​​​​​​​​​​​​​CSoC Fellows of 2024-2025: Religion and Trauma

Elad Ben David

Elad Ben David is a Ph.D. graduate from the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at Bar Ilan University. His Ph.D. dissertation dealt with Da'wa (call to Islam) in post-9/11 America, focusing on the doctrine of Sheikh Yasir Qadhi. His degrees at Bar Ilan were combined with graduation from the 'Yeselzon Institute of Advanced Torah Studies.' Elad's current research at CSoC is a comparative study of YouTuber Israeli Rabbis and American Imams as religious agents who confront the traumatic COVID-19 pandemic. Ben David is also a research associate at the Forum of Regional Thinking, where he published many articles regarding contemporary Islam in America. Elad is also a board member of the Israeli Association for the Study of Religions (IASR), and is active in interfaith encounters and dialogue with Muslims worldwide.

eladbd608@gmail.com 

Nureet Dermer

Nureet Dermer holds a PhD from the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her dissertation, titled: Between Expulsions: Jews and Christians in Fourteenth Century Northern France, examined the lives of northern French Jews, particularly Parisian Jews, during the calamities of the fourteenth century, including the recurrent expulsions of Jews from the French Kingdom. Her research focuses on Jewish-Christian relations, local identities, foreignness and belonging, and the dynamics of exclusion and inclusion of Jews, among other marginalized groups, throughout the century. She is currently broadening her study to investigate the trajectories of expelled French Jewish families and individuals, aiming to cast light on the difficulties Jews faced, as well as the vigilance and coping mechanisms they developed after arriving in new communities and societies during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Dermer holds a B.A. in economics and accountancy and was a certified public accountant prior to engaging in historical research.

Nureet.dermer@gmail.com​

Jonathan Kohn

Jonathan Kohn is completing his Ph.D. in the Department of Jewish History at BGU. His dissertation and studies surround the writings and life of R. Shimon b. Zemah Duran (1361-1444), a Majorcan physician who was thrust into rabbinic leadership in the refugee community of Iberian and Balearic Jews in North Africa, after the devastating riots in 1391-92. These writings, including Biblical and Rabbinic commentaries, as well as legal responsa, reflect an attempt to invigorate the Jewish lives of the local communities, and to contend with the challenges of the ongoing aggressive efforts of Christian proselytization and the emergence of a sizable Converso population. Kohn earned his B.A. at the University of Pennsylvania, and he has contributed to many publications as a writer, translator, and editor.

kohnjo@post.bgu.ac.il

Hagar Shalev

​​Hagar Shalev is an Indologist specializing in the languages, religion, and philosophy of the Indian subcontinent, with a focus on yoga and meditation within Hinduism. Since October 2022, she has been a postdoctoral fellow in the ERC project “The New Ecology of Expressive Modes in Early-Modern South India" (NEEM), supported by a grant from the Daniel, Colette, and Henri-Luc Aboulker Foundation for research excellence. Her work explores “consciousness" and its relationship with emotions and ultimate liberation during the early-modern period. Shalev completed her Ph.D. in May 2021 at the Hebrew University, supported by the Asian Sphere Program, the President Scholarship Program, and the Rotenstreich Stipend Scholarship. Her dissertation focused on the perception of the body within Haṭhayoga textual corpus (eleventh-fifteenth centuries CE) and among Indian ascetics.

hagar.shalev@mail.huji.ac.il

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​Efrat Urbach

Efrat Urbach is completing her PhD in musicology at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. She received the Rotenstreich scholarship for outstanding doctoral students in the humanities and has been awarded the Rector's Award for Outstanding Graduate Students in 2021. Her PhD focuses on the sacred works of Gabriel Fauré in light of the French Symbolist movement, and explores the intersections of music and prayer. She holds an MA in musicology from Bar-Ilan University and BA in behavioral studies from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. 

efratur@gmail.com