Faculty

Ali Al-azhari | Arabic Instructor for Modern Standard and spoken Arabic. Al-azhari studied History and Arabic Language and Literature at Tel Aviv University. Teaching both Modern Standard and spoken Arabic to non-Arabic speakers, Al-azhari worked for many years as an Arabic Instructor at The Open University, The Embassy of The United States in Tel Aviv, and the Berlitz School of Languages.

His approach to teaching is as natural as possible, encouraging active comprehension and use of Arabic without recourse to translation into the students' native language. He also uses stories in his teaching. Specifically, he tells the students, in Arabic, about Arab history and culture, and exposes them to folk stories, sayings, etc.; this boosts the students' competence in passive use of the language and enhances their learning experience.

Uri Appenzeller | was born and raised in Tel Aviv. He is a writer, producer and director of films, videos, documentaries and TV programs. He graduated with Honors in Film & TV and Political Science from New York University Tisch School of the Arts (2001).

Among his various projects are: "Ajami – The Non-Actors Story" 2009 (Documentary, 30 min.), a behind the scenes look at the participants of the Oscar nominated foreign film "Ajami" Israel, 2009. "My Father's Palestinian Slave" 2007 (Documentary, 58 min.) about a Jewish-Israeli peace-activist who struggles to secure an Israeli citizenship for his illegal Palestinian gardener. "The Jaffa Project – Video Diaries" 2002 (Documentary, 55 min.) about five personal stories from Jaffa which reveal a multiculturalism mirrored in Israeli society. "Shaheed" 2001 (Drama, 16mm Color Film - 15 min. NYU Thesis Film), a film about religious fundamentalism and suicide bombers, released weeks before 9/11.

Moshe Berent | (Ph.D., University of Cambridge) has received his M.A. in Political Philosophy from Tel Aviv University under the instruction of Prof. Joseph Agassi and his Ph.D. in Comparative Political History from Cambridge University, UK under the instruction of Prof. Ernest Gellner and Prof. Paul Cartledge.

His major research fields are Ancient Greece (with particular interest in the polis) and Modern Nationalism. His book on Israeli national identity has been published in Hebrew in 2009.

Eytan Fox | is an acclaimed director and writer whose 2004 film Walk on Water - a story of a Mossad secret service agent who befriends the gay grandson of an ex-Nazi officer - has become the most successful Israeli film abroad.

Previously, 2002's Yossi & Jagger, the love affair between two officers in the Israeli army, became an international breakout hit. Born in New York City, at an early age Fox moved with his family to Israel. He grew up in Jerusalem, then studied at Tel Aviv University's School of Film and Television. His first film, Time Off, a 45-minute drama about sexual identity in the Israeli army, won him acclaim and led to the making his first feature, Song of the Siren, a romantic comedy which became Israel's biggest box office success in 1994. He also created and directed the Israeli TV dramatic series Florentine, which examined the life of young people in Tel Aviv before and after the Rabin assassination. Fox ran the film program at the Alon high school for the arts in Ramat Hasharon and has taught filmmaking at Tel Aviv University's School of Film and Television as well as at Sapir and Beit Berel colleges.

Alexander Frug | is a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at Tel Aviv University. His main interests are microeconomic theory, game theory and economics of information.

The subject of his research is information transmission and gradual learning.

Yuval Gadot | holds a Ph.D. in Archaeology of ancient Israel, and is working at the Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University as the director of the Ramat Rahel expedition and the director of the Ancient Israel research group: the natural and hard science approach.

He has taught archaeology of ancient Israel in numerous institutions. Yuval completed his PhD in 2004 at Tel-Aviv University under the guidance of Prof. Israel Finkelstein and Prof. Moshe Kochavi. Yuval is currently directing the field work at the renewed excavations at the site of Ramat Rahel and co-directing the field work in the two community based projects at Lod and Modi'in. A book: 'Aphek-Antipatris II' co-written and edited by me, is forthcoming in 2009. He also authored and co-authored a number of articles that were published in scientific journals centered on the archaeology in history of Ancient Israel.

Itzhak Goldman | is a professor of physics at Afeka, Tel Aviv Academic Engineering College. He obtained his academic degrees from the Technion, Haifa.: B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and an M.Sc. and D.Sc. in Physics.

Prior to his present position in Afeka, Itzhak Goldman was at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City and at Tel Aviv University. Itzhak Goldman's research field is Astrophysics. He published over 70 scientific papers and presented over 20 talks at scientific conferences.

http://www.afeka.ac.il/goldman

Rafi Grosglik | is a Ph.D. candidate at the department of Sociology & Anthropology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He holds a Master's degree in Sociology & Anthropology (with distinction).

Since 2008 he has been doing research on the cultural field of organic food in Israel. His Dissertation deals with cultural globalization and sociology of Israeli culinary culture. He is the co-editor of a special issue of HAGAR – Studies in Culture, Polity and Identities, and of a special issue of Food, Culture and Society – An International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research. He is also a member of the Israeli Association for Culinary Culture.

Yair Huri | (Ph.D.) is a Senior Lecturer of Arabic Studies and the Director of the Program of Arabic Language and Culture at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

He is the author of The Poetry of Sa'di Yusuf; Between Homeland and Exile (Sussex Academic Press, 2006) and numerous scholarly articles on modern Arabic poetry and Arab literary heritage.

Madi Kablan | (B.A. in Psychology and Arabic, M.A. in Arabic, certificate of teaching Arabic, Tel Aviv University) is a teacher in the Department of Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Tel Aviv & an academic coordinator and a teacher in the academic preparatory program for studying the Arabic language. He is also a teacher of Arabic at Ajyal High School in Jaffa and a linguistic editor and translator for arabynet site & makomakan site (CET).

His main interests include: Classic and modern Arabic grammar, medieval Arab grammatical tradition, Arabic journalism, philological commentary of the Qur'an & classical poetry.

Ron Lazer | (B.A., M.A., Tel Aviv University; Ph.D. New York University) is a Professor at Sharrei Mishpat College at Hod Hasaron in Israel where he recently co-founded an undergraduate accounting program. Prior to joining Sharrei Mishpat College he was a Clinical Professor of Accounting at the C.T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston. In recent years Ron is also a visiting Professor and/or instructor at INSEAD Business School, Krannert School of Management at Purdue University, GISMA Business School, Kenan-Flagler Business School at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and The Arison School of Business at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. Ron provides consulting and workshop services in accounting and finance to Israeli and international companies.

He received his Ph.D. in Accounting from the Stern School of Business at New York University (NYU). In addition he holds a M.B.A. in Finance and Accounting and a B.A. in Accounting and Economics from Tel Aviv University. He holds a CPA license from the state of Israel.
Prior to arriving at the University of Houston, he taught at New York University, Tel Aviv University and the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. Ron's teaching interests include corporate financial reporting, financial statement analysis and valuation, management accounting and strategic cost management. He received the University of Houston Outstanding Faculty Award (Student Choice) 2010/2011, the 2010 and 2012 MidCon Teaching Excellence Award (EMBA), the Wayne Payne 2009/2010 Teaching Award, the University of Houston Teaching Excellence Award 2007/2008, the department of Accounting teaching award 2007/2008, and was named the 2007/2008 Bauer’s faculty of the year. Ron is teaching EMBA, MBA, Master in Accountancy and undergraduate classes. Ron's research interest include financial accounting and reporting, value relevance of accounting information, analyst forecasts and effects of regulation, companies' valuation, and voluntary disclosures. Ron career prior to perusing his Ph.D. includes working as a CPA in the consulting and auditing departments of Arthur Andersen and Haft & Haft & Co. (BDO).

Ruth Livne | has been a senior lecturer of Hebrew Language at the Center of Hebrew Language Studies, Tel-Aviv University for 20 years, and has taught at The JTS, Columbia, Brandeis and Boston Universities. She completed her graduate degree from the Department of Education at Boston University, and her BA in Hebrew Language and Literature from Tel-Aviv University.

Aside from lecturing at the Department of Hebrew Language at NYU and Tel-Aviv University, Ruth has taken on various additional roles in the past, including: lecturing and building the curriculum of the Hebrew Department at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) in NY, heading the Hebrew program at the World Zionist Organization (WZO) in NY, where she was responsible for training Hebrew teachers throughout the USA and managing the Ulpan program, as well as lecturing at Columbia University, Brandeis University and Boston University. She is also the author of the books: Structures in the Syntax of Hebrew Language (2001) and The Verb System for Intermediate levels (2007).

Carmela Lutmar | (B.A., University of Haifa; M.A., University of Notre Dame; Ph.D., New York University) is a lecturer at the University of Haifa, Israel. She received a B.A. from the University of Haifa, an M.A. in Peace Studies from University of Notre Dame, and a Ph.D. in International Relations from the Politics Department at New York University.

Her research interests are in leadership changes, causes of war and peace, military occupations, mediation in civil wars, and designs for conflict resolution.

Ilene Prusher | is a journalist who has focused on covering the Middle East and Asia including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Iraq and Afghanistan over the course of 18 years as a writer for various newspapers and magazines.

After earning her Master's at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, she went on to write for publications such as The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Guardian, The New Republic and Newsday, and spent ten years as a staff writer for The Christian Science Monitor, serving as bureau chief in Jerusalem, Istanbul and Tokyo. She won the United Nations Correspondents' Club Award in 1998 for her coverage of post-war Somalia. She is a columnist and deputy editor of The Jerusalem Report.

Orly Rahimiyan | is a Ph.D. candidate in Middle Eastern Studies at Ben-Gurion University and a Research Fellow at the Ben Zvi Institute. She received an M.A. summa cum laude in Islamic and Middle Eastern studies as well as a B.A. summa cum laude in Arabic (language and literature) and Iranian studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Ms. Rahimiyan is the recipient of several awards and fellowships, including a Fulbright Scholarship to study at Columbia University's Center for Iranian Studies, the Phyllis Greenberg Heideman and Richard D. Heideman Fellowship at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., The Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture International Doctoral Scholarship, Nathan Rotenstreich Scholarship from Ben-Gurion University, and a Vidal Sassoon International Center Scholarship. Ms. Rahimiyan contributed 42 entries on Judeo-Persian people and places to editor Norman Stillman's Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, and also appears in editor Ihsan Yarshater's Encyclopedia Iranica and editor Manocher Dorraj's Iran Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Islamic Republic.

Tali Regev | (B.A., Tel Aviv University; Ph.D., MIT) is an economist and faculty at Tel Aviv University and the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, and a member of the Forum for Economic Advisors to the Finance Minister.

Her research and teaching expertise are labor economics and macroeconomics, and in particular unemployment, inequality, discrimination, and search and matching in labor markets. Following her dissertation at MIT, she worked as a research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco where she was engaged both in research and policy. She continues to be committed to both through her research positions and involvement in public policy. Tali is a member of a few forums and committees, including the Forum of Economic Advisors to the Finance Minister, the Committee for the Promotion of Minorities’ Access to Higher Education, and was recently appointed by the government as a member of the Committee for Social and Economic Change (Trajtenberg Committee).

Tali Rozen | (B.A. & L.L.B., Tel Aviv University) teaches Hebrew at various levels at NYU Tel Aviv and at Tel Aviv University, The Overseas Program (undergraduate students) and the International Program (graduate students).

She was born and raised in Israel and lived in the US for 11 years, in
the DC area with her family. She worked at George Washington
University teaching Hebrew courses in the Semitic Languages
Department. Her hobbies and interests include spending time with her
3 children, reading books and translating books and articles
from English to Hebrew.

Miryam Sivan | is a former New Yorker who has lived in Israel for 17 years. She completed her B.A. and M.A. at CCNY and her Ph.D. at the University of Haifa. Her book-length study, plus many articles, on the American writer Cynthia Ozick have been published over the years.

An additional area of research is Holocaust literature, both Israeli and American. Dr. Sivan has translated poetry from Hebrew into English (full length book of Leah Goldberg), and also writes fiction. Numerous stories have been published and currently a novel is being shopped around in NYC. She is also in the midst of writing another. Much of her fiction is about the experiences of ex-pats in love, in flux, in the liminal space between cultures, languages, and historical epochs.

Faculty Spotlight

Eytan Fox

Eytan Fox is an acclaimed director and writer. He was born in New York City and at an early age, moved with his family to Israel. He grew up in Jerusalem, then studied at Tel Aviv University’s School of Film and Television. His first film, Time Off, a 45-minute drama about sexual identity in the Israeli army, won him acclaim and led to the making his first feature, Song of the Siren, a romantic comedy which became Israel's biggest box office success in 1994. He also created and directed the Israeli TV dramatic series Florentine, which examined the life of young people in Tel Aviv before and after the Rabin assassination. His 2002 film, Yossi & Jagger, about a love affair between two officers in the Israeli army, became an international breakout hit. He followed that film up with a sequel, Yossi, last year. His 2004 film Walk on Water - a story of a Mossad secret service agent who befriends the gay grandson of an ex-Nazi officer - has become the most successful Israeli film abroad. Fox ran the film program at the Alon high school for the arts in Ramat Hasharon and has taught filmmaking at Tel Aviv University's School of Film and Television as well as at Sapir and Beit Berel colleges.

View some of his work: