ספרות עממית (פתגם, סיפורת, שירה, לחשים), ספרויות יהודיות (ספרות הלאדינו הדבורה והכתובה, המסורתית והמודרנית), ספרות המדרש המאוחרת וספרות השבחים.

My research focuses on two overlapping fields: Jewish (Hebrew, Aramaic and Judeo-Spanish/Ladino) oral literature and Sephardic studies (history, culture, language, and literature, oral and written, of the Ladino-speaking Sephardic Jews).
My ability to interpret oral and written literary works in their Jewish, Iberian or Ottoman socio-historical context is based on both, my formal education and my personal background. My formal education provided me with necessary philological, folkloric and literary tools. At the same time, my personal background also played a significant role in my development as a researcher. Having been born in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina, former Yugoslavia) I am fluent in written and spoken Judeo-Spanish/Ladino and “quite at home” with most of its contact languages (Ottoman Turkish, Greek, Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Macedonian and Bulgarian). This affinity with the relevant languages coupled with my familiarity with Balkan cultures and history enables me to analyze somewhat cryptic literary texts written in Judeo-Spanish/Ladino (such as parodies on the Passover Haggadahs), or esoteric texts produced in this language (such as traditional Sephardic magic incantations).
My research of the corpus of forty different Judeo-Spanish parodies on the Passover Haggadah (located in public and private libraries in Israel, Europe and USA), started as a 350 pages PhD thesis (with 148 pages long appendix) and ended as a two-volume (960 page) book: And Thou Shalt Jest with Your Son: Judeo-Spanish Parodies on the Passover Haggadah. Published in 2012, in Hebrew, by Ben-Zvi Institute, in the year 2014 it was found worthy of the Ben-Zvi Award.
My following research project, “Ottoman Sephardic popular magic”, was a joint research, conducted together with Prof. Tamar Alexander, under a four-year (2012 - 2015) grant by the Israeli Science Foundation. We hope that once our book, Te aprikanto i te diskanto [I enchant you and I disenchant you]: Magic Incantations of the Sephardic World, is published (at the moment we are in last phases of its composition) is published, it will establish the Prikantes (magical incantations) as yet another independent genre of the Sephardic oral literature.
Both these researches reflects my Credo as a researcher: uncovering the unknown aspects of the Sephardic culture and offering the general public a comprehensive analysis of their various features in different cultural and socio-historical contexts: Jewish, Iberian or Ottoman. In both cases, previously unknown and unacknowledged genres of Judeo-Spanish oral and written literature were established.
One crucial influence on my ideas about life and literature is rooted, in my opinion, in the patterns of thought and imagination that I absorbed in my earliest youth from religious and/or mythological texts that captivated me, and which I read and re-read dozens of times. In my studies - especially the most recent ones - I have tried to put this fascination to scholarly use, utilizing both the texts and the subsequent models developed by scholars of various disciplines (religion, comparative mythology, anthropology) in order to create for myself a different, perhaps unique set of tools for dealing with Jewish oral literature from new and different angles.
Recently, my research focused on one such phenomenon: the Sabbatean sacred romancero. Presently, I am gradually publishing my researches on different Sabbatean adaptations of common Iberian/Sephardic romansas (chivalry songs). In all of them, the traditional texts were altered in order to convey main Sabbatean beliefs (metaphysical and cosmic meaning significance of Sabbatai’s apostasy) and to hint to long-run political aims of the group (hope for a future conversion of the Ottoman court, the elite and the society at large to Sabbatean messianism).
Another similar research of oral literature recently brought me back to Slavic epic poetry of my youth. I have analyzed a phenomenon that I have been fascinated with for quite same time, namely: the ways in which the theme of the Last Supper was internalized and made local in Serbian popular culture. Through an epic adaptation of the famous New-Testamental scene, in which all the original protagonists, including Jesus himself, the faithful (Peter) and the treacherous apostle (Judas) were replaced by Serbian medieval leaders, Serbian popular culture have actually neutralized the Anti-Semitic potential of the Last Supper story. This “nationalization” of the protagonists of the Last Supper, had far-reaching consequences for inter-confessional relations in the Balkans. The replacement of Judas with a local Serbian aristocrat (accused of betrayal and defection to the Turkish side) absolved the Jews from the accusation of ultimate betrayal (betrayal of Christ), but incriminated local Slavic Muslim population (which was traditionally seen as Turkified Serbs). Consequently, in Serbian popular culture, the Anti-Semitic potential of the Last Supper story is usually realized as a catalyzer for Anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic sentiments and not as a catalyzer for Anti-Jewish sentiments. This research and the enthusiastic responses I’ve received from the fellow researchers in its aftermath, proved to me once again, that as critics of literature we can provide our societies with valuable insights about the mechanisms of our respective cultures, exposing its irrational factors to the light of reason.
In this academic year (2015/16) I have submitted to the Israeli Science Foundation yet another research project, entitled: “Annotated Edition of the Original Ladino Text of R. Yishaq Magriso’s Me’am Lo'ez on Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, accompanied by Latin Transcription, English Translation and Introductory Research”. Midrash Me’am Lo’ez on eleven biblical books is considered to be the most important work ever produced in Ladino. However, out of its eleven books, only three (Genesis, Esther and Song of Songs) have seen a modern scientific (re)edition. My project concentrates on the portion of the anthology authored by R. Isaac Magriso, namely: the last third of the commentary on Exodus and the entire commentaries on Leviticus and Numbers. The main aims of this project are: a) preparation of an introductory research about the author, his methodology and poetic strategies, the structure of his work, it’s language etc., b) re-edition of the original Ladino text in Hebrew script and Latin transcription, c) preparation of accompanying critical apparatus, alphabetic glossaries of lexical borrowings from non-Iberian languages and indexes, e) preparation of English translation of the original text and the critical apparatus. Its most obvious contribution would be a revendication of yet another considerable segment of this masterpiece of Sephardic literature by making it available, readable and comprehensible to the students and the lovers of Ladino culture. I am still waiting for the ISF’s response, which is due to come by the beginning of the summer 2016.

(a) Authored books
1. * אליעזר פאפו: והיתלת לבנך ביום ההוא – פרודיות ספרדיות-יהודיות על ההגדה של פסח, מכון בן-צבי, ירושלים, 2012, שני כרכים, 960 עמודים.
(* Eliezer Papo: And Thou Shall Jest with Your Son: Judeo-Spanish Parodies on the Passover Haggadah, in Hebrew), Ben-Zvi Institute, Jerusalem, 2012, II volumes, 960 pages.

(b). Editorship of collective volumes
1. Eliezer Papo: Judaizam i ljudska prava, Univerzitet u Sarajevu, Pravni centar, Sarajevo, 1998, 251 p. (Judaism and Human rights, University of Sarajevo, Law Center, Sarajevo, in Bosnian).
1b. Eliezer Papo: Tora i ljudska prava, Centar za stvaralaštvo mladih, Beograd, 2000, 236 p. (Torah and Human Rights, Belgrade, 2000, revised end enlarged edition of 1, in Serbian).
2. Krinka Vidaković Petrov and Alexander Nikolić (editors)
Hezy Mutzafi, Ivan Čerešnješ and Eliezer Papo (associate editors)
Kalmi Baruh: Selected Works on Sephardic and Other Jewish Topics, Shefer Publishers – Jerusalem, 2005, 234 p.
3. Tamar Alexander, Yaakov Bentolila, Ivana Burđelez, Karan Gerson-Sarhon and Eliezer Papo (editors), El Prezente – Studies in Sephardic Culture, vol. 3 (2009): Gender and Identity.
4. Мирјам Рајнер, Рудолф Клајн и Елиезер Папо (уред.): Менора – Радовu радионице Јеврејска Уметност и традиција, Београд (Miriam Rajner, Rudolf Klein and Eliezer Papo: Menorah – Papers from the Workshop Jewish Art and Tradition, Belgrade) 5769/2009.
5. * Tamar Alexander, Yaakov Bentolila and Eliezer Papo (editors), El Prezente – Studies in Sephardic Culture, vol. 4 (2010).
6. * Tamar Alexander, Yaakov Bentolila and Eliezer Papo (editors), El Prezente – Studies in Sephardic Culture, vol. 5 (2011).
7. * Eliezer Papo & Nenad Makuljević (editors), El Prezente – Studies in Sephardic Culture, vol. 7 (2013).
8. * Eliezer Papo, Haim Weiss, Yaakov Bentolila and Yuval Harari, Dameta leTamar – Studies in Honor of Tamar Alexander, El Prezente – Studies in Sephardic Culture 8-9, Mikan – Journal for Hebrew and Israeli Literature and Culture Studies 15, III vols., (2015).

(c) Chapters in collective volumes/Conference proceedings
1. Eliezer Papo: "Jevrejsko poimanje čovjeka" (Jewish Understanding of Man [in Bosnian]), in Eliezer Papo (ed.): Judaizam i ljudska prava, Univerzitet u Sarajevu, Pravni centar, Sarajevo, 1998, pp. 21 – 84.
1b. Eliezer Papo: "Tora i ljudska prava" (Human Rights in Torah [in Serbian]) in Eliezer Papo: Tora i ljudska prava, Centar za stvaralaštvo mladih, Beograd, 2000, pp. 17 – 85.
2. Eliezer Papo: "Menschenrechte aus der jüdischer Perspektive" (Human Rights from the Jewish Perspective [in German]) in Wolfgang Benedek/Otto König/Christian Promitzer (editors): Menschenrechte in Bosnien und Herzegowina: Wissenschaft und Praxis in Zur Kunde Sdosteuropas, II/26, Böhlau Verlag Wien · Köln · Weimar, 1999, pp. 181 – 214.
3. Eliezer Papo: "Slavic Influences on Bosnian Judeo-Spanish As Reflected in the Literature of the 'Sephardic Circle'" in Pedro M. Piñero Ramirez (ed.): La memoria de Sefarad: Historia y cultura de los sefardíes, Sevilla, 2007, pp. 267 – 286.
(Citations: 2 [GS])
4. Eliezer Papo: "Reescribir un texto para redefinir una identidad: La Agada de la guerra para el día de Pesah de Nissim Siman-Tov cEli y la autopercepción de los sefardíes de Turquía después de la Primera Guerra Mundial" (Rewriting a Text as a Way of Redefining an Identity: The War Haggadah for Pesach by Nissim Siman-Tov cEli and the Self-perception of Turkish Sepharadim After the WWI [in Spanish]) in Pablo Martín Asuero y Karen Gerson arhon (editors): Ayer y hoy de la prensa en judeoespañol: Actas del simposio organizado por el Instituto Cervantes de Estambul en colaboracíon con el Sentro de Investigasiones Sovre la Kultura Sefardi Otomana Turka, los días 29 y 30 de abril 2006, Estambul, 2007, pp. 113 – 128.
5. Eliezer Papo: "Ribi Shelomo Ibn Verga i el nasimiento de la idea de la relativita de las relijiones komo una de las repuestas a la trauma de la Ekspulsion del anyo 1492" (R. Shelomo Ibn Verga and the Birth of the Idea of Relativity and Subjectivity of Religion as a Response to the Trauma of the 1492 Expulsion [in Judeo-Spanish]) in Felice Gambini: Alle radici dell´Europa, Mori Giudei e Zingari nei paesi del Mediterraneo Occidentale (10 incontro, secoli XV – XVII), Atti del convegno internazionale (Verona, 15 e 16 Febbraio 2007), SEID, Firenze, 2008, pp. 169 – 184.
6. אליעזר פאפו: "הגדת הפרטיזנים: צחוק קרנבלי כדרך התמודדות עם טראומות הרדיפה והלוחמה וכאמצעי להבניית הזיכרון הקבוצתי", בתוך דוד בוניס (עורך): לשונות יהודי ספרד וספרויותיהם, משגב ירושלים ומוסד ביאליק, ירושלים, 2009, עמ' 216-142.
(Eliezer Papo: "The Partisan Haggadah: Carnival Laughter as a Way of Coping with Traumas Caused by Persecution and Combat and as a Medium for Construction of Collective Identity" [in Hebrew], in David M. Bunis (ed.): Languages of the Sephardic Jews and Their Literatures, Misgav Yerushalayim and the Bialik Institute, Jerusalem, 2009, pp. 142 – 216.)
7. * Eliezer Papo: "Konstruksion de la memoria i rekonstruksion de la identidad: Agadot de gerra - un jenero neglejado de la literatura sefaradi" (Construction of the Memory and Reconstruction of the Identity: Agadot de gerra, a Neglected genre of Ladino Literature [in Judeo-Spanish]), in Paloma Daz-Mas y María Snechez Prez (eds.) Los Sefardíes ante los retos del mundo contemporáneo: identidad y mentalidades, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, 2010, pp. 205 – 224.
8. * Eliezer Papo: "German Influences on Bosnian Spoken Judeo-Spanish During the First Half of the 20th Century, the Way These Are Reflected in the Literature Produced by the Sarajevo-Based Sephardic Circle", in Michael Studemunt-Halévy, Christian Liebl, Ivana Vučina Simović (eds.): Sefarad an der Donau, Lengua y literatura de los Sefardíes en tierras del Habsburgo, Colección Fuente clara, Estudios de cultura sefardí, Tirocinio, Barcelona, 2013, pp. 295 - 312.
9. * Eliezer Papo: “Eugenika, erudicija i pobožnost, Socijalna inteligencija i pokretljivost“ [in Bosnian], Zbornik radova Jevrejsko-Španski jezik u Bosni i Hercegovini, Univerzitet u Sarajevu, Institut za jezik, Sarajevo 2015, pp. 205 – 222.
10. * Eliezer Papo: "Od jezičkog zamora do jezikoumorstva: o uticaju srpsko-hrvatskog na bosanski govorni jevrejsko-španski jezik" (From linguifatigue to linguicide: Serbo-Croatian Influences on Bosnian Spoken Judeo-Spanish, [in Bosnian]), Zbornik radova Jevrejsko-Španski jezik u Bosni i Hercegovini, Univerzitet u Sarajevu, Institut za jezik, Sarajevo 2015, pp. 185 – 204.
11. * Eliezer Papo: "Avia de ser, escena de la vida de un tiempo, kon romansas, de Laura Papo Bohoreta: Edision sientifika, anotada i komentada" (Avia de Ser, a Play from Past Times, With Ballades by Laura Papo Bohoreta: Annotated and Commented Scientific Edition [in Judeo-Spanish]) in Paloma Daz-Mas y María Snchez Preez (eds.) Mujeres sefardes lectoras y escritoras, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid (accepted).
12. * Eliezer Papo: " Sarcasm and Group Self-Image in Parodic War Haggadahs", in Mahir Saul and José Ignacio Hualde (eds.) Sepharad As Imagined Community: History, Language, and Religion from the Early Modern Period to the Twenty-First Century, Peter Lang Publisihing, New York and Bern, 2015 (accepted).

(d) Refereed articles in scientific journals
1. אליעזר פאפו: "אוצר המילים השאולות מלאדינו בשולחן ערוך", פעמים, 70 (1997), עמ' 68 – 100.
(Eliezer Papo: "Loan Words from Ladino in Shulan cArukh" [in Hebrew], Pecamim, 70 (1997), pp. 68 – 100.)
(Citations: 0; SJR N/A)
2. Tamar AlexanderPI & Eliezer PapoPI: "La poder de palavra: Prikantes djudeo-espanyoles de Saray" (The Power of Word: The Judeo-Spanish Spells from Sarajevo [in Judeo-Spanish]), Revista de Investigaciónes Folclóricas, 20 (2005), pp. 22 - 45.
Enlarged and reprinted twice in Judeo-Spanish, and later translated and published in Hebrew and English.
(Citations: 0; SJR N/A)
2b. Tamar AlexanderPI & Eliezer PapoPI: "Te aprikanto i te diskanto: La medisina tradisional de las mujeres sefaradis de Bosna" (I Will Enchant You and Annul the Spell: The Traditional Medicine of Sephardic Bosnian Woman [in Judeo-Spanish]), Neue Romania 35 [Judenspanisch X] (2006), pp. 7 – 58 (enlarged version of 2).
(Citations: 0; SJR N/A)
2c. תמר אלכסנדר ואליעזר פאפו: לכוחה של מילה: לחשי ריפוי ספרדיים-יהודיים מסרייבו", מחקרי ירושלים בפולקלור יהודי, כ"ד-כ"ה (תשס"ו-תשס"ז – 2006/07), עמ' 303 – 347.
(Tamar AlexanderPI & Eliezer PapoPI: "The Power of Word: Sephardic Magic Spells from Sarajevo" [in Hebrew], Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Folklore 24/25, XXIV/XXV (2006/07), pp. 303 – 347, (Hebrew translation of 2b).
(Citations: 0; SJR N/A)
2c. Tamar AlexanderPI & Eliezer PapoPI: "Te aprikanto i te diskanto: La medisina tradisional de las mujeres sefaradis de Bosna" (I Will Enchant You and Annul the Spell: The Traditional Medicine of Sephardic Bosnian Woman, [in Judeo-Spanish]), Sefárdica No 18 / Marzo 2010 Costumbres sefardíes, Compilación: María Cherro de Azar, pp. 173 – 219 (reprint of 2b).
(Citations: 0; SJR N/A)
2d. Tamar AlexanderPI & Eliezer PapoPI: "On the Power of the Word: Healing Incantations of Bosnian Sephardic Women", Menorah, 2 (2011), pp. 57 – 117, (English translation of 2b).
(Citations: 0; SJR N/A)
3. Eliezer Papo: "Pedigree, Erudition and Piety; Involvement and Mobility: The Life Story of Ribi Dawid ben Yacaqov Pardo – A Case Study in the Making of Traditional Sephardic akam" Miscelánea de Estudios Árabes y Hebraicos (sección de Hebreo), 55 (2006), pp. 171 – 189.
(Citations: 0; SJR N/A)
4. אליעזר פאפו: "חייה ומפעלה הספרותי של לאורה פאפו "בוכוריטה", המחזאית הראשונה שכתבה בספרדית-יהודית", איל פריזינטי, א ו-מכאן, ח (2007), עמ' 61 - 89.
(Eliezer Papo: "The Life Story and the Literary Opus of Laura Papo ‘Bohoreta’, the First Female Dramatist Who Wrote in Judeo-Spanish" [in Hebrew], El Presente – Studies in Sephardic Culture 1 / Mikan – Journal for Jewish and Israeli Literature and Culture Studies 8 (2007), pp. 61 – 89.)
(Citations: 7 [GS]; SJR N/A)
5. Eliezer Papo: "Serbo-Croatian Influences on Bosnian Spoken Judeo-Spanish, As Reflected in the Literary Works of the Members of the Sephardic Circle", European Journal for Jewish Studies, 2 (2007), pp. 343 – 364.
(Citations: 6 [GS], SJR Q2, Literature and Literary Theory)
5b. Eliezer Papo: "Les influences slaves sur le judéo-espagnol de Bosnie dans la littérature du "Cercle séfarade", Yod - Revue des études modernes et contemporaines hébraïques et juives, 11/12 (2006/07), pp. 315 – 337.
6. אליעזר פאפו: "לשון אתנית בעידן הלאומיות: הספרדית-היהודית הבוסנית בעת החדשה", פעמים, 113 (תשס"ח), עמ' 51-11.
(Eliezer Papo: "Ethnic Language in an Age of Nationalism: Bosnian Judeo-Spanish in Modern Times" [in Hebrew], Pecamim, 113 [2008], pp. 11 – 51.)
(Citations: 5 [GS], SJR N/A)
7. אליעזר פאפו: משנתה הלשונית של לאורה פאפו, בוכוריטה, בהקשרה ההיסטורי והחברתי, פעמים, 118 (תשס"ט), עמ' 175-125.
(Eliezer Papo: "The Linguistic Thought of Laura Papo ‘Bohoreta’" [in Hebrew], Pecamim, 118 [2009], pp. 125 – 175.)
(Citations: 5 [GS], SJR N/A)
8. * Eliezer Papo: "Entre la modernidad y la tradición, el feminismo y la patriarquia: Vida y obra de Laura Papo ´Bohoreta´, primera dramaturga en lengua judeo-española" (Between Modernity and Tradition, Feminism and Partiarchy [in Spanish]), Neue Romania 40 (2010), pp. 97-117.
(Citations: 7 [GS], SJR N/A)
9. * Eliezer Papo: "Filling Lexical Gaps: Spanish as Shelomo Ibn Verga’s First Language of Reference", Hispania Judaica Bulletin 8 (2011), pp. 167 – 180.
(Citations: 0; SJR N/A)
10. * Eliezer Papo: "Estado de la investigación y bibliografía anotada de la obra literaria de Laura Papo «Bohoreta»" (Present Status of the Research and Annotated Bibliography of the Literary Work of Laura Papo Bohoreta [in Spanish]), Sefarad 72.1 (January-June 2012) pp. 123 - 144.
(Citations: 5 [GS], SJR 2013: 0,123, 158/638, Q1, Literature and Literary Theory)
11. * Tamar AlexanderPI and Eliezer PapoPI: "El enkanto de la majia: Research into Sephardic Magic: History, Trends and Topics", El Prezente 5 (2012), pp. 8-31.
(Citations: 0; SJR N/A)
12. * Eliezer Papo: "Laura Papo-Bohoreta: Kommentierte Forschungsbibliographie zum literarischen Werk einer bosnischen Sefardin", Transversal: Zeitschrift für Jüdische Studien (Sefarad in Osterreich-Ungarn) 13 Jahrgang 2 (2012), pp. 65 – 80.
(Citations: 0; SJR N/A)
13. * Eliezer Papo: "Christian-Iberian Elements in Bosnian and Morrocan Judeo-Spanish Refraneros", El Prezente 8/9 / Mikan 15 (joint issue), vol. 3., pp. 143 – 160.
(Citations: 0; SJR N/A)
14. * Eliezer Papo, “The Last Supper and ‘Kneževa večera,’ Parallels and Their Resonances in Traditional Christian and Serbian Folk-Culture”, Slavic and East European Journal 59.1 (2015), pp. 23 - 46.
(Citations: 0; SJR Q2, Literature and Literary Theory)
15. * Eliezer Papo, “’Meliselda’ and its Symbolism for Sabbatai evi, His Inner Circle and His Later Followers”, Kabbalah – Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts, 35 (2016), pp. 113 – 132.
16. * Eliezer Papo, “From Lucretia to Don Kre[e]nsia – or: Sorry, I just had to Convert, The Karaka Sabbatian Ecotype of a Medieval Romance and it’s Theological Significance”, Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy, 24 (2016), pp. 31 – 59.
(Citations: 0; SJR Q3, Literature and Literary Theory)

(e) Published scientific reports

(f) Unrefereed professional articles and publications (selection)
1. Eliezer Papo: "Smrtna kazna u Judaizmu kroz vijekove" (Capital Punishment in Judaism Through the Ages [in Bosnian]), Zeničke sveske, 1 (2005), pp. 152 – 170.
2. Tamar Alexander & Eliezer Papo: "O moći riječi: Iscjeliteljske basme bosanskih sefardskih žena", Zeničke sveske, 13 (2011), pp. 229 – 278 [Bosnian translation of 2e in the section Refereed articles in scientific journals, above].
3. * Eliezer Papo: "Od jezičkog zamora do jezikoumorstva: o uticaju srpsko-hrvatskog na bosanski govorni jevrejsko-španski jezik", Zeničke sveske 14 (2011), pp. 298-314 [Bosnian translation of 10 in the section Chapters in collective volumes/Conference proceedings, above].

שנה"ל תשע"ז (סמסטר א'):
- בין טקסט לטקס בתרבות עממית
- הסיפור העממי במדרש מעם לועז
- הרומנטיקה הטובה והישנה: עיונים בסוגות הרומנסה והבלדה