Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies

This lecture presents new research that offers an integrative framework for analyzing Jerusalem’s modern development from the late Ottoman period to the present. The project utilizes a newly compiled database […]

In late antiquity, some Jews began to think of the Torah as a natural law — absolute, immutable, and transcending historical time. Other ancient Jews, particularly the Talmudic rabbis, resisted […]

The Talmud is famous for its labyrinthine debates and dialectical subversions. By situating the Talmud in the broad tradition of the late antique symposium, we gain insights into the rabbis’ […]

Professor Ronen Avraham is one of the leaders of the Fourth Quarter, the largest grassroots movement in Israel. This movement unites people across political, religious, and secular divides to address […]

In his new book Beyond Suspicion, Professor Nissim Mizrachi examines the paradoxical phenomenon of support for right-wing political parties among Israeli Mizrahim — descendants of Jews from Middle Eastern and North African communities. He also examines the assumptions that have led scholars, activists, and left-wing politicians to view Mizrahim as acting against their own interests. […]

In this book talk, historian Oz Frankel examines the period of the late 1960s as a unique moment when Israel became more closely entwined with the United States not just […]

Please join us for a conversation with Yuval Shany, former member and chair of the UN Human Rights Committee, the Hersch Lauterpacht Chair in International Law, and the former Dean of the Law Faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research focuses on international human rights law, international humanitarian law, international courts and tribunals […]

This research explores how blame drives discursive escalation in political discussions among left- and right-leaning Jewish-Israeli participants. Analyzing 100,000 words from 2014–2022, it identifies distinct emotional and ideological triggers fueling polarization: fear and anger dominate right-wing responses to preserve social order, while guilt and shame shape left-wing reactions around moral concerns for out-group suffering. These […]

Originally published in Hebrew in 2018, Maya Arad’s collection of novellas The Hebrew Teacher was received by Israeli readers as a timely extension of Hebrew literature beyond the geographical borders of the state of Israel. When the book appeared in English translation in early 2024, many readers reflected on its “timeliness” within the current atmosphere […]