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Since the early 2000s, Israeli television drama has become a highly sought-after product in the global TV market. Israel is indeed an intense and dynamic place that offers drama creators a wealth of diverse and compelling stories. In 1971, three years after the establishment of Israeli television, the first drama series in Hebrew Hedva and Shlomik aired—still in black and white—based on the literary novel by Aharon Megged (1953). The evolution of television drama in Israeli television from its inception has not been thoroughly documented until now. This book aims to fill that gap and provide readers with tools for watching, interpreting, and understanding television series in general, and Israeli ones in particular . The story of Israeli television drama in this book is set within broad socio-political and cultural contexts. Drama consistently engages with reality and responds to it in various ways, even if not always overtly. It also addresses the foundational myths of Israeli identity—sometimes reinforcing them, other times questioning or subverting them. Like other popular cultures, it often fulfills desires or offers imagined solutions to the contradictions underlying these myths . Through the prism of Israeli television drama, this book reveals a self-portrait of the people and society—both as they were and as they might've like to be seen .

The treatise Scechina is a manifesto of Renaissance Christian-Kabbalistic messianism. The author, Cardinal Egidio da Viterbo (1469-1532), was a preeminent Christian Kabbalist, both in terms of his position within the ecclesiastical hierarchy and in what concerns the depth and breadth of his acquaintance with Hebrew sources. The treatise was composed in exquisite Renaissance Latin and is hereby rendered for the first time into a modern language. The text articulates the voice of the Jewish Shekinah herself, expounding in first person and with profound insight the doctrine of Kabbalah, fervently calling for the completion of the final stage of universal redemption. This redemption commences with the discovery of distant lands and foreign cultures, and its protagonist is Emperor Charles V, whose motto - plus ultra [further beyond] - refers to surpassing the Strait of Gibraltar and medieval knowledge (the Emperor and Pope Clement VII are among the book's addressees). While this redemption is Christian in nature, it emphasizes integration and synthesis with Greek and Roman wisdom, and particularly Judaism. Despite sharp condemnations of Jews for their non-acceptance of Jesus, Egidio's Shekinah lavishes love upon them, especially the Kabbalists, whom she refers to as "my Arameans" and considers as latent Christians. This even extends to support for Solomon Molkho, the Jewish messiah who apostatized from Christianity. Such an attitude towards Judaism did not survive in the Catholic Church in the generation following Egidio, the era of the Counter-Reformation. The translation is richly annotated by the translators, providing extensive commentary and explication. Furthermore, the volume is prefaced by comprehensive introductory chapters authored by Judith Weiss, elucidating the life, intellectual contributions, and literary corpus of Egidio da Viterbo.

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.

This book investigates Ezekiel's restoration program and the way he describes Israel's future restoration. In addition to new readings of the prophecies and an evaluation of the influence of biblical and Mesopotamian literature on the prophet's message, the book deals with the exiles' daily life, their ideologies, and the way they perceived the exile and its theological role in the history of the People of Israel.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) was a polymath of Renaissance culture. His 1710 Essais de Théodicée , the longest work published in his lifetime, was a final and concluding phase in his life-long theological-philosophical journey. It constituted a milestone in the diplomatic and intellectual effort to restore the religious and political peace in Europe, and is, above all, a key philosophical work.

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.

Midrash Eicha Zuta is a midrash Aggadah with a unique structure, which originates from the fact that it was created by conjoining two different midrashim : the first an exegesis that includes drashot of the first three verses of the Book of Lamentations, and the second an exegesis that includes drashot on verses from Nevi'im and Ketuvim.

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.

A New Orient is an in-depth historical study on the history of Zionist and Israeli Oriental Studies, particularly the study of Arabic, Islam, and Middle Eastern history, as a field of knowledge rooted in 19th and early 20th century German universities. Most of its founders in Israel were German-Jewish scholars who emerged from the Central European Orientalist tradition, and introduced this field of knowledge to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem – and subsequently to the entire Israeli academic system. Through the analysis of rich archival documentation, the book outlines the complex process of migrating Orientalist knowledge. It focuses on what happened to the research and the researchers themselves when their encounter with the Orient shifted from a textual-philological one, following the traditions of German academia, to an actual encounter, fraught with contradictions and tensions, against the backdrop of the intensifying Arab-Jewish conflict. The book sheds new light on the development of academic research as a whole in Mandate Palestine and the early years of Israel, serving as a rich case study for analyzing the complex relationship between 'pure' scientific work and political, social, and cultural issues. It also offers a new perspective on the roots of the Arab-Jewish conflict and the role scientific knowledge played in shaping it.

Don Quixote de la Mancha was published in 1605, with its second part following a decade later, in 1615. Over four centuries have elapsed, yet this masterpiece of Spanish literature remains one of the most translated and widely celebrated works across various artistic mediums. It has left an indelible mark in literature, visual arts, cinema, theater, music, and dance, captivating not only writers and poets but also philosophers, jurists, politicians, and countless others. What lies behind the enduring success and relevance of this novel? In this book, we endeavor to offer insights into this question, contending that Don Quixote is, above all, a product of its time and milieu: of the Golden Age during the 16th and 17th centuries. We also argue that it stands as a revolutionary work in its narrative and structural innovations. Yet, beyond its literary innovations, Don Quixote features a rich tapestry of characters, who represent the marginalized—peasants, women, Muslims, and more—granting them voice and prominence. It imbues readers with the "madness" of adventure, ideals, and unconditional love. Ultimately, it imparts invaluable lessons, encouraging us not to shy away from doubt or ambiguity but to embrace them as integral aspects of the human experience.