Tikvah Scholars 2013-2014

Shraga Bar-On (Gruss Scholar-in-Residence)

Research fellow and teaches both at the Shalom Hartman Institute and at the Kerem Institute of the David Yellin College in Jerusalem, Israel. His research and his public involvement focus on two major issues: Talmudic and Halachic thought and Contemporary Jewish identity.

Research:

Vered Bar-On

Clinical Psychologist. She is a member of the Israel Psychological Association and the Association to Promote Clinical Psychology. Her dissertation The Self Injury Discourse: A Philosophical-Cultural Analysis is nearing completion.

RESEARCH:

The Self-Injury Discourse: A Philosophical-Cultural Analysis

Tammy Harel Ben-Shahar (David Berg Foundation Scholar)

Recently completed her Ph.D in law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. During her doctoral studies she was a research fellow at the law faculty, a Hoffman fellow, and held the Kretzmer Chair at the Minerva Center for Human Rights.

RESEARCH:

Judah Bernstein

Ph.d. candidate at New York University in the joint History - Hebrew & Judaic Studies program. He graduated suma cum laude from Yeshiva University with a BA in history in 2010, and received his MA in modern Jewish history from Bernard Revel Graduate School in 2011.

RESEARCH:

Clémence Boulouque

A graduate from the Institute of Political Sciences in Paris, the ESSEC business school, Ms. Boulouque holds a BA in Art History from the Sorbonne as well as a DEA (one-year post MA French diploma) in Comparative Literature. She also received a Fulbright Scholarship to pursue her studies at Columbia University in the Master’s Program of International Affairs with a concentration on the Middle-East.

RESEARCH:

Jeremy Kessler (David Berg Foundation Scholar)

Ph.D. candidate in legal history at Yale University. In 2013, he received his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was a Legal History Fellow and Executive Editor of theYale Journal of Law and the Humanities.  Kessler has also received an M.Phil. in the History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge, and a B.A., summa cum laude, from Yale College.  

Yael Landman

Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Bible at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Yeshiva University. Yael received her B.A. summa cum laude in Jewish Studies and English from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was a Benjamin Franklin Scholar and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. 

RESEARCH:

Bailment Law in the Bible and the Ancient Near East

Karin Loevy

Doctoral candidate at NYU School of Law.  Her dissertation centers on the field of emergency powers in public law as it functions through the ideal of crisis management and crisis containment (supervised by Professor Mattias Kumm). 

RESEARCH:

Containing Threats in the Jurisdiction of Exigencies

Yael Lifshitz-Goldberg

J.S.D. candidate from Israel focusing on Environmental Law. Her dissertation, supervised by Professor Katrina M. Wyman, addresses property rights in renewable energies.

RESEARCH:

Gad Marcus

Steinhardt Doctoral Fellow in Jewish Studies and Education at NYU. An officer in the I.D.F., he holds a B.Ed from the David Yellin College for Education in Jerusalem, an M.A. magna cum laudein Jewish Philosophy from Tel-Aviv University and was a ‘Melamdim’ fellow at the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.

RESEARCH:

Study for its Own Sake – the Philosophy of Study in Jewish Thought

Tali Marcus

Graduate of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem with LL.B. and LL.M. from the Faculty of Law, and is a member of the Israeli Bar Association since 2002.

RESEARCH:

Tamar Megiddo

J.S.D. Student at NYU School of Law. Her J.S.D. dissertation, supervised by Professor Jeremy Waldron, explores the concept of fidelity to law and its relation to compliance with international law. 

RESEARCH:

Zalman Rothschild

PhD candidate in the department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University, concentrating on Hasidism and modern Jewish philosophy. Zalman received rabbinical ordination from the Ariel Institute of Jerusalem, earned a BA in Judaic Studies from SUNY Binghamton and an MA in Jewish philosophy from Bernard Revel Graduate School of Yeshiva University. 

RESEARCH:

Gil Rubin

PhD candidate in modern Jewish history at Columbia University. His main interests include the history of minority rights and human rights, the history of Zionism and the State of Israel and Jewish politics in the 19th and 20th centuries.

RESEARCH:

David Sclar

PhD candidate at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where he was awarded a Dissertation-Year Fellowship.  He earned his MA in Modern Jewish History from the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University. 

RESEARCH:

‘He will Bloom like a Cedar in Lebanon:’ Heresy and Heroism in the Legacy of Moses Hayim Luzzatto

Shoval Shafat

Completed his BA at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the departments of Jewish Thought and Philosophy. Concurrently he studied at the Shalom Hartman Institute’s beit midrashand took part in the program for research fellows at the Shalem Center. 

RESEARCH:

The Construction and Deconstruction of the Metaphor of God as Judge in Rabbinic Literature

Daniel Tabak

PhD candidate in medieval Jewish history at the Bernard Revel Graduate School for Jewish Studies.  He was previously a fellow at the Center for Jewish Law and Contemporary Civilization at the Cardozo School of Law.  He completed his Master’s degree in medieval Jewish history at Revel and received rabbinic ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elhanan Theological Seminary.  He graduated from Yeshiva University with a BA in Economics.

RESEARCH:

The “Average” Jew and Medieval Halakhah

Gila Vachman

Studied Talmud and Hebrew Literature at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Her dissertation dealt with a Midrashic work known as ‘Midrash Hadash Al HaTorah’, and she is the author of a new edition of this neglected Midrash, with an introduction and commentary. Her main focus is on the study of Midrash Aggadah, especially the Tanhuma-Yelamdenu literature. 

Ynon Wygoda

PhD candidate in philosophy at the Hebrew University. He was a recipient of the Isaac Kaye Einstein Scholarship, the Mandel grant, a Doctoral Scholarship by the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture,and a member of the Hebrew University’s Honor Program in the humanities.

RESEARCH:

On Silence and Ineffability in the Thought of Vladimir Jankélévitch and Franz Rosenzweig

Adi Zalman

Completing her PhD in African History at Ben Gurion University (Israel) as a recipient of Rotenstreich Fellowship and Faculty Scholarship for distinguished doctoral students. Her dissertation, which was carried under the supervision of Prof. Mordechai Tamarkin and Dr. Ruth Ginio, dealt with the political trials of Nelson Mandela and Jomo Kenyatta.

RESEARCH:

"Law and the Exception": The "exception" in the Israeli criminal law