EDUCATION
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel
2020 – Present: PhD, Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought (direct-track)
2022: MA in Jewish Thought (magna cum laude)
2020: BA in Jewish Thought, Philosophy, and Sociology and Anthropology (cum laude)

Columbia University, New York, NY
2018–2019: Columbia University, School of General Studies, undergraduate studies

PUBLICATIONS
Edited Volumes
1. Shmuel Hugo Bergmann, Esoteric Schools, ed. with Boaz Huss (Jerusalem: Blima, 2024) [Hebrew]
2. Hillel Zeitlin, In the Secret Place of the Soul: Three Essays, ed. with Jonatan Meir (Jerusalem: Blima, 2020) [Hebrew]
Translated Books
1. Jonatan Meir and Shinichi Yamamoto, Gershom Scholem and the Research of Sabbatianism (Jerusalem: JTS –Schocken Institute for Jewish Research & Blima Books, 2021) [159 pages]

Peer-Reviewed Articles
1. “Demons, Dybbuks, and a Water Medium: Possession in Early-Twentieth-Century Warsaw,” Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry 38 (in press, c. 10,500 words)
2. “The Living Dead: In Search of Hasidism at the Bratslaver Shtiblekh of Warsaw,” East European Jewish Affairs (in press, c. 9,500 words)
3. “Advertising Occultism in the Jewish Press in Poland,” Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 23, no. 2 (2024): 518–43 (recipient of the MAHAR prize, see below)
4. “Hillel Zeitlin’s ‘On Secret Redeemers,’” Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought 55, no. 1 (2023): 98–106 (with Jonatan Meir)
5. “Prolegomena to the Study of Jewish Occultism: Definition, Scope, and Impact,” Jewish Thought 4 (2022): 91–121 (with Boaz Huss)
6. “‘No Religion Could be More Spiritual than Ours’: Anglo-Jewish Spiritualist Societies in the Interwar Period,” Jewish Historical Studies: Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England 53 (2022): 83–104 (with Boaz Huss)
7. “Writings on Spiritualism from the Archive of R. Eliyahu Mordekhai Halevy Wolkowsky,” Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts 52 (2022): 145–90
8. “Summoning Spirits in Egypt: Jewish Women and Spiritualism in Early-Twentieth-Century Cairo,” Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues 38 (2021): 25–45 (recipient of the MAHAR award, see below)
9. “‘From Time to Time I Dream Wondrous Dreams’: Esotericism and Prophecy in the Writings of Hillel Zeitlin,” Correspondences: Journal for the Study of Esotericism 9, no. 1 (2021): 5–48

Other Publications
1. Translation with commentary of Hersh Dovid Nomberg, “Demons on the Jewish Street,” Below the Line: The Feuilleton & Modern Jewish Cultures (February 2024) https://www.feuilletonproject.org/s/below-the-line/item/303
2. “Briv funem arkhiv: A Long-Lost Letter from the Author’s Great-Grandfather to Moishe Nadir,” In geveb (February 2023) https://ingeveb.org/blog/letter-to-moishe-nadir
3. “John Myers, Jewish Spirit Photographer,” The Media of Mediumship (September 2022) https://mediaofmediumship.stir.ac.uk/2022/09/02/john-myers-jewish-spirit-photographer/.
4. “Briv funem arkhiv: ‘Arabs Make Peace… With the Khalutsim of Liepaja,’” In geveb (November 2021) https://ingeveb.org/blog/briv-khalutsim-of-liepaja.
5. Isaac Ewen, “A Séance in the Shtetl,” translated and introduced by Sam Glauber-Zimra, The Barnacle Goose 2 (2021): 30–33.
6. “Briv funem Arkhiv: Di Korbones fun ‘Vaysn Sam,’” In geveb (January 2020) https://ingeveb.org/blog/briv-funem-arkhiv-di-korbones-fun-vaysn-sam.
7. “Spiritualists and the City,” Columbia Current: A Journal of Contemporary Politics, Culture, and Jewish Affairs at Columbia University (Spring 2019) http://www.columbia-current.org/spiritualists-and-the-city.html.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2023–2024: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York, NY
•“Psychics and the Occult in Modern Jewish Culture” Spring 2024 (course for public audience)
Guest Lectures
•“Jewish Occultism in Eastern Europe,” 126.2.0481: Jews in Alternative Spiritual Movements, MA seminar, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Spring 2023
•“Around the Séance Table: Jews and the Spiritualist Movement,” 126.1.0224: Kabbalah and Western Esotericism, BA course, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Spring 2022

FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS, AWARDS
2024–2025: Doctoral Seminar, Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture
2024: MAHAR Prize for best article written by a student in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (granted for “Advertising Occultism in the Jewish Press in Poland”)
2023–2024: Alix de Rothschild Fellowship Program for Doctoral Students in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities
2023–: Junior Library Fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute
2022–2025: Rotenstreich Fellowship for Outstanding PhD Students in the Humanities, Council for Higher Education of Israel.
2022–2023: Research fellow at the Center for the Study of Conversion & Inter-Religious Encounters, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
2022: Tenth Session of the International Forum of Young Scholars on East European Jewry, The Leonid Nevzlin Research Center for Russian and East European Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Department of Jewish Studies at Wrocław University and the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow
2021: MAHAR Award for outstanding article written by a student in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (granted for “Summoning Spirits in Egypt: Jewish Women and Spiritualism in Early-Twentieth-Century Cairo”)
2021: The Rose and Isidore Drench Memorial Fellowship and the Dora and Mayer Tendler Endowed Fellowship in American Jewish Studies at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research for 2021-22
2020–2025: Darom Doctoral Fellowship, Kreitman School of Advanced Graduate Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
2020: Departmental Chair’s Award, Department of Jewish Thought, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
2017–18: Bratslav Texts Research Workshop, Schocken Library, Jerusalem

ACADEMIC CONFERENCES AND PRESENTATIONS
1. “Between Mediumism and Possession in Early-Twentienth-Century Poland,” The Fourth International Annual Doctoral Students’ Conference in Memory of Dr. Tsippi Kauffman, Department of Jewish Philosophy, Bar-Ilan University, July 17–18, 2024
2. “Past, Present , and Future: Jewish Fortune-Telling in the Polish Lands in the Long Turn of the Century,” The 8th Polish – Israeli Young Scholars Workshop on the History and Culture of Polish Jews, Haifa University, June 24–26, 2024
3. “Demons in Warsaw!” Possession in the Age of Mass Media,” 54th Annual Conferences of the Association for Jewish Studies, San Francisco, CA, December 17–19, 2023
4. The Diffusion of Occultism in Jewish Print Media in Eastern Europe,” Occultism and Popular Culture in Europe, Copenhagen University, November 22–23, 2023
5. “‘All the Tibetans and Arabs are Jew Boys from Homel and Minsk, or Lemberg and Drohobycz’: Jewish Fakirs in Interwar East Central Europe,” Workshop: Esotericism and Race, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, July 16–17, 2023
6. “Are Miracles Nature or is Nature Miraculous? A Debate Between a Rabbi and an Occultist in 1940's New York City,” Religion and the Natural Environment: Multiple Perspectives, Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, January 9–11, 2023
7. “A Supernatural bintel brief: B. Rivkin, Interpreter of Dreams,” 54th Annual Conferences of the Association for Jewish Studies, Boston, MA, December 18–20, 2022.
8. “A Higher Authority in Changing Times: The Rise of Jewish Occultism,” The 18th World Congress of Jewish Studies, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, August 8–11, 2022.
9. “The Correspondence of Shmuel Hugo Bergmann and R. Zalman Schachter-Shalomi,” In Search of Renewal: Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Jewish Diversity, and Interreligious Engagement, MIT Endicott House, Dedham, MA, June 26–27, 2022.
10. “The Séance in Polish-Jewish Life: A Case Study of Rupture and Continuity,” Bridging Divides: Rupture and Continuity in Polish Jewish History, Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw, May 23–26, 2022
11. “What does Your Dream Tell You?”: B. Rivkin and Yiddish Occultism in America,” Max Weinreich Fellowship Lecture in American Jewish Studies, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York City, May 2, 2022
12. “Occult Jewish Modernities: Two Case Studies,” ESSWE Workshop: The Occult in the History of Science, Art, and Religion, Monte Verità, Ascona, April 2–5, 2022
13. “Di reyd fun Buda: A. Almi and the Deparochialization of Jewish Spirituality,” Towards the Study of Jewish-Buddhist Relations, Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies, March 10–11, 2022
14. “Advertising Occultism in the Jewish Press of Eastern Europe,” Studying  Advertisements in Pre-1939 Jewish Press: Methods and Challenges, Online Workshop organized by University of Wrocław, February 21–23, 2022
15. “Kabbalist-Fakir or Telepathist-Rabbi? Introducing East European Jewish Occultism,” 53rd Annual Conferences of the Association for Jewish Studies, Chicago, IL, December 19–21, 2021
16. “‘I Frequently Hold a Telepathic Dialogue with You’: The Correspondence of Shmuel Hugo Bergmann and R. Zalman Schachter-Shalomi,” One Biography, Multiple Places: The Life and Work of Shmuel Hugo Bergmann Between Prague and Jerusalem (1883–1975), Charles University, Prague, November 3–5, 2021
17. “Cosmic Love in Zion: Esotericism and Sexual Eschatology in the Hebrew Writings of Abraham Mordecai Harizman (1884–1978),” Esotericism and the Varieties of Transformation, Embassy of the Free Mind, Amsterdam, July 26–27, 2021
18. “‘The Scientists Stand in Wonderment’: The Séance in Interbellum Rabbinic Literature,” 52nd Annual Conferences of the Association for Jewish Studies, online conference, December 13–17, 2020
19. “In Search of the Unexplained: Religious Readings of Parapsychology and the Paranormal Among Interwar Hasidic Rabbis,” Association for the Study of Esotericism Ninth Biannual Conference, The University of California, Davis, May 14–17, 2020 [conference cancelled]
20. “Contested Visions: The Emergence of a Jewish Science of Religion,” The Jewish Intelligentsia. The 8th International Conference for Jewish Studies Researchers, The Institute of History at the University of Warsaw, November 14, 2019
21. “Hasidism, Psychical Research, and the Occult: The Case of Hillel Zeitlin,” 7th Biannual Conference of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE), University of Amsterdam, July 2–4, 2019
22. “Magnetic Maskilim: Preliminary Remarks on Mesmerism in the Literature of the Haskalah,” The Undergraduate Judaic Studies Conference, Yale University, February 17, 2019
23. “A Modern Mystic: Hillel Zeitlin as an Exemplar of Contemporary Religiosity,” Hillel Zeitlin and Jewish Culture in Poland Research Workshop, Cymbalista Jewish Heritage Center, Tel Aviv University, May 4, 2017

INVITED LECTURES
1. “Der nayer trefer: Ruptures and Continuities in Yiddish Sortilege Literature,” The Ninth Annual Workshop on Ancient Jewish Magic and its Wider Contexts, Tel Aviv University, July 4, 2024
2. “Sheydim in varsha!” Shifting Conceptions of Possession among Eastern European Jewry in the Early-Twentieth Century,” Departmental Seminar, Department of Jewish Thought, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, June 19, 2024
3. “How to Tell Your Fortune in Yiddish,” California Institute for Yiddish Language & Culture and UJA Toronto Committee for Yiddish, online lecture, June 2, 2024
4. “Modern Occultism in Yiddish Popular Culture,” Yiddish Book Center, online lecture, May 11, 2023

PANELS & ROUNDTABLES ORGANIZED
1. 55th Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS), Panel: “Dybbuks, Demons, and Hauntings: Images of Possession in Jewish Eastern Europe,” San Francisco, CA. Respondent: Natan Meir
2. The 9th Biennial Conference of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE9), Panel: “Modern Occult Practice in Global Contexts (1880–1930),” Malmö, Sweden
3. 54th Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS), Panel: “The Yiddish Press Beyond Its Pages: Encounters and Confrontations between Readers and Writers,” Boston, MA. Respondent: Kenneth Moss
4. 18th World Congress of Jewish Studies (WCJS), Panel: “Spiritual Frameworks in Times of Change,” Jerusalem. Respondent: Jonatan Meir
5. 53rd Annual Conferences of the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS), Panel: “Magic, Dreams, and Occultism in East European Jewish Culture,” Chicago, IL. Respondent: Magda Teter
6. 52nd Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS), Panel: “The Jewish Encounter with Spiritualism in the Interwar Period,” online conference. Respondent: Jody Myers

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
1. Community lecture, Congregation Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, NJ, October 30, 2022
2. Community lecture, Congregation Ohev Sholom, Washington DC, January 25, 2022
3. Community lecture, Kreuzberg Kollel, Berlin, June 1, 2020

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIP
European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism
Association for Jewish Studies
American Academy of Religion

OTHER ACTIVITIES
2020–2021: Research assistant for Prof. Marcin Wodziński, University of Wrocław
2018 – present: Research assistant for Prof. Jonatan Meir, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
2017: The Naomi Prawer Kadar International Yiddish Summer Program at Tel Aviv University

LANGUAGES:
English (native), Hebrew (near-native), Yiddish (advanced reading), German (basic reading), Polish (basic reading)

ACADEMIC REFERENCES
Prof. Jonatan Meir
Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Department of Jewish Thought
meirj@bgu.ac.il

Prof. Boaz Huss
Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Department of Jewish Thought
bhuss@bgu.ac.il

Prof. Naomi Seidman
Chancellor Jackman Professor of the Arts in the Department for the Study of Religion and the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies
University of Toronto
naomi.seidman@utoronto.ca