My research and teaching examine how culture, identity, institutions, and diplomacy shape Israel’s relationships with American Jewry, the United States, and the broader Middle East. I focus on modern Israel, Zionism, American Jewish engagement with Israel, U.S.–Israel relations, and the evolving dynamics of Arab-Israeli diplomacy and regional normalization.
My first book, Singing the Land: Hebrew Music and Early Zionism in America (University of Michigan Press, 2024), explores how Hebrew national music culture helped American Jews understand, imagine, and materially support the Zionist movement in Palestine before Israeli statehood. My current historical research extends this project into the early years of Israeli sovereignty, examining how Israeli song helped American Jewish communities translate support for the new state into emotional investment, communal practice, and durable pro-Israel activism. My next book project, on Israeli jazz, examines Israeli national identity, Cold War cultural diplomacy, transnational musical exchange, and the politics of cultural production.
Alongside this work, I also write on contemporary Arab-Israeli diplomacy, including the Abraham Accords, Israeli-Moroccan relations, healthcare cooperation, and the possibilities and limits of regional normalization.
I earned my PhD from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in 2020. I also hold an MA in Middle Eastern history from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Middle Eastern studies and political economy from The Evergreen State College. From 2012 to 2020, alongside my doctoral studies, I served as Senior Academic Research Coordinator at Emory University’s Institute for the Study of Modern Israel, where I advanced the institute’s research and publication agenda, developed public-facing programs in Jewish and Israel Studies, and directed its undergraduate research internship program. I also taught in Emory University’s Tam Institute for Jewish Studies in 2019. From 2020 to 2022, I served as Postdoctoral Associate in Duke University’s Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and Center for Jewish Studies, where I taught courses on modern Israel, Zionism, Israeli culture, and global Jewish life.
Since 2022, I have served as the Israel Institute Teaching Fellow in the University of Georgia’s Department of International Affairs and Center for Jewish Studies. At UGA, I teach courses on Israeli politics, Israel/Palestine, U.S.–Israel relations, Middle Eastern politics, global issues, and the cultural politics of nationalism, identity, and conflict. My teaching and public scholarship emphasize rigorous, balanced, and accessible engagement with the often politically sensitive subjects that my work focuses on.