Researchers’ Bios
Katarína Bohová holds a double degree in History and Slovak Language and Literature from the Faculty of Arts at the Comenius University in Bratislava (2013 – 2019). In 2021 she started working on her Ph.D. in the General History Department at the same faculty. In her dissertation, she analyses the Image of Enemy in European history in the 20th century. She also focuses on anti-Semitism and Holocaust in Slovakia 1939 – 1945.
Haim Fireberg was (until he recently retired) a research associate at the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, Tel Aviv University, and head of research programs at the Center. His main foci of research are the social and demographic situation of Jewish communities in Europe, and urban history of the Jewish community (H’Yishuv) in Palestine in the 20th century and during the first decade of the State of Israel, and the study of virtual Jewish communities (maintaining Jewish and Israeli life in cyberspace). Fireberg is also active in monitoring and researching contemporary antisemitism, concentrating on Europe, and was in charge of analyzing the violent incidents worldwide. His most recent publications are 1) Being a Jew in Germany in the 21st century (ed. with Olaf Glöckner), 2) Being Jewish in 21st Century Central Europe (ed. With Olaf Glöckner, and Marcela Menachem Zoufala). Currently, Fireberg (with partners) conducts vast social and cultural research in five main Jewish communities in Europe.
Olaf Glöckner is a Researcher at the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European-Jewish Studies/University of Potsdam (MMZ). At the MMZ, Dr. Gloeckner is leading the Department of Sociology of Judaism. His main foci of research are Jewish Migration, Israeli-German Relations, Modern Antisemitism, Israeli Society and German-Jewish History. Among his recent book publications are: Das neue Unbehagen. Antisemitismus in Deutschlande heute (hrsg. zus. mit Günther Jikeli), Olms, Hildesheim 2019; David Friedländer: Aufklärer, Brückenbauer, Philanthrop. Hentrich & Hentrich, Leipzig 2018; Deutschsprachige jüdische Migration nach Schweden. 1774-1945. De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston 2017 (hrsg. zusammen mit Helmut Müssener).
Jiří Holý is a Professor at the Department of Czech Literature and Comparative Literature and Head of the Centre for the Holocaust and Jewish Literature at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. In 1994/1995, he served as Assistant Professor at the University of Regensburg. He was also a Visiting Professor at Humboldt Universität (1999/2000), at Universität Wien (2004/2005, 2008/2009) and at Universität Leipzig (2014/2015). Together with Dr. Marcela Menachem Zoufalá, he coordinates the multiannual EU project ‘United in Diversity.’ An Interdisciplinary Study of Contemporary European Jewry and Its Reflection. Prof. Holý specializes in literary science and research, mainly within the area of Czech Literature and Jewish Topics in Literature and Culture. His main publications in recent years include Handbook of Polish, Czech, and Slovak Holocaust Fiction: Texts and Contexts (editors E.-M. Hiemer, J. Holý, A. Firlej and H. Nichtburgerová) Berlin, De Gruyter 2021; Jews and Jewishness in Cinema and Literature: The Case of the Czech Republic, in: Being Jewish in 21st Century Central Europe (eds. H. Fireberg, O. Glöckner and M. Menachem Zoufalá). Oldenbourg, De Gruyter 2020, pp. 165-184; Jurek Becker: Jakob der Lügner (with H. Nichtburgerová), in: Holocaust. Zeugnis. Literatur. 20 Werke wieder gelesen (eds. M. Roth and S. Feuchert). Göttingen, Wallstein Verlag 2018, pp. 152-168, Die Namen auf den Mauern der Pinkas-Synagoge in Prag, in: Texte prägen (eds. H. Kenneth et al.). Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz 2017, pp. 415-432 and Nontraditional Images of the Shoah in Literature and Film: Comedy and Laughter; Holocaust Studies, 23, 2017, no 1-2, pp. 208-221.
Lilach Lev Ari is an Associate Professor at Oranim, Academic College of Education. Lilach is the dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and a lecturer. Her research interests include human migration, contemporary Jewry, ethnic identity and intercultural encounters, ethnic minorities and integration, acculturation, and multiculturalism. Lev Ari has published the following books: The American Dream –For Men Only? Gender, Immigration and the Assimilation of Israelis in the United States (2008); and American Israelis, Migration, Transnationalism, and Diasporic Identity (2010 with Uzi Rebhun), Contemporary Jewish Communities in Three European Cities: Challenges of Integration, Acculturation and Ethnic identity (2022, forthcoming), as well as various publications in scientific journals such as Contemporary Jewry, The Journal of Heritage Tourism, Higher Education, Tourism Recreation Research, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development and others.
Marcela Menachem Zoufalá is a cultural anthropologist, lecturer, and researcher in the Center for the Study of the Holocaust and Jewish Literature at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University Prague. Her research interests include Jewish and Israel Studies, specifically the quality of life of contemporary European Jewish communities in the context of a sense of belonging, transnationalism, and antisemitism. In the field of Israel Studies, her research interests combine Mizrahi Studies, ethnicity, and gender. Recently, she has focused on Jewish-Muslim relations from a comparative perspective. Dr. Menachem Zoufalá was a visiting research fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2009-2010. In 2014 and 2016, she was awarded the Masaryk Distinguished Chair in Israel. In 2019, she held a Guest Professorship in Israel Studies at the Selma Stern Center for Jewish Studies in Berlin-Brandenburg & The Moses Mendelssohn Center for European Jewish Studies, University of Potsdam. In 2019-2021 she was a member of the academic board of the Herzl Centre at CUNI. She is also a member of the Academic Council of the European Association of Israel Studies (EAIS). In terms of international scientific cooperation, Dr. Menachem Zoufalá coordinates together with Prof. Jiří Holý the multiannual EU project ‘United in Diversity.’ An Interdisciplinary Study of Contemporary European Jewry and Its Reflection.
Eduard Nižňanský is a member of the Department of General History at the Faculty of Arts of the Comenius University, Bratislava. In his research, Prof. Nižňanský focuses on Holocaust, National socialism, and international relations in 1933 – 1945. He has published 20 monographs and 100 scientific studies (published in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Austria, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, and USA). He has lectured in Olomouc (Czech Republic), Krakow (Poland), Vienna (Austria), Karlsruhe, Freiburg, Saarbrucken (Germany), Jerusalem, and Beer Sheva (Israel). Among his publications are The Holocaust in Slovakia (6 volumes); Slovak-German relationship 1938 – 1945 in Documents (2 volumes – Slovak-German); The Jewish Community in Slovakia between the Czechoslovak Parliamentary Republic and the Slovak State in the Central European Context (Prešov: Universum 1999, Slovak); Nazism, The Holocaust, The Slovak State. Bratislava (Kalligram 2010, Slovak); The Policy of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust in Slovakia 1938 – 1945 (Banská Bystrica : Múzeum SNP, 2016, Slovak); Antisemitism und Holocaust in der Slowakei in Dokumenten deutscher Provenienz 1938 – 1945 (Banská Bystrica : Múzeum SNP, 2021, Slovak – German). He served as the editor of „Judaica et Holocaustica“ (11 anual volumes).
Dina Porat is the former head of the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry. She also served as head of the Department of Jewish History, of the Rosenberg School for Jewish Studies, and as incumbent of the Alfred P. Slaner Chair in Antisemitism and Racism, all at Tel Aviv University. She has served as the Yad Vashem chief historian since 2010. Prof. Porat has been awarded prizes for some of her many publications (including the National Jewish Book Award for her biography of Abba Kovner, published by Stanford UP) and the Bahat Prize for her new book on Jewish revenge after World War II, was TAU’s Faculty of Humanities best teacher for 2004, got the Raoul Wallenberg Medal for 2012, appeared on the 50 leading Israeli scholars list of the Marker Magazine at 2013 and Forbes list of the 50 leading women in Israel in 2018, and was a visiting professor at Harvard, Columbia, New York, Venice, and Hebrew universities. Her main research interests include Contemporary and classic antisemitism, History of the Holocaust, Zionism and the Jews of Europe, the “Final Solution” in Lithuania, and Jewish-catholic relations since World War II. She served as an expert for Israeli Foreign Ministry delegations to the UN world conferences and as the academic advisor for the International Task Force on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (now IHRA).
