The Military Government was established during the war and operated within the army, but it promoted political and ideological objectives. In July 1948, David Ben Gurion established it as body intended to govern the Palestinians who remained in Israel. Its main objectives were threefold: to facilitate the transfer of Palestinian land into Jewish hands; to exclude Palestinians from the labor market and prevent them from organizing on a national basis. The Military Government promoted these objectives through a bureaucratic mechanism that prevented the Palestinians citizens of Israel from leaving their place of residence without the governor's approval. The supporters of the Military Government were well aware of the fact that its existence makes Israel a non-democratic state. They supported its existence because they believed it was necessary to maintain Israel's Jewish character. The Military Government was controversial in the political system in Israel, but the intensity of the opposition to its existence was sometimes contingent on the partisan and ideological interests of the opponents, both from the left and the right. The book describes the factors that shaped the political system's relationship with the Military Government and traces the changing strength of the debate surrounding it. The book seeks, among other things, to answer the question of whether Prime Minister Levi Eshkol's decision to abolish the Military Government in December 1966 was due to the struggle of the opponents or rather from the recognition that the Military Government had fulfilled its objectives.

Setting Tables: Eating, Social Boundaries, and Intercultural Transfers is a first-of-its-kind collection of Hebrew articles exploring commensality and various practices associated with shared eating, whether with acquaintances or strangers. This volume examines how meals—though routine—function as significant normative anchors in different societies and historical periods, delineating hierarchies within and between social groups and cultural categories. Shared eating can occur in everyday settings or in political and ceremonial contexts. Participants may adhere to contemporary etiquette, engage in discussions, remain silent, focus solely on the meal, or manage social impressions. Regardless of time or place, shared eating consistently signifies both divisions and connections, shaping and reflecting intricate social identities. The volume offers a range of case studies, from Assyrian royal banquets through the Roman world, to Jewish and Arabic sources from the Islamic world and addresses current issues like municipal conflicts over falafel vendors in Mandatory Tel Aviv, sustainable consumption at weddings and the rise of personalized microbial diets. It investigates the characteristics of this complex social interaction and reveals the connections between the material aspects of meals and their cultural meanings.

The Two Mekhiltot on the Jethro Portion (Exodus 18) is, in a sense, a complement to Menahem Kahana's previous book, The Two Mekhiltot on the Amalek Portion . The book is based on new text editions of Mekhilta d'Rabbi Ishmael and Mekhilta d'Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai on the Jethro portion. It includes a systematic and detailed commentary on the exegeses of the Mekhiltot, shedding new light on many exegeses – their literal meaning, their real and historical context, and the worldviews reflected in them. The book reviews the previous editions of The Two Mekhiltot on the Jethro Portion and presents the important contribution of fragments from the Cairo Geniza that were discovered after the previous editions were published. It compares the traditions of the two Mekhiltot in their language, style, and content, and establishes the insight that in the Jethro portion, as in the Amalek portion, the tradition of Mekhilta d'Rabbi Ishmael generally takes precedence.

The New Arabic-Hebrew Dictionary is a comprehensive reference of the Arabic language throughout history, with a focus on its use in spoken and written media. Given Arabic's rich literary tradition spanning over 1,400 years, the language naturally incorporates words and expressions rooted in ancient literary strata, including the Qur'an, classical poetry, proverbs, the Hadith, jurisprudential literature, Adab literature, and historical texts. Terms and expressions from the realm of Islamic theology and jurisprudence, which were considered archaic 50 or 60 years ago, have regained prominence with the rise of fundamentalist Islam in the 1970s. This dictionary offers translations and explanations for these terms as well. After publishing the full dictionary in a large, 700-page edition, we decided it would be useful to publish a more concise version—smaller, portable, and easier to handle. This edition differs from the full dictionary in that it omits examples and comments, as well as archaic entries from ancient poetry, the Hadith, and jurisprudential literature. To the full edition of The New Arabic-Hebrew Dictionary

A Ramble in the Hive is an eco-philosophical text that deals with the relationship between humans and honeybees from the dawn of humanity to the present day, interlinking mythology, folklore, literature, art and science from different historical periods. A Ramble in the Hive works as both popular science and philosophy, combining a study of the history of beekeeping and its multitude of inventions, with a philosophical and poetic view of the human encounter with honeybees as reflected in the imagination of our culture. It suggests approaching the hive as an archetype of living mythology that works on our collective imagination. A Ramble in the Hive presents the planetary honeybee crisis as a fascinating window through which to observe wide-ranging ecological issues. How did the honeybee get such a lofty and critical role – holding responsibility for both the future of humanity and the earth? What do the bees tell us in their current state? This book is an attempt to answer these questions.

The Emergence of the Mizrahi Middle Class in Israe l focuses on the historical and social conditions that gave rise to the Mizrahi academic mobility movement, with attention to some of its cultural effects and political costs, which socially construct the boundaries of mobile Mizrahi’s’ ethnic behavior. The book deals with the historical and social conditions in which this mobility movement takes place, with an emphasis on the stories of agencies that were involved in blocking mobility or in trying to effect a breakthrough.

The emergence of the Yiddish and Hebrew press in the United States was one of the great cultural enterprises of the Jewish immigrants from the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires in the last third of the nineteenth century, and its influence on the lives of individuals and communities was enormous. From the Cellar to the Top Floor traces the journey of the Hebrew Alphabet press across the Atlantic following the Jewish mass migration. Against the background of the American press, the book discusses the development of the Hebrew and Yiddish press from an economic, cultural and political point of view. It traces the ongoing negotiations between the Jewish immigrant society and the American majority society at the end of the nineteenth century. Based on personal correspondence, legal documents, archival evidence, and contemporary press materials ,the book offers the first comprehensive analysis in Hebrew of the formative decades in the emergence of one of the leading cultural institutions in modern Jewish society.

Yiddish in Israel: A History challenges the commonly held view that Yiddish was suppressed or even banned by Israeli authorities for ideological reasons, offering instead a radical new interpretation of the interaction between Yiddish and Israeli Hebrew cultures. Author Rachel Rojanski tells the compelling and yet unknown story of how Yiddish, the most widely used Jewish language in the pre-Holocaust world, fared in Zionist Israel, the land of Hebrew. Following Yiddish in Israel from the proclamation of the State until today, Rojanski reveals that although Israeli leadership made promoting Hebrew a high priority, it did not have a definite policy on Yiddish. The language's varying fortune through the years was shaped by social and political developments, and the cultural atmosphere in Israel. Public perception of the language and its culture, the rise of identity politics, and political and financial interests all played a part. Using a wide range of archival sources, newspapers, and Yiddish literature, Rojanski follows the Israeli Yiddish scene through the history of the Yiddish press, Yiddish theater, early Israeli Yiddish literature, and high Yiddish culture. With compassion, she explores the tensions during Israel's early years between Yiddish writers and activists and Israel's leaders, most of whom were themselves Eastern European Jews balancing their love of Yiddish with their desire to promote Hebrew. Finally Rojanski follows Yiddish into the 21st century, telling the story of the revived interest in Yiddish among Israeli-born children of Holocaust survivors as they return to the language of their parents.

The chapters of this book present the reader with a broad and complex picture of the challenges that Israel’s higher education system is facing today. Despite the impressive contribution of the academic system in Israel to the national culture, economy and society and its value as a prolific creative center for intellectual growth, scientific and technological innovation, it has experienced major upheavals in the past two decades. This book reviews these crises. The chapters of this book examine the growth of Israel’s academic system since the beginning of the millennium, the upheavals it has undergone, and the policy directions that may help stabilize it and improve its ability to cope with the challenges it faces today. Chapter 1 examines historical conflicts that took place during the 1950s about the scope of freedom and institutional autonomy as defined by the Council of Higher Education Law, 1958. The Law followed a decade of dispute in the Knesset, which ended with the establishment of regulatory bodies, the Council of Higher Education and the Planning and Budgeting Committee and the opening of the gates to academic studies to almost half of year book since the 1990s . Chapter 2 examines with the "lost decade" when budget cuts of approximately 25% affected academic standards across academia, but took a heavier toll on the Humanities and Social Sciences. Chapters 3 and 4 examine policies that encouraged the integration of ultra-Orthodox Jews and of Arabs into higher education by removing barriers. Analyzing th e policy tools and steps needed to integrate these two communities into the academic system aimed inter alia, to reduce poverty among them. Chapters 5 and 6 examine disparities in the quality of research and teaching , disciplines based on sixty-one reports by international committees appointed by the CHE to assess the quality of the disciplines in Israeli universities and colleges since 2006. The findings of these committees shed light on the achievements and weaknesses of various areas of research and teaching. A preliminary analysis of the commissions’ reports found that the experts recommended that the CHE and PBC adopt a policy of corrective measures and preferences to support neglected disciplines, which in many cases didn't happened. Chapters 7 and 8 examine the politicization of higher education and its impact on regulatory bodies . For approximately half a century, the CHE and the PBC enjoyed freedom in navigating their roles. Accrediting a new university in Judea and Samaria in Ariel caused upheaval in academia and an ongoing crisis of trust between its senior officials and the government. Once political interference created this rift, and membership of the regulatory bodies was changed so as to ensure that the government could pass resolutions as it wished, it continued to widen and erode the authority of the entity entrusted with planning higher education. Chapter 9 examines the failure of a committee appointed by government . The committee was charged with reviewing and updating the regulatory bodies of the higher-education system, and recalibrating the balance between academia and the state in policy decision-making. The goal was to intensify the state’s participation in planning higher education, while preserving the freedom of the institutions. The government eventually vetoed the committee’s bill, fearing that the governance mechanisms proposed would limit the scope of its influence on the higher education system. Chapter 10 is dedicated to recent efforts to discard traditional teaching models. It reviews preliminary steps toward a new pedagogic model that changes students’ study patterns and lecturers’ teaching styles, by examining policy measures taken by six universities and three colleges. Chapter 11 summarizes the research findings. The Epilogue examines the possible consequences of the attempted regime overhaul by Israel’s 37th government on for the country’s higher education system.

The Twelve Prophets volume of the the Hebrew University Bible Project presents a diplomatic editio maior of the text of the Hebrew Bible, based upon the Aleppo Codex, with variants from other textual testaments recorded in a system of apparatuses. The readings collated in the edition are culled from a broad variety of sources, including the ancient translations (Greek Septuagint and revisions, Latin Vulgate, Syriac Peshitta, Aramaic Targum Jonathan), Dead Sea Scrolls, biblical quotations in rabbinic literature, Genizah fragments, a broad array of medieval Hebrew manuscripts representing the Masoretic text, up to Jacob Ben-Hayyim’s Second Biblia Rabbinica of 1524-25. This extensive documentation reflects the attested transmission history of the biblical text, covering a period of almost two millennia.