Center for Israel Studies Vienna

07/05/2026

Invitation - Einladung - הַזמָנָה

The Institute for Political Science, CeSCoS,
University of Vienna and the Center for
Israel Studies Vienna, supported by the New
Israel Fund and the Future Funds of the
Republic of Austria, invite you to an evening
lecture and discussion with

Prof. Dr. Yael Hashiloni-Dolev
“Choosing What to See: Collective Trauma
and Denial in Wartime Israel."

Welcome and Moderator:
Prof. Dr. Barbara Prainsack, University of Vienna, Director of CeSCoS
Date: 19 May 2026, 18:00h

Venue: Main Building, University of Vienna, Erika Weinzierl Saal
(Stiege 1, 1st Floor), Universitätsring 1, 1010 Wien

The lecture examines a specific phenomenon in Israeli liberal discourse: the silencing of people who
publicly condemn Israeli actions in Gaza by others who themselves recognise that these actions are wrong. Combining autobiographical experience with analysis of online discourse and activist testimony, the talk portrays a "sorry, but" mechanism. The "sorry" acknowledges moral awareness of wrongdoing, while the "but" denies the implications. A key driver of this dynamic is the collective trauma following October 7th. Trauma leads to emotional withdrawal, limits engagement, and prevents acknowledging the suffering of others. Trauma and denial thus reinforce each other.
Yael Hashiloni-Dolev is Full Professor of Sociology at the
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She has been the university President's advisor on gender equity (2023-2025), Co-president of the Society for
the History, Philosophy and Sociology of Science (2018-2021), a member of the National Council on
Bioethics (2013-2021), and a member of the Committee for the Promotion of Gender Equity at the
Council for Higher Education. She works at the complex interface of sociology, family, bioethics,
health and illness with gender and repro-technologies, and recently edited, with Sharon Orshalimy,
the collection: "A Body of One's Own: Medicine, S*x and Gender" (2025) published by Lambda, Open
Uni. 2025.

01/04/2026

Chag Pessach Sameach.

11/03/2026

02/03/2026

Invitation I Einladung I הַזמָנָה

Public Lecture by Derek Penslar

“THEY WILL BE WITH THEIR OWN, AND WE WILL KNOW WHERE THEY ARE:”
GERMAN REACTIONS TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL, 1947-1949

Monday, 9 March 2026, 17:30 at the
Central European University
CEU Jewish Studies; Quellenstraße 51-55, 1100 Wien

Room Nr. C419

To attend, please sign up through this link (see QR Code)
by 6 March 2026

Lecture:

ABSTRACT | Between 1947 and 1949, international debates about Palestine and the war that raged within it received substantial attention from the German press and evoked strong opinions among the German public. This talk shows how Germans employed the 1948 Palestine war to deflect responsibility for the Holocaust and construct an image of Israel as both a solution to and continuation of what was still called “the Jewish Question.”

BIO | Derek Penslar is the William Lee Frost Professor of Jewish History and the Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard University. He previously taught at Indiana University, the University of Toronto, and the University of Oxford, where he was the inaugural holder of the Stanley Lewis Chair in Modern Israel Studies. Penslar has published a dozen books, most recently Zionism: An Emotional State (2023).

15/12/2025

TONIGHT!

Invitation I Einladung I הַזמָנָה

Lecture
Prof. George Wilkes, University of Birmingham

„Strength and Peace:
What drove the Israeli religious peace movement after 1967?“

After the 1967 war, Religious Zionist peace activists mobilised to counter the nascent settler movement and to promote diplomacy in favour of a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace settlement. They soon created a distinctive peace movement, Strength and Peace (Oz veShalom), designed to counter extremism within the Religious Zionist population. The pioneers of the Religious Zionist peace movement have been overshadowed by the successes of their adversaries, and narrative histories have suggested they failed to win the argument against messianism that was always the focus of their activity. But Oz veShalom was also a remarkable initiative whose strengths and motivations are marked by the influence of the Religious Kibbutz movement, and particularly by a cohort of intellectual German Orthodox Zionists who set out in Weimar Germany to renew Orthodox political culture. This lecture reviews their history, raising questions of relevance to the challenges their grandchildren face in seeking to build a politics and a society drawing on their values and commitments.

Welcome
Univ. Prof. (em.) Dr. Mitchell Ash, President Center for Israel Studies Vienna

Dr. Stephan Wendehorst, Senior Scientist, Universität Wien, Juridicum, Institut für Rechts- und Verfassungsgeschichte

Moderator: Dr. Stephan Wendehorst

Where: University of Vienna, Juridicum, Seminarraum SEM20,
Schottenbastei 10-16, 1010 Wien
When: Monday, 15 December 2025
19:00h
The lecture will be delivered in English.

Please register: [email protected]

In cooperation with: Universität Wien, Juridicum, Institut für Rechts - und Verfassungsgeschichte, Team Wendehorst

Supported by: Zukunftsfonds der Republik Österreich

07/12/2025

Invitation I Einladung I הַזמָנָה

Lecture
Prof. George Wilkes, University of Birmingham

„Strength and Peace:
What drove the Israeli religious peace movement after 1967?“

After the 1967 war, Religious Zionist peace activists mobilised to counter the nascent settler movement and to promote diplomacy in favour of a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace settlement. They soon created a distinctive peace movement, Strength and Peace (Oz veShalom), designed to counter extremism within the Religious Zionist population. The pioneers of the Religious Zionist peace movement have been overshadowed by the successes of their adversaries, and narrative histories have suggested they failed to win the argument against messianism that was always the focus of their activity. But Oz veShalom was also a remarkable initiative whose strengths and motivations are marked by the influence of the Religious Kibbutz movement, and particularly by a cohort of intellectual German Orthodox Zionists who set out in Weimar Germany to renew Orthodox political culture. This lecture reviews their history, raising questions of relevance to the challenges their grandchildren face in seeking to build a politics and a society drawing on their values and commitments.

Welcome
Univ. Prof. (em.) Dr. Mitchell Ash, President Center for Israel Studies Vienna

Dr. Stephan Wendehorst, Senior Scientist, Universität Wien, Juridicum, Institut für Rechts- und Verfassungsgeschichte

Moderator: Dr. Stephan Wendehorst

Where: University of Vienna, Juridicum, Seminarraum SEM20,
Schottenbastei 10-16, 1010 Wien
When: Monday, 15 December 2025
19:00h
The lecture will be delivered in English.

Please register: [email protected]

In cooperation with: Universität Wien, Juridicum, Institut für Rechts - und Verfassungsgeschichte, Team Wendehorst

Supported by: Zukunftsfonds der Republik Österreich

04/12/2025

Zum Nachhören: Eva Illouz "Der 8.Oktober"
Im Gespräch mit Doron Rabinovici
Veranstaltung am 15.11.'25 im Jüdisches Museum Wien@, eingeladen vom Center for Israel Studies Vienna zur Buch Wien
Einführung: Barbara Staudinger, Dir. des Museums und Mitchell Ash, Präsident des Centers.

Listen to Veranstaltung 15.11. by Doron Rabinovici on

03/12/2025

Empfehlung:

Prof. Dr. Eva Illouz zu Gast im ORF - kulturMONTAG
kulturMONTAG vom 01.12.2025

Zum Nachsehen bis 31.12.2025
Hier: https://on.orf.at/video/14301775/15991168/durch-musik-geeint-das-israel-dilemma-beim-esc

Durch Musik geeint? Das Israel-Dilemma beim ESC

Der ESC 2025 in Wien steht unter dem Motto „United by Music“, wird jedoch von politischen Spannungen überschattet, da mehrere Länder einen Boykott fordern, falls Israel trotz des Kriegs im Gazastreifen teilnimmt. Auch 55 Europaabgeordnete drängten die EBU auf einen Ausschluss Israels, nachdem eine UN-Kommission den Konflikt als möglichen Völkermord eingestuft hatte. Bereits beim diesjährigen ESC führten Proteste gegen die israelische Teilnehmerin Yuval Raphael, einer Überlebenden des Hamas-Angriffs, zu heftigen Kontroversen. Die EBU verschob wegen des Waffenstillstands die Entscheidung über Israels Teilnahme auf das reguläre Dezembertreffen, während Österreich und Deutschland sich weiterhin für Israels Teilnahme einsetzen. Parallel dazu zeigt der Fall der Soziologin Eva Illouz, die wegen „Unwohlseins“ ausgeladen wurde, wie sehr globale Israel-Kritik inzwischen auch Wissenschaft und Kultur beeinflusst.
(Text: ORF)

Der ESC 2025 in Wien steht unter dem Motto „United by Music“, wird jedoch von politischen Spannungen überschattet, da mehrere Länder einen Boykott fordern, falls Israel trotz des Kriegs im Gazastreifen teilnimmt. Auch 55 Europaabgeordnete drängten die EBU auf einen Ausschluss Israels, nachdem...

03/12/2025

📸 RÜCKBLICK
Wir blicken auf ereignisreiche Tage zurück.

In Zusammenarbeit mit dem Jüdischen Museum Wien und der „Buch Wien“ war es uns eine große Freude und Ehre, die renommierte Soziologin und Bestsellerautorin
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Eva Illouz von der École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), Paris, zu einem Podiumsgespräch in Wien begrüßen zu dürfen.

Unter der Moderation von Doron Rabinovici sprach Prof. Illouz über ihr neues Buch „Der 8. Oktober“ – ein Abend voller präziser Analysen, wichtiger Einsichten und wertvoller Impulse für unsere herausfordernde Zeit.

🎧 Hier zum Nachhören:
https://nextcloud.wienholding.at/index.php/s/N52QDNAbAgf9jt4
(Jüdisches Museum der Stadt Wien GmbH)

Zudem führte Doron Rabinovici auch das Gespräch mit Prof. Illouz auf der „Buch Wien“ am 16. November 2025.

Podiumsdiskussion im Jüdischen Museum Wien: Diese Veranstaltung wurde mit der Unterstützung des Zukunftsfonds der Republik Österreich möglich gemacht.

Fotos: Dina Baranes und © Tobias Köck (Buch Wien)

19/11/2025

Dear friends,

we are pleased to invite you to the upcoming lecture of Prof. Dr. Noam Zadoff in cooperation with the Central European University, Vienna.

"Whose Culture is it? Controversies and Debates in Israel in the 1950s and 1960s"

Monday, 1 December 2025
5:30 pm – 7:00 pm

-> Central European University: D001, QUELLENSTRASSE 51-55, 1100 Wien

Speaker
Noam Zadoff

Israel's institutions, social structures and culture took shape in the two decades after the establishment of the state, largely under the influence of Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion.
This lecture will concentrate on the debates and controversies within the young State of Israel, showing how questions surrounding relations between state and religion, between Jews and non-Jews in Israel,
and between Jews in Israel and Jews in the diaspora impact Israeli society to this day.

Noam Zadoff is Assistant Professor at the Department of Contemporary History, Universität Innsbruck. He is the author of "Gershom Scholem: From Berlin to Jerusalem and Back"
(Brandeis University Press, 2017), and "Geschichte Israels: Von der Staatsgründung bis zur Gegenwart" (C.H.Beck, 2020). At the moment he is writing a cultural history of the State of Israel.



To attend, please register here by 28 November 2025: https://forms.office.com/e/vErsjV5LKC



/Portrait photo credits: Orla Connolly 2024/

Text and layout: CEU

03/10/2025

Buchpräsentation

José Brunner
"Brutale Nachbarn. Wie Emotionen den Nahostkonflikt antreiben – und entschärfen können"

Montag, 06.10.2025, 18:00 Uhr

Sigmund Freud PrivatUniversität
Freudplatz 2, 1020 Wien

bitte um Anmeldung: [email protected]

Info auch unter:
https://www.ullstein.de/werke/brutale-nachbarn/hardcover/9783549110034

Pressestimme:
"Diese Psychoanalyse des Israel-Palästina-Konflikts eröffnet eine notwendige Perspektive."
FAZ, Jörg Später, 04.07.2025