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Israel Studies Directory

Director

Ilai Saltzman

Associate Research Professor, Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Program and Center for Jewish Studies
Director, Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies

0124A Taliaferro Hall
College Park MD, 20742

301-405-2931

Faculty

Shay Hazkani

Associate Professor, History
Associate Professor, Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Program and Center for Jewish Studies

1118C Taliaferro Hall
College Park MD, 20742

(301) 405-3693

Avital Karpman

Associate Clinical Professor, Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Program and Center for Jewish Studies
School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Director, Hebrew Language Program, Hebrew
Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies

Ilai Saltzman

Associate Research Professor, Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Program and Center for Jewish Studies
Director, Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies

0124A Taliaferro Hall
College Park MD, 20742

301-405-2931

Visiting Faculty

Shirelle Doughty

Lecturer, Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Program and Center for Jewish Studies
Lecturer, Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies

Morad Elsana

Lecturer, Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies
Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Program and Center for Jewish Studies

Adina Friedman

Lecturer, Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies
Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Program and Center for Jewish Studies

Elie Friedman

Lecturer, Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies
Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Program and Center for Jewish Studies

Elli Lieberman

Lecturer, Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies
Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Program and Center for Jewish Studies

Marwa Maziad

Lecturer, Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies
Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Program and Center for Jewish Studies

Aner Tal

Israel Institute Visiting Professor, Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Program and Center for Jewish Studies
Israel Institute Visiting Professor, Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies

Professor Emeritus

Yoram Peri

Professor Emeritus, Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Program and Center for Jewish Studies
Professor Emeritus, Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies

Staff

Avis Koeiman

Coordinator, Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Program and Center for Jewish Studies
Coordinator, Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies

0124D Taliaferro Hall
College Park MD, 20742

(301) 405-9413

Former Faculty

Edy Kaufman

Senior Research Scientist at the Center for International Development and Conflict Management (CIDCM)

Ph.D. University of Paris (Sorbonne); M.A. & B.A. Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Edward (Edy) Kaufman completed his B.A. in sociology and political science and M.A. in international relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, his doctoral dissertation at the University of Paris (Sorbonne) and conducted postdoctoral studies at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). He is a senior researcher at the Center for International Development and Conflict Management and its former director and held earlier similar positions in the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University. In the last years, he has been teaching at the Department of Government and Politics of the University of Maryland and in the Government and Diplomacy Program of the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzlyiah. At University of Haifa’s International School, he will be the resident director of the new “Maryland-in-Haifa” program starting Spring 2010 and teach the core course “Cleavages in Israel – and the Search of Solutions.” He has authored and co-authored 14 books and more than 60 articles in the general area of international relations, with an emphasis on human rights and conflict resolution topics, and a regional specialization on Latin America and the Middle East. Dr. Kaufman has taught in leading institutions of higher learning in Israel and worldwide, as well as conducted workshops and lectured in over 40 countries and 50 North American universities.

Curriculum Vitae

ekaufman@cidcm.umd.edu

Paul Scham

Paul Scham is a former Associate Research Professor of Israel Studies.  He was the director of the Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies from 2020 until the end of June 2023, and prior to that was the Institute’s Executive Director from 2008.  Originally an attorney, with a B.A. from Columbia and a J.D. from U.C. Berkeley, he quickly tired of practicing law and has worked on issues relating to Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for more than thirty years at NGO’s, think tanks, and  universities, in Jerusalem and in Washington, D.C.

In the early 1990’s he worked in Washington with American and Israeli NGO’s to encourage Israeli-Palestinian contacts and dialogue. From 1996-2002, he lived in Jerusalem and, as a Research Fellow at the Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace of the Hebrew University, coordinated its significant program of Arab-Israeli joint research, academic cooperation, and civil society projects. He also spent considerable time in Jordan and closely observed the failure of Jordanian “normalization” with Israel. During his time in Israel, he participated in dozens of civil society workshops, dialogues and conferences. In 2000, in cooperation with the European Union, he published one of the first survey analyses of Israeli/Arab academic cooperation after reviewing 195 ongoing Arab-Israeli academic projects.

He returned to Washington in 2002 and was a Visiting Scholar at George Washington University and subsequently an Adjunct Scholar at the Middle East Institute, with which he is still affiliated. During the next few years, he wrote numerous commentaries and other articles on aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the peace process and frequently appeared on radio and television discussing the issue.

While in Israel, he began investigating the role of the very different historical narratives of Israelis and Palestinians on the continuation of their conflict.  With an Israeli and a Palestinian colleague he organized a conference on this issue. This resulted in Shared Histories: A Palestinian-Israeli Dialogue, edited with Walid Salem, and Benjamin Pogrund, published in 2006.  A second volume, examining some of the broad themes in the historical narratives of both sides, is entitled Shared Narratives, edited with Benjamin Pogrund and As’ad Ghanem, was published in 2013.

Scham has also studied and written on Hamas, and in 2009 the U.S. Institute of Peace published a Special Report he co-authored with Osama Abu-Irshaid, entitled “Hamas:  Ideological Rigidity and Political Flexibility.”  His current research is in the political Right in Israel.

At the Gildenhorn Institute he has taught courses on the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a Federal Semester course on the making of American policy towards the conflict, and an Introduction to Modern Israel.  Currently he teaches a large lecture course in the fall entitled Fundamental Questions of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (ISRL289i), which will be taught online in the fall of 2020. In the spring he teaches a seminar on The Right in Israel: A Historical Examination (ISRL349D, HIST328F).  Like all university courses, it was conducted online this year after March.

Much of Scham’s professional time was taken up with editing the Israel Studies Review, the flagship journal of the Association for Israel Studies, of which he served as co-editor with Prof. Yoram Peri.  The journal appeared three times a year and had been ranked well into the highest quarter of academic journals.  More details on the ranking are available here.  

Scham recently co-edited Polarization and Consensus in Israel: The Center Cannot Hold.  This book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the major internal threats to Israel’s self-definition as a Jewish-democratic state and will also appeal to sociologists and political scientists interested in global polarization trends.