Heksherim – The Research Institute for Jewish and Israeli Literature and Culture at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev was created to study and promote the connections between culture and community in Jewish and Israeli society.
The projects undertaken at the Institute are multidisciplinary and pioneering in their scope and methods of investigation and are made possible with the generous support of the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation.
The main objective of the Institute is to nurture groups of young scholars whose work will combine academic excellence, cultural sensitivity and social commitment.
Among the projects being carried out in the Institute are:
"The First Israelis" – multi-participant and long-term research on literary works
that have molded, to a large extent, the character of Israeli culture.
"The Story of the South" – multi-participant and long-term research whose essence is
the creation of personal and cultural profiles of the Israeli South, as seen through the eyes of
those living in the region from the first decade of the State of Israel: kibbutzniks and
moshavniks, residents of development towns, Bedouins and others.
"Israeli Writers' Lexicon" – a complex and multi-participant project which will provide
readers of Hebrew literature with a complete lexicon of Israeli writers.
"Israeli Children's Writers' Lexicon" – a complex and multi-participant project which
aims to provide the reader of Hebrew literature with a complete lexicon of Israeli children's authors.
"The Hebrew Publishers 1890-2000" – a comprehensive research project now in its
final stages, which deals with the history of publishing of Hebrew books over the last century.
