Israel- die ersten 70 Jahre

Historiker und Nahost-Experte Rolf Steininger zeichnet auf der Basis seiner herausragenden und bislang umfassendsten Bearbeitung von historischen Dokumenten die Geschichte Israels prägnant und faktenbezogen nach. // Vortrag / deutsch

The Arab Donor Project, a decade of experience

Dr. Amal Bishara initiated and directed the Arab Bone Marrow Registry Outreach Project at Hadassah Medical Center.
It is the largest bone marrow transplant registry in the world for unrelated Arab donors.  This is not only an exceptional scientific project in stem cell research, but also an outstanding peace project supported by Hadassah Austria // Lecture / english

Gemeinsam mit der Österreichisch-Israelischen Gesellschaft feiern wir den Jerusalemtag mit einem Festvortrag von Prof. Anton Pelinka. "Israel - Demokratie aus der Vielfalt"

see also: https://politikwissenschaft.univie.ac.at/en/details/news/seminar-with-shiri-shkedi-rafid-the-biopolitics-of-pregnancy-prenatal-genetic-testing-in-israel-an/?tx_news_pi1[controller]=News&tx_news_pi1[action]=detail&cHash=19fed3c39a054c58061b0a87e4f1a280

Welcome: Dr. Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek

Dr. Hanno Loewy
Totem und Tabu. Israel „ausstellen“ im Museum

Jüdische Museen in Europa machen zumeist einen Bogen um Israel. Allenfalls werden dann und wann israelische Künstlerinnen und Künstler ausgestellt, doch große thematische Ausstellungen bleiben bis heute eher eine Seltenheit.
Und wenn, dann sind Ausstellungen über Israel und Palästina immer wieder ein Politikum. Einerseits spiegelt sich darin die Polarisierung israelischer Innenpolitik – und die grundlegende innerjüdische Debatte um Diaspora und Nationalstaat. Doch seitdem rechtspopulistische Politiker in Europa und den Amerikas ihre Liebe zum „nationalen Projekt“ der Juden entdeckt haben, wird auch in der nichtjüdischen Öffentlichkeit das Bild Israels zum heiß umkämpften symbolischen Gelände – in dem es schon lange nicht mehr nur um traditionelle antisemitische Vorurteile geht. Seitdem der Islam als neues und zugleich traditionell aufgeladenes Feindbild in Europa entdeckt wird, ist der Staat Israel zum wohlfeilen Einsatz in den politischen Kontroversen der Gegenwart geworden: um ethnischen Nationalismus vs. offene Gesellschaft, um liberale vs. illiberale Demokratie, um die Rhetorik des christlich-jüdischen Abendland, die gegen Einwanderung und Asyl für Flüchtlinge in Stellung gebracht wird. Wenn jüdische Museen sich auf das Territorium dieses Minenfelds begeben, ist öffentlicher Streit nicht weit – und er kreist um viele Fragen zugleich: Wieviel Kritik an Israel ist „erlaubt“? Welche Aufgabe hat ein Museum? Und was überhaupt ist „jüdisch“ an einem „Jüdischen Museum“ das mit öffentlichen Mitteln betrieben wird und im öffentlichen Auftrag agiert?

Hanno Loewy, Direktor des Jüdischen Museums Hohenems, reflektiert am Beispiel einiger Ausstellungen und sich an ihnen entzündender Konflikte unterschiedliche Strategien der Annäherung an eine offenkundig umstrittene Materie.

Hanno Loewy, geb. 1961 in Frankfurt, Dr. phil. Film- und Literaturwissenschaftler. Von 1995 bis 2000 Gründungsdirektor des Fritz Bauer Instituts für Holocauststudien in Frankfurt, seit 2004 Direktor des Jüdischen Museum Hohenems. Zahlreiche Veröffentlichungen zur Jüdischen Geschichte und Gegenwart, zur Film- und Medientheorie, zur Fotogeschichte und zur Geschichte und Rezeption des Holocaust. Darunter: Holocaust: Grenzen des Verstehens (Reinbek 1992), Taxi nach Auschwitz (Berlin 2002), Béla Balázs: Märchen, Ritual und Film (Berlin 2003), Gerüchte über die Juden. Antisemitismus, Philosemitismus und aktuelle Verschwörungstheorien (Essen 2005), Hast Du meine Alpen gesehen? Eine jüdische Beziehungsgeschichte (mit Gerhard Milchram, Hohenems 2009), Jukebox. Jewkbox! Ein jüdisches Jahrhundert auf Schellack & Vinyl (Hohenems 2014)

Diese Veranstaltung wir in Kooperation mit der Österreichisch-Israelischen Gesellschaft organisiert

Ambassador Itamar Rabinovich in conversation with Dr. Doron Rabinovici 

Chair: Dr. Hannes Androsch Honorary President of »Friends of the Tel Aviv University« Austria
Welcome:  Ambassador Emil Brix Director of the Diplomatic Academy, Vienna

Die Veranstaltung wird in englischer Sprache sein.
Bitte um Anmeldung unter: office@center-for-israel-studies.at

Welcome: Marie-Therese Harnoncourt - Fuchs, the next ENTERprise Architects

With the generous support of bene and in cooperation with the Austrian-Israeli Society

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Rechter Architects-A Story of Three Generations the oldest architectural firm in Israel

Our architectural practice was formed in the 20's by Zeev Rechter returning from studies in Paris and designing a series of buildings from housing in Tel Aviv to public building like hotels in Herzelia and the Dead Sea and the Concert Hall in Jerusalem. In 1949 his son, Yacov Rechter, joined the firm and together they collaborated on the design of important public buildings like the "Mann Auditorium" in Tel Aviv, The Resort Hotel in Nazareth and Law courts in Tel Aviv.

In 1960 after Zeev Rechter death Yacov Rechter continued to develop and design many significant and versatile projects that included Hospitals, Hotels, University Projects, Housing, Town Planning Schemes and other major projects like the Center for the Performing Arts in Tel Aviv. In 1973 Yacov Rechter won the Israel Prize for Architecture for the design of the Hotel in Zichron Yacov. In 1989 his son, Amnon Rechter, received the Architectural Association diploma and the Royal Institute of British Architects Part II. From 1994 he is a partner in the firm.

After Yacov's death in 2001, Amnon continued to design major projects in Israel and abroad, in 2008 Amnon received the prestigious award "Most influential architect in Israel" for a theatre project. Today we continue to design major landmark projects, Auditoriums, Hospitals, Law-Courts, Hotels and Civic Centers. Rechter architects is widely regarded as one of the top firms in Israel.

This talk analyzes the reconstruction of traditional concepts of the ‘Jewish Mother’ through visual culture. Based on the 1943 Holocaust photograph of the Warsaw Ghetto by the Viennese born
Nazi Officer Franz Konrad, Nir Hod, an Israeli-born artist, created a series of paintings
Mother (2012). In the series, one of the photographed women is painted on several large
canvases. Influenced by the Post-war German artist Gerhard Richter, whose photography-based
paintings such as Onkel Rudi (1965) were important references for the Israeli artist, Hod chose to
depict an overlooked female figure in the photo and painted her. As opposed to the German
artist, whose paintings underline the importance of documenting Germany’s Nazi past and its
ideology, Hod chose not to commemorate the past but to use the photograph to paint a better
future.

In her talk Dr. Gilboa will argue that Hod’s work is a visual discourse, promoting cultural internationality and gender equality. She will demonstrate that he utilizes the photograph-based painting, not just as a reminder of the past, but to offer alternatives to traditional assumptions. To support this argument, she will consider discussions such as Ulrike Brunotte’s studies on traditional gender roles in Judaism as well as in antisemitism. In sum, by dedicating a series of paintings entitled ‘Mother’ to an overlooked female figure in the photograph of the Warsaw Ghetto, Nir Hod created a symbolic figure of a modern woman whose role as a ‘Jewish Mother’ is a manifestation of modernity.

To commemorate the
International Holocaust Remembrance Day we cordially invite to a

Special Screening at the House of Austrian History

Bureau 06 - The Architects of the Eichmann Trial
A documentary film by Yoav Halevy (Open Doors Films/Israel)

"...This is the dramatic story of Bureau 06, the team of police investigators formed for the sole purpose of investigating and preparing the grave charges brought by the Jewish people
against Adolf Eichmann, during the trial that took place in Jerusalem, 1961..."

Welcome: Dr. Monika Sommer, Director House of Austrian History
The screening will be followed by a conversation with H.E. Ambassador Mordechai Rodgold, film director Yoav Halevy and historian Univ. Doz. Dr. Heidemarie Uhl, moderated by Dr. Thomas Ballhausen

Entrance: Main entrance at the Neue Burg/Heldenplatz/Nationalbibliothek

In cooperation with the Embassy of Israel, the House of Austrian History and the Austrian-Israeli Society

“Jewish Agency and Austrian Culture in Nineteenth Century Jerusalem”

In 1856, the Lämel-School was set up in Jerusalem as the first modern Jewish school in the city. According to the wish of the donator Elise Herz-Lämel (1788-1868), it should provide modern education to citizens of the Habsburg Monarchy in the Holy City. Elise Herz-Lämel chose the well-known writer and secretary of Vienna’s Jewish community Ludwig August Frankl (1810-1894) to implement the project. Frankl thus embarked on a lengthy journey to the Middle East. An analysis of Frankl’s different missions serves to illustrate the ambivalent position of Jews – as the European Orientals – in the Orient as well as Jewish commitment to academic, social and cultural projects of Austrian society before the era of legal emancipation.

Following the Welcome note of Prof Dr Mitchell Ash and the lecture, the discussion will be moderated by Dr Eleonore Lappin-Eppel, Vicepresident of the Center for Israel Studies Vienna
This event will be conducted in English. It will be broadcast live at the Center for Israel Studies FB Page. Our virtual panel will be recorded and will be available on our website after the event.

Please register at: office@center-for-israel-studies.at (we will send you the link to our Zoom event)

About the speaker:
Dr Louise Hecht: historian; doctorate summa cum laude in Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, habilitation in Jewish cultural history at the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg, research assistant at the University of Potsdam. Research focus: Central European Jewish history since the 18th century. Publications include: Ein jüdischer Aufklärer in Böhmen (2008) and the edited volume Ludwig August Frankl (1810-1894): Eine jüdische Biographie zwischen Okzident und Orient (2016).

Prof. Dr. David N. Myers, Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History, Director UCLA Center for History and Policy; President of the New Israel Fund
Tuesday, 15 December 2020

7:00 PM CEST

“A Chanukah Story: The Birth of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem“
The Institute for Jewish Studies (IJS) of the Hebrew University was inaugurated at Chanukah time 1924.  It was intended to serve as a source of illumination to the scholarly world, as well as a harmonious meeting point of east and west. With its birth, Jewish studies in Jerusalem was born.
This talk will explore the arc of the IJS from its humble Chanukah origins to the present.

Following the Welcome note of Dr. Eleonore Lappin-Eppel, Vice-president Center for Israel Studies Vienna and the lecture, the discussion will be moderated by Prof. Dr. Mitchell Ash, Board Member of the Center for Israel Studies Vienna.
This event will be conducted in English. It will be broadcast live at the Center for Israel Studies FB Page. Our virtual panel will be recorded and will be available on our website after the event.

Please register at: office@center-for-israel-studies.at (we will send you the link to our Zoom event)

About the speaker:
David N. Myers is the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Professor of Jewish History at UCLA, where he serves as the director of the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy. He is the author or editor of fifteen books in the field of Jewish history, including a forthcoming book with Nomi Stolzenberg on the Satmar Hasidic community of Kiryas Joel, New York. Myers serves as President of the New Israel Fund.

Many thanks to the New Israel Fund Austria for the cooperation and to the University of Vienna Department of Contemporary History for the support.

The Shtetl in the Eretz-Israeli Theatre of the 1930s and the performance of ethnic Zionism

During the 1930s the two Hebrew repertoire theatre companies of the Yishuv, Habima, and the Ohel, performed a large corpus of plays dealing with the landscapes of the Eastern European Jewish shtetl.  Their fascination with the shtetl is surprising, considering the fact that these two companies were deeply committed to the Zionist project, whose ethos was the building of a new society in Eretz-Israel and the negation of the diasporic Jewish existence.  In this lecture, I would like to explore the landscapes of the shtetl as they were presented on the Hebrew stage of the 1930s and to analyze their aesthetic and cultural meaning for their audience at that time. I would like to show that the shtetl plays formed a memory landscape that served as a mechanism for the formation of a modern, consolidated, ethnic Jewish collective in Palestine, which shared a unified narrative of its past as well as national aspirations for the future.

About the speaker:
Dr.  Shelly Zer-Zion is a faculty member at the department of theatre at the University of Haifa. Prior to this position, she was a Fulbright post-doctoral scholar at NYU and the director of the Israeli Center for the Documentation of the Performing Arts. Her research focuses on the history of modern Jewish theatre in Hebrew and Yiddish, and its role in the formation of Jewish national culture.  She published numerous articles on the subject in journals such as the Journal of Modern Jewish Studies and Jewish Social Studies. She is the author of the book Habima in Berlin: The Institutionalization of a Zionist Theatre (Magness Press, 2015). A German version of the book was published in Fink Verlag in 2016. She is a co-editor of the volume Habima: New Studies on National Theatre (Resling, 2017).

Moderator: Doz. Dr. Brigitte Dalinger, University of Vienna
Welcome: Dr. Eleonore Lappin-Eppel

WEB FORUM Center for Israel Studies Vienna

Panel Discussion with Prof. Dr. Yael Hashiloni-Dolev and  Prof. Dr. Katharina T. Paul

Topic: “Vaccination for Covid-19: Public views and experiences in Israel and Austria”

When it comes to vaccination for Covid-19, it seems, Israel and Austria could not be more different: Vaccination programmes are progressing at very different paces, and vaccine skepticism is differently distributed as well. What are the reasons for this? And is everything really as different as it seems at first sight? Two experts in the sociology of health and vaccination policy respectively will answer these and any other questions that participants may have.

Welcome: Prof. Dr. Mitchell Ash, President Center for Israel Studies Vienna

Moderator: Prof. Dr. Barbara Prainsack, University of Vienna

Date: Wednesday, 10 March 2021, 18:00 (6:00 pm, Vienna Time)

This event will take place in English. It will be broadcast live at the Center for Israel Studies FB Page. Our virtual panel will be recorded and will be available on our website and on our Youtube Channel after the event. Please register at: office@center-for-israel-studies.at (we will send you the link to our Zoom event)

****************

About the panelists:

Prof. Dr. Yael Hashiloni-Dolev is a sociologist of health and illness at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev. She is a former member (2012-20) of Israel’s National Bioethics Council. Her areas of interest include new reproductive technologies, genetics, gender, bioethics, contemporary parenthood and posthumous reproduction. She is also a member of Israel’s vaccination prioritization committee.

Prof Dr. Katharina T. Paul holds a PhD from the University of Amsterdam and joined the University of Vienna in 2013. Her research on vaccination policy is funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). She is affiliated with the Centre for the Study of Contemporary Solidarity (CeSCoS) and the Department of Political Science at the University of Vienna, Austria.

Please register at: office@center-for-israel-studies.at

Arab Citizens in the Jewish State of Israel

Israel’s Declaration of Independence proclaims full equality for all Israel’s citizens and calls upon members of the Arab nation “to participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.” This solemn pledge has not been kept. Nevertheless, the growing pluralism of the political system has strengthened the foothold of Arabs in Israeli society and politics.
The situation of the Arab community in Israel is still dire. The tenuous relationship between Jews and Arabs is under constant pressures, exacerbated by the 2018 Basic Law: Israel - The nation-state of the Jewish people, that undermines the status and legitimacy of the Arab citizens.  Nonetheless, a change began to surface tacitly in the official state approach towards the Arabs – recognizing the justification of equality, particularly in economic terms.  Politically, the last Knesset elections have increased Arab parties' visibility and potential strength.

About the speaker

Itzhak Galnoor: Herbert Samuel Professor of Political Science at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (emeritus); senior fellow at the Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem. He served on the Executive Committee of the International Political Science Association (IPSA), and edited its Advances in Political Science, (Cambridge University Press) book series. Head of the Civil Service Commission in Prime Minister Rabin government (1994–96); The Israel Science Foundation's Executive Committee and on the Governing Board of Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  In 2007-2008 he was the Deputy Chair of the Israeli Council of Higher Education. In 2015 he was awarded the Life Achievement Prize by the Association of Israel Studies (AIS). Latest English books:

The Handbook of Israel's Political System, (with Dana Blander), Cambridge University Press, 2018.

The Privatization of Israel: The Withdrawal of State Responsibility (with Amir Paz-Fuchs and Ronen Mandelkern), eds., Palgrave-Macmillan, 2018.

"Arab Citizens in the 'Jewish and Democratic' State of Israel," in Reuven Y. Hazan, Alan Dowty, Menachem Hofnung, and Gideon Rahat, eds., Oxford Handbook of Israeli Politics and Society (forthcoming).

In cooperation with the Vienna School of International Studies and the support of the University of Vienna, the Department of Contemporary History

Syrian Requiem: The Civil War and Its Aftermath
A compact, incisive history of one of the defining conflicts of our time

see also:  Princeton University Press 

An evening event in cooperation with the Vienna School of International Studies.

Welcome Note: Amb. Dr. Emil Brix
Moderation: Prof. Dr. Mitchell Ash, President Center for Israel Studies Vienna

About Helmar Lerski:

Conducting a course on Israeli visual culture at UCLA, Dr. Gilboa
stumbled upon black & white photographed series, entitled _Metamorphose,
Verwandlungen durch Licht by Helmar Lerski_ (1936). The stark contrast
caused by lighting, dramatic close-ups and types presented, is a
reminder of Russian propaganda posters in 1917 as well as Nazi statues
from the 1930s. What struck Anat Gilboa the most was the fact that
Lerski, an avid Zionist, created these images during the period he was
residing in Mandatory Palestine.

Dr. Gilboa presented the initial study at an international conference in
UCLA in 2013, and has been researching this topic ever since.

Background

The cinematographer and photographer Helmar Lerski was invited to work
in Mandatory Palestine from 1932 to 1948. The local Arab Revolt and the
mass immigration of German Jews into the area, in response to the
Nuremberg Race Laws, inspired Lerski to create a photographic portfolio
in 1936. For a model, the artist chose a young man of European descent,
shooting on a roof-top in Tel-Aviv with help of large mirrors. The
outcome is a series of different personalities, among them a young hero,
a Jewish prophet, an Arab sheik wearing a headdress, and the likeness of
an old nun. Dr. Gilboa argues that Lerski’s 1936 photographic portfolio
is a reference to Ovid’s _Metamorphoses_, Franz Kafka’s novella
_Metamorphosis_, and an indication to contemporary German-speaking
Expressionist perceptions of ‘Verwandlungen’ and 'Wandlung’ as metaphors
for unwelcome change, fear and demise.

Notions of depravation, degradation, misery and poverty were described
in contemporary literary works such as in Ernst Toller’s theatre play
_Die Wandlung_ (1919), Bertholt Brecht’s _Dreigroschenoper_ (1928), and
in Alfred Döblin’s novel _Berlin-Alexanderplatz (1929). Similar themes
were depicted in silent movies such as _Das Wachsfigurenkabinett_ by
Paul Leni (1924), _Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines_ by Viennese
poet and film director, Berthold Viertel (1926), and _Metropolis_ by
Fritz Lang (1927), to mention but a few.

While living in Berlin from 1915 until emigrating to Palestine, Lerski
worked and socialized with artists and local intelligentsia, among them
Leni Riefenstahl, Fritz Lang, Bertolt Brecht, Alfred Döblin, Berthold
Viertel, Albert Einstein and Kafka’s confident, Max Brod. In her talk,
Dr. Anat Gilboa will aim to demonstrate that – although drawing from
traditional and contemporary concepts of transformation as a metaphor
for instability and disability – Lerski opted for the opposite,
welcoming change as a positive source of life, creativity, and equality.

Dr. Anat Gilboa is an art-historian, and an adjunct lecturer at Ono
Academic College in Israel. She holds a doctorate degree from the
Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands, and a master’s degree
from Tel Aviv University. Dr. Gilboa taught for more than a decade at
American universities, among them Oregon State University in Portland
(OG), and UCLA in Los Angeles. She is currently completing a manuscript
on the perception of the Holocaust in Israeli visual culture. The
research will be published in a book series at the Center for Jewish
Studies at the University of Graz. Among her other publications are a
monograph on the theme of femininity in Rembrandt’s oeuvre (2003), and a
Catalogue Raisonné on the perception of the Bible in works of Jewish
artists in the American Midwest (2014). She also published various
articles and book-chapters in Europe and the US. Dr. Gilboa’s research,
academic courses, and public talks reflect a focus on cross-disciplinary
analysis of Jewish and Israeli visual culture, gender issues, history,
religion, and literature. These are the core themes that define modern
Israeli identity and its complexity.

The challenges of diversity in Israeli higher educational institutes

Abstract:
The lecture will address the challenges of diversity in Israeli universities from the perspectives of minority groups. It will present the gaps and obstacles that minority students face, such as: economic, social, and political within the academic Israeli context.
Through two case studies of Palestinian-Arab citizens of Israel and Ethiopian Jews, I will discuss the implications of diversity policies practiced in this sphere.

About the speaker:
Prof. Sarab Abu-Rabia-Queder is an Associate Professor at the Department of Education, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Recently has been appointed as VP for diversity & inclusion.
Her contribution to scholarship includes three subjects which form the core of her research: Feminist discourse, minorities in higher education, and minorities in the labor market.
Prof. Abu-Rabia-Queder is a leading researcher in gender and women's studies in the Bedouin society and one of the first to explore analytical feminist perspectives in the Bedouin society, formulating a unique discourse rich with the otherwise silenced voices of Bedouin women. Her work has succeeded in making significant contributions to the critical analysis of how feminist bodies of knowledge and gender analyses in Israel are produced and how Bedouin perspectives are marginalized within the politics of participation in the production and prioritization of feminist discourses. In her contributions to this body of literature she promotes epistemic justice for the women whom she studies. Prof. Abu-Rabia-Queder merges a deep knowledge of this body of scholarship with her unique perspective to develop new forms of engagement with feminist intersectional scholarship.
Alongside her academic pursuits Prof. Abu-Rabia-Queder is also a feminist activist, fighting for Bedouin women's rights in the Negev. She serves as a board member in several NGO’s and academic committees. Her main activity focuses on issues central to Bedouin women's agenda such as access to education, combating polygamy, and improving employment opportunities.
She is the winner of several competitive grants and prizes. In 2019 she won the "Aut katan" prize from "Rouah Nashit" association for the combination between her academic and feminist agenda.

Vortrag: „Kontingenz. Das jüdische Palästina und der Zweite Weltkrieg“

In Kooperation mit dem Institut für Zeitgeschichte der Universität Wien

Welcome: Univ. Prof. Dr. Oliver Rathkolb
Moderator: Univ. Prof. Dr. (em.) Mitchell Ash

"Der Vortrag befasst sich mit einem Kernbestand der
jüdisch-palästinischen Erfahrung während des Zweiten Weltkrieges: Der
Bedrohung des Yishuv durch die im Sommer 1942 sich Ägypten nähernden
deutsch-italienischen Panzerarmee unter dem Kommando von Rommel. Dabei
wird es unumgänglich sein die Lage des Mandatsgebiets im Kontext des
Weltkrieges als Ganzem zu beschreiben. Geschichtstheoretisch handelt der
Vortrag, am empirischen Gegenstand, von Telos und Kontingenz und dabei
wesentlich um die Frage historischen Vergessens“

Univ-Prof Dr Amos Morris-Reich
"Helmar Lerski’s ‘Jewish and Arab Types’ Project:Political and Aesthetic Perspectives"
This talk addresses the “failed” project of arguably the most prominent art photographer working
in British Mandate Palestine:the 1930s “Jewish and Arab Types” project by German-born Swiss American Jewish art photographer Helmar Lerski. Lerski’s project involves at least two significant
political contexts. The first is racial photography within science, art, and popular culture, and the
second is Zionism. The talk will pay special attention to Lerski’s photographic method and to its
relationship to the aesthetic and political question of “light” in 1930s Palestine. The talk will attempt
to develop the argument that, in opposition to most recent (especially American) historiography,
aesthetic rather than political categories can better explain Lerski’s motivations, method, and the
grounds of “failure”.

Location: Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Universitätscampus (Altes AKH),
                       Spitalgasse 2, 1090 Wien, Hof 9
Date and Time: 25 October 2022, 7 p.m. (19Uhr)

Words of Greeting: Univ.-Prof. Dr. RaphaelRosenberg,  Department of Art History
Moderation: em. Prof. Dr. Mitchell G. Ash, President of the Center for Israel Studies Vienna

The lecture will be presented in English

Biography:
Amos Morris-Reich is The Geza Roth Chair of Modern Jewish History, the Director of The Stephen
Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism, and a Professor at The Cohn
Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv University.
His book Photography and Jewish History: Five Twentieth Century Cases has just appeared in October 2022 with Penn University Press. His previous book is Race and Photography: Racial Photography as Scientific Evidence, 1876 – 1980 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016)

Registration required.
Please register via this contact address: office@center-for-israel-studies.at

Words of Welcome and Moderation: Prof. Dr. Mitchell Ash, President of the Center for Israel Studies Vienna

The recent elections in Israel are likely to produce the most right-wing government in the country’s history. Commentators on this outcome have written that one reason for the left parties' disastrous performance is that voters no longer think that a two-state solution has any chance of success and have therefore punished liberal and left parties for continuing to maintain what the right calls a conciliatory attitude toward the Palestinians. Einat Wilf sees a connection between this analysis and her own view that the West in general, by indulging Palestinian illusions, has stood in the way of peace.

Einat Wilf studied at Harvard University (B.A.) and at Insead (MBA), and received her PhD in Political Science from Wolfson College, University of Cambridge in 2008 with a study of the World Jewish Congress‘ campaign against the Swiss Banks. She served in the Knesset (Avoda, Labour) from 2010 and co-founded the party Ha’Atzma’ut in 2011, which however did not enter the Knesset elections in 2013. She is now an author and political consultant. Among her numerous publications are:
-My Israel, Our Generation (2007)
-Winning the War of Words: Essays on Zionism and Israel (2015)

-Telling Our Story: Essays on Zionism, the Middle East, and the Path to Peace (2018)

Her most recent book (with Adi Schwartz) has just appeared in German translation: Der Kampf um Rückkehr. Wie die westliche Nachsicht für den palästinensischen Traum den Frieden behindert hat (2022). 

The lecture will be presented in English

The Center for Israel Studies Vienna, in cooperation with the Vienna School of International Studies (Diplomatische Akademie Wien) and the Friends of the New Israel Fund Austria, with the support of "Österreichische Gesellschaft für Politische Bildung"  invites you to a panel discussion on the topic

The Future is Now: Democracy in Israel

Date: Tuesday, 16 May 2023, 19:00h  (7:00 p.m.)

Venue: Auditorium of the Vienna School of International Studies, Favoritenstraße 15a, 1040 Vienna
Registration: office@center-for-israel-studies.at

Words of Greeting: Gesandte Mag. Martina Schubert, Vice-Director, Vienna School of International Studies and
Drⁱⁿ Eleonore Lappin-Eppel, Chairperson of the Friends of the New Israel Fund Austria

Greeting and Moderation: Mitchell G. Ash, Professor Emeritus of Modern History, University of Vienna and President of the Center for Israel Studies Vienna

The panelists:

Natan Sznaider, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo, School of Politics and Society, currently Senior Fellow at the International Research Center for Cultural Studies, Vienna, author most recently of Fluchtpunkte der Erinnerung (2022)

Orly Noy, Chair of the Executive Board, B’tzelem, Jerusalem, activist and widely published author, most recently of „ Do Israeli Protesters Really Want Democracy? “ (March 27, 2023)

Sagi Barmak, Director of the Adam Smith Center for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, author of commentaries on contemporary Israeli politics, most recently: “Israeli Parliamentarism has Lost,” Makor Rishon (27 March 2023)

Invitation I Einladung I הַזמָנָה

Panel Discussion

“Israel at War. Civil Rights, the Role of International Law and the Future of Democracy.”

Welcome Address and Moderator :
Univ Prof (em.) Dr Mitchell Ash

Panelists:
Amichai Cohen, Israel Democracy Center Jerusalem (IDC)
Dorit Geva, Central European University (CEU)
Karen Saar, Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI)

Venue: University of Vienna, Aula am Campus, Altes AKH, Hof 1, Spitalgasse 2, 1090 Wien

Date: 7 December 2023
19:00h

please register: office@center-for-israel-studies.at

In cooperation with the Department of Political Science, University of Vienna
with the support of the New Israel Fund, Austria

Invitation I Einladung I הַזמָנָה

Vortrag von Univ.-Prof. Dr. Helga Embacher

Antisemitismus im 21. Jahrhundert: linker Antisemitismus, rechte Bemühungen um Israel und Israels Reaktionen

Grußworte und Moderation: PD Dr. Louise Hecht

Grußworte: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Claudia Kraft (Vorständin, Institut für Zeitgeschichte der Universität Wien)

Wo:  Fachbereichsbibliothek Zeitgeschichte der Universität Wien, Campus der Universität Wien, Spitalgasse 2-4/Hof 1.12, 1090 Wien

Wann: 9. April 2024, 18:30 Uhr

Bitte um Anmeldung:
office@center-for-israel-studies.at

Mit Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts wurde weltweit ein Anwachsen des Antisemitismus verzeichnet. Die sehr kontrovers geführte Debatte um einen „neuen Antisemitismus“ fokussierte lange auf einen linken und muslimischen Antisemitismus, mitunter von unterschiedlichen politischen Seiten vereinnahmt. Erst mit dem Terroranschlag auf die Synagoge in Pittsburgh (2018) und in Halle an der Saale (2019) sowie den sich abzeichnenden Wahlerfolgen rechter und rechtsextremer Parteien kam „rechtem Antisemitismus“ größere Aufmerksamkeit zu. Viele dieser Parteien (Front National, Fidesz, die Schwedendemokraten oder die FPÖ) hatten nunmehr eine pro-israelische Position übernommen, allerdings eng verbunden mit Islamfeindlichkeit und antisemitischen Verschwörungserzählungen.

Der Vortrag fokussiert zum einen auf die Rolle des Antizionismus im linken Spektrum und die Frage, wann dieser zum Antisemitismus mutiert und ob sich dabei klare Grenzen ausmachen lassen. Zum anderen werden rechte und rechtsextreme Positionen zu Israel kritisch hinterfragt. Damit stellt sich auch die Frage, wie die israelische Regierung auf linken Antisemitismus sowie die Annäherung von rechten Parteien und Politikern reagiert. Welche Rolle spielen dabei realpolitische Interessen, wann und wie werden Grenzen hinsichtlich der Beziehung zu rechten und rechtsextremen Parteien und Politikern gezogen, welche Rolle kommen dabei Antisemitismus zu und wie wird dieser interpretiert oder auch ignoriert?

Helga Embacher ist seit 2001 ao. Univ. Professorin am Fachbereich Geschichte an der Universität Salzburg. Sie war Gastprofessorin an der University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (1997), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (2003/04), an der University Innsbruck, Politikwissenschaft (2004) und zuletzt an der University Haifa, Israel (2022). Ihre Forschungsschwerpunkte sind Nationalsozialismus, Jüdische Geschichte, Israel, Antisemitismus, Exilforschung.

Publikationen (Auswahl)
Antisemitismus in Europa. Fallbeispiele eines globalen Phänomens im 21. Jahrhundert. Wien: Böhlau, Wien 2019 (mit Bernadette Edtmaier und Alexandra Preitschopf).
Herausgeberin von Der Gaza-Krieg 2014 und sein Widerhall in Europa. Pro-Palästina-Demonstrationen und Antisemitismus-Debatten, in: Chilufim 18/2015 (Sonderheft): 105-150.
“Antisemitismus im linken Spektrum und in muslimischen Communities“, in: Europäische Rundschau, 47 (2019/3): 25-32.

In Zusammenarbeit mit

Internationales Forschungszentrum für soziale und ethische Fragen
Universität Wien, Institut für Zeitgeschichte
Fachbereichsbibliothek Zeitgeschichte der Universität Wien

Words of Greeting:

Prof. Dr. Brigitte Zöchling-Jud, Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Vienna
Prof. Dr. Mitchell G. Ash, President, Center for Israel Studies Vienna

Moderator: Prof. Dr. Ursula Kriebaum, Department of European, International, and
Comparative Law, University of Vienna

Registration until 25 April 2024, 24:00h (12 midnight) is mandatory:

office@center-for-israel-studies.at

ID check (passport or ID card) at the entrance, please bring your registration confirmation.

The on-going war in the Middle East is multifaceted. It encompasses the struggle between the Zionist movement seeking to establish refuge for the Jews in their ancient homeland and the Palestinian people resisting losing theirs. Additionally, there is a battle between extremists on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide seeking to undermine the materialization of the two states vision. The far-reaching implications of this conflict challenge the existing international legal framework. International law is often invoked to temper these disputes. However, this too has become a battleground in both the academic and the political spheres, as seen most recently in the debates surrounding the complaint against Israel now being adjudicated at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. In this lecture, Professor Benvenisti will discuss some of the pivotal legal issues involved.

Eyal Benvenisti is the Whewell Professor of International Law at the University of Cambridge since 2016, and was the Director of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law there until 2024. He is Member of the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities and of the Institut de droit international. A Co-Editor of the British Yearbook of International Law, he served on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of International Law (2009-2018). He has held visiting professorships at the law schools at Harvard, Columbia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Toronto and Yale, and in July 2024 will deliver the General Course at The Hague Academy of International Law.
Selected recent publications: Occupation in International Law, (Oxford University Press, 2022, with Eliav Lieblich); and Between Fragement and Democracy: the Role of National and International Courts. (Cambridge University Press, 2017, with George W. Downs).

Cooperation with the Department of European, International, and Comparative Law, University of Vienna

With the support of:  The Austrian Israeli Society

Abstract:  When people think about the Zionist “New Jew” in early twentieth century Europe, all-male spaces like sporting clubs and dueling fields come to mind. Yet the dance floor was an important proving ground (and site of anxiety) for Jewish men, who demonstrated their adherence to European and Zionist views of masculinity by dancing with women, an activity forbidden by traditional Judaism. This talk examines how Zionist balls could reenact heated debates about German identity and a Jewish state, focusing in particular on Clementine Krämer's 1918 serialized novel, Der Weg des jungen Hermann Kahn.

BIO | Dr. Sonia Gollance is Lecturer in Yiddish at University College London. Her book, It Could Lead to Dancing: Mixed-Sex Dancing and Jewish Modernity (Stanford University Press, 2021) was a National Jewish Book Awards (USA) finalist.

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