Maya Barzilai  |   Curriculum Vitae
Maya Barzilai is Assistant Professor of Modern Hebrew and Jewish culture in the Department of Near Eastern Studies and the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan. Her fields of research include twentieth century literature in Hebrew, German, and Yiddish, visual studies, particularly early photography and film theories, lyric theory, and Jewish bilingualism. She received her M.A. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, both in Comparative Literature. She has published on the intersections of text and image and on models of memory and history in the works of W. G. Sebald ("Facing the Past and the Female Spectre in W. G. Sebald's The Emigrants"), and has collaboratively written on "The Challenge of Lyric Address in War Poems by Ingeborg Bachmann and Yitzhak Laor." She is currently revising her manuscript entitled Golems of War: The Creation of Modern Jewish Culture in the Trenches of World War I. Maya teaches courses on Israeli Literature, Modern Jewish Literature, Jewish Cinema and Visual Culture.

Milka Eliav  |  Curriculum Vitae
I received my BA in English Literature (cum laude) from Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, as well as a Teaching Certificate (summa cum laude) from the School of Education there. After graduating in 1993, I taught English for Hebrew speakers and worked as the assistant to the artistic director at the Jerusalem Khan Theatre. We then moved to New York, where I worked for the Jewish Agency's kibbutz desk, and held evening Hebrew classes for adult students. Two years later, upon arrival to Ann Arbor, I was fortunate to join the Hebrew Unit here as a language instructor. I have enjoyed teaching Modern Hebrew for beginners ever since, with the exception of a year long sabbatical in Israel during 2004/5.

Yaron Eliav  |  Curriculum Vitae
Yaron Eliav, Associate Professor of Rabbinic literature and Jewish history of late antiquity (PhD. Hebrew University, Jewish History and Archaeology, 1999), draws on talmudic, early Christian, and classic literatures, as well as on archaeology in order to study the multi-faceted cultural environment of Roman Palestine with emphasis on the encounter between Jews and Graeco-Roman culture. His book, God's Mountain: The Temple Mount in Time, Space, and Memory ( Johns Hopkins University Press 2005; soft-cover 2008) won two national awards: The 2005 American Association of Publishers (AAP) award for best scholarly book on religion, and the 2006 Salo Baron prize for best first book in Judaic Studies from the American Academy for Jewish Studies. Eliav is the co-director of the Statuary Project, an interdisciplinary, multi-year research endeavor that takes place at the University of Michigan, and he is the chief editor of the publication of this project that appeared in 2008 in the series Interdisciplinary Studies in Ancient Culture and Religion (Peeters). Currently, Eliav is working on his new book, A Jew in the Roman Bathhouse: Daily Life Encounters with Hellenism in Roman Palestine.

Elliot Ginsberg:  |  Curriculum Vitae
Elliot K Ginsburg is Associate Professor of Jewish Thought in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan. He specializes in the Jewish mystical traditions, including kabbalah and hasidism, and has wide-ranging interests in Judaism as religious tradition, and in the history of religions. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in Religious Studies, and previously taught at Oberlin College in Ohio. He has published two books with SUNY Press, most notably The Sabbath in the Classical Kabbalah, which is scheduled to appear in a new edition with Littman Press. His current projects include a study of the “Sabbath during the week” both as concept and practice, and a multi-tiered study of Jewish mystical prayer. Elliot Ginsburg has taught courses on Jewish Mysticism, Modern Jewish Thought, Perspectives on the Holocaust, and seminars on such topics as The Radical Teachings of Nahman of Bratslav, Zohar, The Sabbath and Sacred Time, and The Emotions and Senses in Judaism.

Doron Lamm  |  Curriculum Vitae
Doron Lamm joined the faculty of The University of Michigan in 1997. Having taught at the Hebrew programs of New York University, the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he has extensive experience teaching Hebrew to English-speaking students. Over the years, he has taught all levels of Hebrew and at varying degrees of intensity. Doron is a strong believer in teaching Hebrew within its cultural context and towards an all round competency. His interests include the use of Information Technology in foreign language instruction, methods for the integration of culture into the classroom, Learning Disabilities & foreign languages and curriculum development for Hebrew Heritage Students (children of Hebrew speakers). A historian by training, Doron Lamm holds degrees from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of London, England. He currently serves as the coordinator for the Hebrew Language Program.

Shachar Pinsker  |  Curriculum Vitae
Shachar Pinsker is Associate Professor of Hebrew Literature and Culture at the Near Eastern Studies Department and the Judaic Studies Program. He received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Ben-Gurion, Tel Aviv and the Hebrew University. Prof. Pinsker is the author of Literary Passports: The Making of Modernist Hebrew Fiction in Europe (Stanford University Press, 2010), and the co-editor of Hebrew, Gender and Modernity (University of Maryland Press, 2007). He has published numerous articles and chapters in academic journals and books dealing with Hebrew, Jewish and Israeli literature and culture, and is a regular contributor to Ha'aaretz newspaper in Israel. Professor Pinsker is currently working on a book that considers the complex role of Yiddish in Israeli literature and culture, and a book on Cafes and Modern Jewish Culture. Prof. Pinsker teaches courses in English and Hebrew on Israeli literature and culture, and modern Jewish Literature.

Ilan Rosenberg  |  Curriculum Vitae
Just a few days after Fidel Castro assumed power in Cuba and Ritchie Valens made it to the top of the hit parade with "Donna" - I was born. Musical styles have evolved considerably since Donna's glory days and, Fidel's days might be numbered. Likewise, many things have changed and evolved in my life. I grew up and got educated in Tel- Aviv(clinical psychology), enjoyed translating several books from English to Hebrew, moved to the states (1991) and worked as a counselor in Olympia, WA. A career change took place when I moved to Seattle (1993) where I started to teach Hebrew at the university of Washington. I have been doing it since, loving every minute of it. Yet, some things seem to remain the same.Israel has been my home all through these years. Still connected to the people, to the language and to the culture of Israel. And music! Music has always been part of my life since I heard Ritchie Valens' mega hit, to the day I started to host a radio show in Ann Arbor. In this show I play music from around the mediterranean and some fine music from ... Cuba.

Pauli Weizman  |  Curriculum Vitae
I have been teaching Hebrew at the University of Michigan since 1987. I hold degrees in: BA, Hebrew Linguistics, from Tel Aviv University, Israel; MA, Teaching English as a Second language, From Eastern Michigan University; Master of Social Work from University of Michigan. As a lecturer of Hebrew, my basic goal is to bring students from no functional ability at the novice level to proficiency in communication at the intermediate level. In the past couple of years I have been writing and developing an introductory Hebrew course pack Getting Aquatinted, designed as an in class teaching materials as well as a compatible on-line program. I love teaching Hebrew, I love our students, and I am very proud to be part of the NES team. After so many years of teaching at the University of Michigan, I still get excited about teaching and treat every class as if it was my first time teaching it.