Senior Faculty
Dr. Maha El-Taji Daghash
Ph.D. Interdisciplinary Program in Near and Middle Eastern Studies,
University of Washington
LL. M. International Human Rights Law,
Center for Civil and Human Rights, Notre Dame University
J.D. Seattle University School of Law
B.A. Business Administration, University of Washington
Dr. El-Taji's doctoral studies focussed on Comparative Politics, Law and Society and Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict. Her dissertation explored Arab Local Government in Israel and the influence of the Hamula (clan social system). Her post-doctoral research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem examined the relationship between the Palestinian-Arab citizens of Israel and the Israeli police.
Dr. Yaron Friedman
PhD Middle East Studies, Sorbonne, Paris
MA History of Islam, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
BA Arabic Language and Literature, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Dr. Yaron Friedman lectures in Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic at the Technion, Haifa and Univerity of Haifa. He specialises in Shī‛ism and is the author of the monograph “The Nusayrī-‘Alawīs: An Introduction to the Religion, History and Identity of the Leading Minority in Syria“(Leiden: Brill, 2009). Dr. Friedman has published articles in Studia Islamica, Der Islam, Le Museon and entries in Encyclopaedia Iranica and Encyclopaedia of Islam.
Dr. Sapir Handelman
PhD Tel Aviv University
Dissertation: "The Ethical Limits of Manipulation from a Liberal Perspective”
MA Tel Aviv University
Masters’ Thesis: “Manipulation: Characteristic and Demarcation”
BSc Ben-Gurion University
Dr. Sapir Handelman is the recipient of the 2010 Peter Becker Award for Peace and Conflict Studies. She is a Lentz Fellow in Peace and Conflict Resolution Research and a visiting Professor at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at Wayne State University, Detroit and the University of Missouri, St. Louis. She serves as an associate at Harvard University and is a Post-Doctoral Fellow of Harvard University and the Walter Eucken institute, Freiburg, Germany. Dr. Handelman is a visiting scholar at the German Institute for Middle East Studies, Hamburg, Germany. She currently serves on the Editorial board of Behavioural Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression, and is the conductor and facilitator of many workshops and lectures.
Ms. Yisca Harani
BA History of Religions, Tel Aviv University
Ms. Isca Harani is the recipient of the Mount Zion Award 2013 for Interreligious activity. She has researched the ceremony of the Holy Fire in Jerusalem as a focal point for religious and social identities. Ms. Harani is currently a senior lecturer at the Avshalom Institute for the Land of Israel Studies at Tel Aviv and for the Ministry of Tourism. She previously lectured at Wesleyan University, USA and is the author of guide manuals and teaching programmes on Christianity in the Holy Land. Ms. Harani has served as an adviser on Christian tourism and Christian affairs to the Ministries of Religious Affairs, Tourism and Interior Security as well as to private sectors. She is the Co-founder and Project Coordinator for the Association for the Promotion of Inter Religious Education in Israel.
Dr. Marc Rosenstein
Ordained Reform Rabbi
PhD Jewish History, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
MA Jewish History, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
BA Biochemistry, Harvard College
Dr. Mark Rosenstein is the Director emeritus of the Galilee Foundation for Value Education, Shorashim and the Israeli Rabbinical programme of the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem.
