PROF. DR. YAACOV SHAVIT
CURRICULUM VITAE
Full Professor
Prof. Yaacov Shavit
History of History of the Jewish People – Head of the Department
The Geza Roth Chair of Modern Jewish History
Faculty of Humanities
Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel
Home: Hazzaz 25, Tel Aviv, 69407
Tel.: 03-6493060
Fax: 03-6449383
Mobile: 054-6336224
E-Mail:
Born in Haifa, Israel, 24.10.1944
Married + three children
Military Service: 1962-1965
STUDIES, TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY
1971 B.A. Degree General History and Political sciences
1972 M.A. Degree Department of General History (Suma Cum Luda)
1977 Ph.D Degree Department of General History
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY
1969-1977 Assistant and Instructor at Tel Aviv University, Labor Studies
1980 Senior Lecturer, Tel Aviv University, Department of the History
of the Jewish People
1986 Associate Professor, Tel Aviv University, Department of the
History of the Jewish People
1991 Full Professor, Tel Aviv University, Department of the History
of the Jewish People
1991-1994 Academic Director of the IDF Military Academy
1996-2000 Head of the Department of Jewish History
OTHER ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS
1976 Established Cathedra for the History of Eretz-Israel, the main academic periodical for the study of the history of Palestine
1976-1984 Editor of Cathedra
1976-1984 Member of the editorial Board of Yad Ben Zvi Institute
1980-1985 Editor in Chief of the 'History of Eretz-Israel' from Pre-History until 1948 (in ten volumes), with 40 co-writers
1984-2000 Member of the Scientific Committee of the Institute for Research on Zionism
1982-1992 Teaching in the Military Academy of IDF
1985- Member of the Editorial Board of Mediterranean Historical Review
1988-1998 Member of the Editorial Board of the 'History of the Yishuv', The Israeli Academy of Sciences
1989-1995 Member of the Editorial Board of the Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History
1991 Visiting Professor at the History Department, University of Chicago
1992-1996 Member of the Board of the Israeli Historical Society
1994- Member of the Board of Landau Foundation (Mif'al ha-Payis)
1996-2000 Head of the Department of Jewish History
2007-2011 Head of the Department of Jewish History
GUEST LECTURES AT THE FOLLOWING UNIVERSITIES (since 1986)
University of Erlangen, Freie Universität, Berlin, University of Copenhagen, Leuevn University, Belgium, Brandeis University, Yale University, Chicago University, The Catholic University of America, Georgetown University, Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington D.C., The Israeli Academic Center, Cairo, Heidelberg, Leipzig, Nanjing, Paris 8, Napels, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
1969-1973 Parliamentary Secretary in the Knesset
1980-1983 Editor in Chief, Keter Publishing House, Jerusalem
Since 1965 Published various works of literature, among them three novels for adults and seven books for children
1978-1991 Member of the General Israeli Council for Culture and Arts
1984-1990 Member of the Israeli Army editorial Board of the Periodical Monthly Survey
PAPERS IN ACADEMIC CONFERENCES (selection only)
August 1978 "On the Character of an Anti-Socialist Trade Union". The World Congress
for Jewish Studies, Jerusalem.
January 1979 "Hebrew Culture and Culture in Hebrew". Scholars Forum of Yad Ben-Zvi, Jerusalem.
February 1980 "Between Jabotinsky and his Movement". A Hundred Years to Jabotinsky
Birthday, Tel Aviv University.
June 1981 "Establishment of Geographical Borders; the Formation of Relations
Between Center and Periphery". Scholars Forum of Yad Ben-Zvi, Jerusalem.
October 1981 "National Culture and Hebrew National Culture – Two Perspectives". Hundred Years of Zionism, Tel Aviv University.
February 1982 "Travelers Books as a Literary Genre". European Influence in Eastern Countries, Jerusalem.
March 1982 "Three Faces of the Hebrew". Y. Ratosh: His World and his Art. Tel Aviv
University.
June 1983 "The Transformation of Schund Literature from Yiddish into Hebrew".
The second Conference for the Study of Yiddish Literature and Language, Oxford.
January 1985 "Ideology, Weltanschauung and National Policy- The Case of the Likud Government". Leonard Davis Institute's International Annual Conference, Jerusalem.
April 1985 "The Status and Reception of Uri Zvi Greenberg as a Poet-Prophet".
The Second Inter-University Conference for the Study of Hebrew Literature, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
April 1985 "Nationalism as a Cultural System". International Conference on Zionism as Nationalism, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
March 1986 "The Attitude towards Historical Tradition during the Mandatory Period". Tradition and Resistance, Bar-Ilan University.
December 1986 "The Zionism and the Canaanite Challenge". The International Conference
on the Zionism and Its Enemies, Jerusalem.
July 1987 Hellenismus versus Judaismus in Modern Jewish Polemics".European Association for Jewish Studies, Berlin.
December 1988 On the Reception and Function of Grimm Brothers and Greek Mythology in Modern Hebrew Culture". Tel Aviv University.
November 1989 "To `Pass through the Revolution': The French Revolution and the Jewish Revolution - Two Perspectives". Tel Aviv University.
March 1990 "The French Spirit and the Spirit of France". International Conference: France and the Holy Land, The Hebrew University and Yad Ben-Zvi., Jerusalem.
December 1990 "Intellectual Transformations in Haskalah Writing – Strategies of
Intellectual Assimilation". American Association of Jewish Studies, Boston.
April 1991 "U.Z. Greenberg in the 30's- Eschatology from Apocalypse." The 8th
Conference on Jewish Literature, Bar-Ilan University.
July 1991 "From Learned History to Popular History – The African-American Experience in the U.S.A". The Annual Conference of the Israeli Historical Society: Popular Culture and Official Culture, Jerusalem.
December 1991 "Alexandria - The Transformation and Function of an Historical Image". Twenty-Third Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, Boston.
April 1992 "From Virtues to 'Character' and 'Patterns of Behavior' – The Changing Role of Personality in Political Biographies". Biography and Historiography, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
April 1992 "The Fable as a Fable: J.L.Gordon and the Tradition of the Fable in the Haskalah". Tel Aviv University.
December 1992 "The Strange Transformation of 'The Curse on Ham'". Twenty-Fourth Annual Conference of the AJS, Boston.
December 1992 "Qumran Library in the Light of the Attitude towards Books and Libraries in the Second Temple Period". Methods of Investigation of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Khirbet Qumran Site: Present Realities and Future Prospects, the New York Academy of Sciences.
October 1993 "The Battle of the Books: The Muslim-Jewish and Black American Quarrel over the Bible in the United States". Muslims and Jews in North America, University of Denver.
May 1994 "Archaeology, Political Culture and Culture in Israel". The Archaeology of Israel: Constructing the Past, Interpreting the Present, Lehigh University.
September 1994 "The Theft of Wisdom: The Renewal of Jewish Apologetical Historiography of the 19th century". European Association for Jewish Studies, Copenhagen.
June 1995 "The Reception of Greek Mythology in Modern Hebrew Culture". The
Howard Gilman International Conference: Hellenic and Jewish Arts, Delphi.
September 1996 "The Mediterranean: Model, Idea, Ideal". The Israeli Forum for
Mediterranean Culture, Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem.
July 1998 "Stolen Libraries, a Stolen Motif". European Association for Jewish Studies,
6th Congress, Toledo.
November 1998 "Diaspora without a Homeland: 'Heavenly' Africa and 'real Africa' in African-American's Imagination". African Homeland, African Diaspora and African Identity, Tel Aviv University.
July 2002 Jabotinsky's Zionism: Between Renaissance and Risorgimento.
The Jewish Renaissance in the early 20th Century in Comparative Perspective, Arbeitsstelle Martin Buber-Werkausgabe in association with the Berlin Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften.
June 2004 "From Entry Card to Partnership: Defining the Boundaries of Jewish Contribution to Modern European Culture". The Jewish Contribution to Civilization – An International Conference, Tel Aviv University.
November 2005 "Jabotinsky and the Influence of Italian Nationalism" Italian Risorgimento,
Jewish Risorgimento: the heritage of Giuseppe Mazini". Instituto Italiano di
Cultura, Jerusalem.
May 2006 "Tel Aviv: frontières réelles et imaginaires". Penser les Frontières culturelles à l'ère de la Mondialisation. Colloque Sorbonne \Tel Aviv.
November 2006 "In Search of Jewish and Hebrew Bible Study: A View from Within and Without". Society of Biblical Literature 2006 Annual Meeting, Washington DC.
April 2007 "The Jewish Enlightenment Bible- From the Header to the Classroom".
Salzburg University.
September 2008 "The Influence of Polish National Heritage on Modern Nationalism".
Poles and Jews, History-Culture-Education, Krakow.
November 2008 "Will Black Athena be a ‘Huge Half-forgotten Hulk in the River of 20thCentury Historical Writing’?" African Athena: Black Athena 20 years.
Warwick U.K.
March 2010 "When and for What Purposes did Nineteenth Century Jewish Scholars Use the Hebrew Dictionary of Gesenius". Biblical Exegesis and Hebrew Lexicography. Gesenius’ Hebrew Dictionary as Resource and Mirror of Old Testament Scholarship, throughout 200 Years since its First Publication , Martin Luther University, Halle.
June 2010 "From Secular Literal Reading to a Secular Homiletic Reading- The Bible in
Israeli Culture". Cultures in Conversation. Lessons Learned from Hebrew
Literature and Jewish History, Poznan.