Faculty

Professor Benjamin Hary is the Site Director of NYUTA and a Professor at the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies. Up until 2014 he was a Professor of Hebrew, Arabic, and Linguistics and the Director of the Program in Linguistics at Emory University. He is the author of Multiglossia in Judeo-Arabic (1992), Translating Religion (2009) and Daily Life in Israel (2012, with R. Adler). He is also the editor and co-editor of Judaism and Islam (2000), Corpus Linguistics and Modern Hebrew (2003), and Esoteric and Exoteric Aspects in Judeo-Arabic Culture in 2006. Hary has published over 50 articles and book reviews on Judeo-Arabic, as well as Arabic and Hebrew linguistics, and has lectured widely in Europe, Israel, Egypt and North America. His is currently working on completing his book, Sacred Texts in Egyptian Judeo-Arabic and editing a volume on Jewish Languages.

Dr. Edan Raviv is the Assistant Director for Academic Programs at New York University’s Tel Aviv academic center. Edan completed his MA in International Relations at New York University, and PhD in Political Science at Tel Aviv University, where he wrote about political nativism in Western Europe since World War II, particularly as it is related to the institutional conflict between international integration and national citizenship regimes.

Carmela Lutmar has a BA in Political Science and Philosophy (1993) from the University of Haifa, and MA in Peace Science from the University of Notre Dame (1995), and a PhD in International Relations (2004) from NYU. Research interests include leadership, mediation in civil wars, peace agreements design and implementation, compliance in international agreements, regime changes, and institutional design in the aftermath of military occupations. Publications include a book on regional peacemaking and conflict management, as well as a planned book on regional stability and leadership changes in the Middle East. Articles include mediation in civil wars, the impact of leadership changes in rebel groups on mediation in civil wars.

Neta holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from Tel Aviv University, and since 2010 teaches at the Open University of Israel. Neta conducts her research as a senior research associate at the laboratory of Prof. Uri Gophna at Tel Aviv University where she also holds a position as a part-time lecturer. Her research focuses on horizontal gene transfer (HGT) and molecular ecology in halophilic archaeons, a class of the superkingdom Archaea that habitats the Dead Sea as well as the Mediterranean Sea.

Linda Gradstein is the Israel bureau chief for The Media Line news agency. Gradstein was the Israel correspondent for NPR News from 1990 until 2009. As a freelance reporter she has reported for PRI's The World and AOL News and other venues such as Slate Gradstein is a member of the team that received the Overseas Press Club award for her coverage of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the team that received the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism for her coverage of the Persian Gulf War. Linda spent 1998-9 as a Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. Gradstein holds a bachelor's degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a master's degree in Arab Studies. She spent a year as a Rotary Fellow at the American University in Cairo. She speaks both Hebrew and Arabic.

Dr. AHMAD AMARA is a Polonsky Academy Fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. He is a graduate of the joint PhD program in History and Hebrew and Judaic studies at New York University. Amara’s research focuses on questions of law, history, and geography, including the changing property relations under the Ottoman land reform in the Beersheba sub-district, waqf and endowed properties in Jerusalem. Amara is also a human rights advocate and holds an LLB and LLM from Tel-Aviv University and a second master’s degree in international human rights law from Essex University in the United Kingdom. He has a number of articles, and edited volume and a book by Stanford University Press (with Kedar and Yiftachel), titled, Emptied Lands: A Legal Geography of Bedouin Rights in the Negev.

Lior Lehrs is a Postdoctoral Fellow at The Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow and a lecturer at New York University and he is currently teaching at NYU Tel-Aviv. His research topics include theory and history of conflict, diplomacy and peace and he deals with various conflict areas such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Northern Ireland, Cyprus and the Balkans. His scholarly articles have been published in journals such as Cooperation and Conflict, The Middle East Journal and The Hague Journal of Diplomacy. He is a Policy Fellow at Mitvim - The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, and he was a researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, where he focused on the topic of Jerusalem within the Israeli-Palestinian context.

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.

Prof. Assaf Friedler received his PhD in peptide chemistry and medicinal chemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, in 2000. Between 2000-2004 he did his post-doc in the field of biophysical studies of protein-protein interactions at the MRC centre for protein engineering Cambridge, UK, in the lab of Prof. Sir Alan Fersht. In 2004 he joined the institute of chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Since 2010 he is Professor of Chemistry at the Hebrew University. Between 2010-2015 he served as the head of the school of chemistry at the Hebrew University. Since 2015 he is the chairman of the central student admission committee of the university and since 2016 the Vice-Rector of the Hebrew University. In his role as Vice Rector, Prof. Friedler is in charge of student admission, online teaching, special programs for the Arab and for the Haredi population and more. His major research interests are protein-protein interactions, intrinsically disordered proteins, peptide chemistry and medicinal chemistry. With a special focus on new approaches for the design of anti-cancer and anti-viral medicines. Prof. Friedler won a starting grant from the ERC (European Research Council), the outstanding young scientist prize by the Israeli Chemical Society, the rector prize for an excellent researcher and teacher at the Hebrew University and the Sir Zelman Cowen universities fund prize.

Ilana Goldberg holds a PhD in Anthropology from Bar Ilan University, where she wrote a dissertation about the social and cultural construction of hunger as a public problem in Israel based on an ethnographic study of a coalition of U.S. Jewish philanthropists. During the mid-1990s, Ilana pursued graduate studies at NYU's Department of Anthropology, graduating from its Culture and Media Program in 1998. After returning to Israel, Ilana worked as the coordinator of the Media Project at the Heschel Center for Environmental Learning and Leadership in Tel Aviv, developing strategies to educate journalists about the nexus of social and environmental issues. Prior to joining NYUTA Ilana worked as an academic translator specializing in the social sciences and Judaic Studies and at the content department of Mindojo, a hi-tech start-up company that developed an AI platform for e-learning.

Lyron Wahrmann has years of experience in various high-level management and R&D positions. He established and headed the Citi Technology Innovation Center in Israel until 2016; today, the center employs ~200 people developing applications for Citi Institutional Bank, Information Security and Compliance. Before joining Citi, Lyron served as R&D director at SuperDerivatives (sold to ICE for $350M), a global leader in cloud based market data, derivatives trading technology and analytics. Today, Lyron is in the process of founding a FinTech startup leveraging artificial intelligence to build a robo-analyst. Lyron earned a M.Sc. and a B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics from the Technion, the Israeli institute of technology as well as a B.A in Business Management and in International Relations from the Hebrew University. In addition to NYU Tel Aviv, he also teaches at IDC Herzliya.

Dr. Ofri Ilany is a historian and journalist, teaching at NYU Tel Aviv and Tel Aviv University. His book, In Search of the Hebrew People: Bible and Enlightenment in Germany is to be published in at Indiana University Press. The book describes the use of the ancient Hebrew cultural and political ideal as a model for German nation-building. His Articles have been published at the Journal of the History of Ideas, Naharaim and other journals. Ilany’s research interests include the history of sexuality, Orientalism and Bible research. His column, “Under the Sun,” is published at Haaretz Weekly Supplement.

Madi Kablan is an instructor at the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Tel Aviv University, as well as serving as the chair of academic advisory of the Israeli Education Ministry in the field of Arabic. Mr. Kablan also served as the Chief Linguistic Editor of Arabynet and regularly reviews books the Druze heritage and history.

Dr. Liraz Lasry holds a Ph.D. in Marketing from the Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration, Faculty of Management, Tel Aviv University. Specialize in Trends, Creating and Spreading Innovation at the 'Social-Digital' Era, Branding, Consumer Behavior and Social Influences. Her PhD advisors were Prof. Dan Ariely (Duke University) and Prof. Ron Shachar (Tel-Aviv University). Dr. Lasry is a Speaker and Lecturer at  Tel-Aviv University's MBA and executive programs (both Israeli and International) and academic manager of managers training programs at Lahav. She is a judge at the "Product of the Year" annual innovation competition. Dr. Lasry often gives marketing and innovation lectures and workshops in Israeli and International firms, and is formerly the associate academic manager of the International MBA program at Tel-Aviv university (SOFEAR IMBA).

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.

Tali Rozen holds a B.A. & L.L.B from Tel Aviv University. She has taught Hebrew courses at a variety of respected institutions, including George Washington University in the Semitic Languages Department, and also works as a translator of books and articles from English to Hebrew.

Dr. Barak Ben-Avinoam is a serial entrepreneur and a global expert in the field of early-stage investments, technology start-ups, accelerators and incubators. He is a Partner at Benhamou Global Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital fund, and leads its office in Israel. Barak is also a member of the Investment Committee of the Israeli Innovation Authority and the EU SME Accelerator. Dr. Ben-Avinoam also teaches MBA-level seminars in Cross-Cultural Management and Entrepreneurship at leading MBA programs, including at NYU, the Technion, Tel-Aviv University, and at ENPC and ISM in France. Barak holds an MBA and a Doctorate of Business Administration, with honors, from the International School of Management, Paris, France. Barak also holds a B.Sc. in Information Systems, with honors, from Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA.

Dr. Aviv Livnat is an artist, musician and a lecturer at the Bezalel Art Academy and Tel Aviv University. He is also the curator of the NYUTA Core Collection of Contemporary Art. His areas of interest lie in the history and philosophy of the arts, East European Jewish history, Yiddish culture and the Avant-garde. Aviv is also a social activist; he established and heads the Raz-Ram Foundation, a special art foundation operating in diverse artistic fields among Arab, Druze Bedouin and Jewish children and communities.

A research archaeologist at the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology at the Jerusalem campus of the Hebrew Union College. Dr. Thareani was born in Tel-Aviv in 1974. She is a graduate post-doc at the Ècole Pratique des Hautes Ètudes (EPHE), Sorbonne V, Paris, at the Orient et Méditerranée, Laboratoire Mondes Sémitiques, Center National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) (research topic: Between Israel, Aram and Assyria: Tel Dan at the Iron Age II, supervisor Prof. Maria-Grazia Masetti-Rouault) and a graduate post-doc of the Leon-Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies, University of Haifa (research topic: The Empire and the Sea: The Case of the Assyrians and the Mediterranean, supervisor Dr. Assaf Yasur-Landau). She completed her BA, MA and PhD in Archaeology at Tel-Aviv University (dissertation title: Towns in the Desert: Geographical, Economic and Sociopolitical Perspectives written under the direction of Prof. Israel Finkelstein and Prof. Nadav Naaman). Thareani has supervised excavation fields at Beth-Shemesh and she currently co-directs the archaeological excavation at Tel Dan and at Tel Achziv on behalf of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology, Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem.

Niron Hashai is an associate Professor at the Arison School of Business, the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel and the Albertson-Waltuch Chair in Business Administration at the School of Business Administration at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Professor Hashai obtained his BSc in Computer Sciences from the Technion and his MBA and PhD from Tel Aviv University. His research interests include: theory of the multinational corporation, technological innovation, diversification, and growth patterns of high technology firms. His research was published in top strategy, management, international business and innovation journals. Professor Hashai is also a visiting Associate Professor at New York University, the Startup Nation visiting fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government, the University of Oxford, The Peter J. Buckley International Visiting Fellow at Leeds University Business School and an associate member at the John H. Dunning Research Centre, University of Reading. Professor Hashai is co-founder of HUstart – the Hebrew University entrepreneurship center and the Israel Strategy Conference (ISC).

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.

Professor Yael S. Feldman holds the Abraham I. Katsh Chair of Hebrew Culture at the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University, and is Professor of Comparative Literature and Gender Studies. She has previously taught at Columbia, Yale, and Princeton universities, and has published and lectured internationally. She specializes in Hebrew Literature (from the Bible to Contemporary) and Comparative Lit., which she explores through the prism of Cultural Studies, Psychoanalysis, and Gender Criticism. Her latest studies, Glory and Agony: Isaac’s Sacrifice and National Narrative (Stanford UP) and No Room of Their Own: Gender and Nation in Israeli Women’s Fiction (Columbia UP), were both selected as National Jewish Book Awards Finalists.