideon Reuveni, Yfaat Weiss (eds.), Deutsche Zeiten. Geschichte und Lebenswelt. Festschrift zur Emeritierung von Moshe Zimmermann, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht, 2012, 41-60.
"Von Schuld und Sühne, Versagen und Erneuerung: Zu Theorie und Praxis christlicher Annäherung an den Staat Israel", in: --, Susanne Düwell (eds.), Narrative der Shoah. Repräsentationen der Vergangenheit in Historiographie, Kunst und Politik, Paderborn München: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2002, 263-277.
"Staat Israel und Heiliges Land: Der Papstbesuch als Testfall eines christlich-jüdischen Dialogs", in: Wolfram Kinzig, Cornelia Kück (ed.), Judentum und Christentum zwischen Konfrontation und Faszination. Ansätze zu einer neuen Beschreibung jüdisch-christlicher Beziehungen (Judentum und Christentum Bd. 11), Stuttgart: Verlag W. Kohlhammer, 165-179.
 

Reviews
"Arno Mayer, Der Krieg als Kreuzzug. Das Deutsche Reich, Hitlers Wehrmacht und die 'Endlösung'", in: ASCHKENAS. Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Kultur der Juden, 1/1992.
"Bertold Brecht, Flüchtlingsgespräche (hebr. Translation)", in: Ha Aretz (Tarbut we-Sifrut), 27.12.1996.
"Joachim Schlör: Tel Aviv - Vom Traum zur Stadt", in: HaAretz (Tarbut we-Sifrut), 28.3.1997.
"Leo Perutz, Die dritte Kugel - Gustav Meyrink, Der Golem (hebr. translations)", in: HaAretz (Tarbut we-Sifrut), 3.1.1998.
"Doron Mendels, Identity, Religion and Historiography. Studies in Hellenistic History", in: HaAretz (Tarbut we-Sifrut), 3.7.1998.

Book Translations (into German)
Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Gespräche über Gott und die Welt mit Michael Shashar, Frankfurt am Main: Dvora Verlag, 1990.
Zvi Tauber, Befreiung und das "Absurde". Studien zur Emanzipation des Menschen bei Herbert Marcuse, Stuttgart: Bleicher Verlag, 1994.
Gideon Greif, ‘Wir weinten tränenlos….’ - Augenzeugenberichte der jüdischen „Sonderkommandos“ in Auschwitz, Köln Weimar Berlin: Böhlau Verlag, 1995.
Moshe Zimmermann, Die deutschen Juden 1914-1945 (Enzyklopädie Deutscher Geschichte), München: Oldenbourg Verlag, 1997.
Oded Heilbronner, Die Achillesferse des deutschen Katholizismus. Der Schwarzwald als Fallstudie für den Aufstieg der NSDAP, Stuttgart: Bleicher-Verlag, 1998.
Yfaat Weiss, Deutsche und polnische Juden vor dem Holocaust. Jüdische Identität zwischen Staatsbürgerschaft und Ethnizität 1933-1940, München: Oldenbourg Verlag, 2000.
Gilad Margalit, Die Nachkriegsdeutschen und "ihre Zigeuner". Die Behandlung der Sinti und Roma im Schatten von Auschwitz, Berlin: Metropol, 2001 (Übersetzung mit David Aijchenrand).
 

 

 

Tibor Shalev-Schlosser works at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Koebner Minerva Center .

Academic Qualifications:

1985            B.A. in Philosophy, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

1985-7         Research Assistant, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

1987/8         Philosophy Teacher at the “Leyada” High school, Jerusalem

1988/9         Studies and Research in Heidelberg University, Germany (scholarship)

1990           M.A in Philosophy with Thesis, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

2014           M.A. in Political Science, University of Haifa

2014           Graduate, National Defense College, Israel

2014           Research Student (PhD), Hebrew University, Jerusalem

2020           Ph.D in History, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

Yoav got his bachelor degree from the History Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is now a MA Student at this Department as well as a MA Fellow at the Koebner Minerva Center. He writes his MA thesis under the supervision of Dr. Aya Elyada focusing on the writings of Wilhelm von Humboldt and Leopold von Ranke  regarding the aspect of the protestant origin of the modern historiography, a subject which reflects his general interest in the influence of German Protestantism in 19^th century Germany on historiography.

Yoav is also member of the academic board of "Hayo Haya", the Students Journal of the Institute of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

He taught undergraduate and graduate courses on German literature, cinema, and culture of the twentieth and twenty-first century, including as guest professor at UCLA, Freie Universität Berlin, Albert Ludwig Universität Freiburg, University of Oxford, and Hebrew University. He has published three monographs and edited or co-edited twenty-eight volumes or special issues of journals as well as numerous articles, book chapters, and interviews in his areas of expertise. He is also a translator of, among others, Bertolt Brecht and Heiner Müller.

Avner Sorek is a MA student at the History Department, writing a thesis under the supervision of Prof. Ofer Ashkenazi about the historiography of the 20th century in Germany. 

 

Nathanel Stawski has been a MA student at the History Department, writing a thesis under the supervision of Prof. Ofer Ashkenazi about the relationship between the Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten and the Zionist Federation of Germany. He has been undergraduate of Middle Eastern Studies, and the Core Humanities Program at Shalem College. - In August 2024 Nathanel received a Cambridge Trust full scholarship award, covering 3 years of Ph.D. studies  Cambridge University, UK.