Dr. Hagit Cohen is a faculty member in the Department of History, Philosophy, and Judaic Studies at the Open University of Israel. Her research deals with the modernization of books and reading in Jewish cultures, and the contribution of literacy to the modernization of Jewish society in modern times. She has written a study on Jewish bookshops in Eastern Europe in the 19th Century (Magnes 2006). Her book Wonders of the New World (OU Press, 2016) deals with the role and significance of the printed word and reading in the lives of East European immigrants in the United States during the years 1890 – 1940.