Dr. Ram Ben-Shalom

Updated: August 2008

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Personal

Telephone Tel: 972-9-7781367
Email E-mail: rambe@openu.ac.il

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Education

1986 B.A. (cum laude), The Department of Jewish History and The Department of General and Interdisciplinary Studies, Tel-Aviv University
1990 M.A. (cum laude), The Department of Jewish History, Tel-Aviv University. Thesis: Isaac Nathan "Meor Galutenu": Leadership, Polemic and Intellectual Creativity at the Center of the Life of Provence` Jewry in the Fifteenth Century
1996 Ph.D., Tel-Aviv University. Dissertation: The Image of Christian Culture in the Historical Consciousness of the Jews of Twelfth to Fifteenth Century Spain and Provence

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Professional Experience

1978-1990 Teaching Assistant, Department of History, Tel-Aviv University; Research Assistant, Department of Education, Tel-Aviv University; Teacher of History, ORT Givatayim High-School
1991-1997 Teaching Assistant and External Lecturer, Department of History, Tel-Aviv University; Teaching Assistant and Research Assistant, The Open University of Israel
1993-1997 Instructor, Department of Jewish History, Haifa University
1997 Teaching (Ph.D. Instructor), Department of Jewish History, Haifa University; Visiting Scholar, The Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Yarnton, Oxford
1997-2005 Research Scholar, The Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University
1998-2003 Lecturer, Department of History, The Open University of Israel; External Lecturer, Department of Jewish History, Haifa University
2000-2001 Visiting Scholar, The Institute of Advanced Studies, The Hebrew University
1999-2005 Head, The Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies, The Open University of Israel
1999-2008 Editorial Board, Pe'amim: Studies in Oriental Jewry
2000-2003 Member of the Board, The Historical Society of Israel
June 2003 Senior Lecturer, The Open University of Israel
2005-2008 Editorial Board, Zemanim: A Historical Quarterly

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Conference Presentations

1993 Polemic Historiography in Sefer Yuhasin, Eleventh World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, June
1996 The Image of Rome in the Middle Ages, The Foreign and the Other - An Interdisciplinary Conference, The Open University of Israel.
1997 Myth and Mythology in the Historical Consciousness of the Jews of Spain in the Middle Ages, Pluralistic Societies in the Middle Ages: Historical Models for Coexistence - The Iberian Peninsula, the Mashrek and the Maghreb, Haifa University and the Center for Spanish Jewish Studies, Levinsky College.
1997 The Jewish Response to Conversion: Prevailing Attitudes and the Image of the Conversos, International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, 14-17 July
1998 The Historical Consciousness of the Jews of Christian Spain: Yerushalmi’s Zakhor - A Partial Re-Examination, The Sixth European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) Congress, Toledo, 19-23 July.
1999 Vicente Ferrer and Thomas Connecte in Isaac Nathan’s Eyes, Annual Meeting of the Association for Jewish Studies, Chicago.
2000 A Religious Disputation in Valencia (1332), Culture, Science and Coexistence: Social and Historical Spain, Haifa University.
2000 Private Disputes in Christian Spain, Diálogo, debate y diversidad cultural en la tradición de España, Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona.
2000 A Jewish Look at the Prophetic Model of Mendicant Preaching: The Case of Isaac Nathan and Carmelite Thomas Connecte, The Institute for Advanced Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
2001 Exempla and Historical Consciousness in the Jewish Middle Ages: Philippus, Alexander the Great, and the Conquest of Athens, Thirteenth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem.
2001 Kiddush ha-Shem and Jewish Martyrology in Aragon and Castile in 1391: Between Spain and Ashkenaz, Annual Meeting of the Association for Jewish Studies, Washington.
2002 Exempla and Popes: Church Imagery in the Spanish and Provencal Jewish Mentalité, V Encuentros Judaicos de Tudela. Institucián Práncipe de Viana Tudela, 21-23 September.
2003 Jewish Martyrdom: The Case of 1391, Intercultural Dialogue - From Past to Present, University of Alcalá, Spain.
2003-2008 Text and Context 1-10. Medieval and Pre-Modern Texts: Seminar and Workshop. The Open University of Israel, Beit Daniel, Zichron Ya'akov.
2004 The Image of the "Other" in Jacob ben Eliyahu's Letter to Paulus Christiani, Intercultural Dialogue in Mediterranean Scenarios: Past, Present and Future, Universitat Autánoma de Barcelona.
2004 The Heritage of the Tibbonides and Christian Culture: Provence, 1186-1470. Des Tibbonides á Maïmonide: Rayonnement des Juifs andalous en Pays d’Oc médiéval. Montpellier, 13-14 December.
2005 Isaac Nathan and the Jewish-Christian Discourse, The Middle Ages: Society, Culture, Literature. Bar Ilan University.
2006

The Social Context of Apostasy in Fifteenth-Century Spanish Jewry. Rethinking European Jewish History. International Colloquium at Tel Aviv University.

2007

Artistic Imagery in Jewish Medieval Exempla. International Workshop "Art as Historical Text". Ben-Gurion University

2007

Jews and Friars: Isaac Nathan's Views on the Mendicants. The Middle Ages, Now!, The Historical Society of Israel.

2007

The Historiographic Dilemma of the Castilian Courtier Rabbi Samuel Halevy. Seminar Hispania Judaica, The Hebrew University.

2008 Polemical and Hermeneutical Strategies in Isaac Abravanel's Thought. Don Isaac Abravanel: 500 Years to his Death. Haifa University and The Open University of Israel.

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List of Publications

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Books

1. R. Ben-Shalom, Facing Christian Culture: Historical Consciousness and Images of the Past among the Jews of Spain and Southern France during the Middle Ages, Ben-Zvi Institute and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 2006 (Hebrew).

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Articles in Refereed Journals

1. R. Ben-Shalom, The Disputation of Tortosa, Vicente Ferrer and the Problem of the Conversos According to the Testimony of Isaac Nathan, Zion, LVI (1991), 1-45 (Hebrew).
2. R. Ben-Shalom, The Jewish Community in Arles - Ben Sheshet’s Responsum 266 as an Historical Source, Michael, XII (1991), 9-41 (Hebrew).
3. R. Ben-Shalom, Concerning the Question of the Author of the First Hebrew Concordance ‘Meir Nativ,’ Kiryath Sepher, LXIV (1992-1993), 754-760 (Hebrew).
4. R. Ben-Shalom, The Blood Libel in Arles and the Franciscan Mission in Avignon in 1453: Paris Manuscript, Héb. 631, Zion, LXIII (1998), 391-408 (Hebrew).
5. R. Ben-Shalom, The Converso as Subversive: Jewish Traditions or Christian libelá, Journal of Jewish Studies, L (1999), 259-283.
6. R. Ben-Shalom, The Ban Placed by the Community of Barcelona on the Study of Philosophy and Allegorical Preaching - A New Study, Revue des Études Juives, CLIX (2000), 387-404.
7. R. Ben-Shalom, Myth and Classical Mythology in the Historical Consciousness of Medieval Spanish Jewry, Zion, LXVI (2001), 451-494 (Hebrew).
8. R. Ben-Shalom, Between Official and Private Dispute: The Case of Christian Spain and Provence in the Late Middle Ages, AJS Review, XXVII (2003), 23-72.
9. R. Ben-Shalom, On Jewish Martyrology in Spain in the Year 1391 (ha-Kana), Tarbiz, LXX (2001), 227-282 (Hebrew).
10. R. Ben-Shalom, "Jewish Martyrdom and Conversion in Sepharad and Ashkenaz in the Middle Ages: An Assessment of the Reassessment", Tarbiz, LXXI (2001), pp. 279-300 (Hebrew).
11. R. Ben-Shalom, Magdil Yeshu'ot: On the Reasons for the Messiah's Delay, and an Unprecedented Critique of Jewish Society, Tarbiz, LXXII (2003), 259-293 (Hebrew).
12. R. Ben Shalom, A Minority Looks at the Mendicants: Isaac Nathan the Jew and Thomas Connecte the Carmelite, Journal of Medieval History, XXX (2004), 213-243.
13. R. Ben-Shalom, "Jews and Friars: Isaac Nathan's Views on the Mendicants", Zmanim, C (2007), pp. 36-47 (Hebrew).
14. R. Ben-Shalom, "The Typology of the Converso in Isaac Abravanel’s Biblical Exegesis", Jewish History (forthcoming).

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Articles in Refereed Books

1. R. Ben-Shalom, Communication and Propaganda Between Provence and Spain: The Controversy Over Extreme Allegorization (1303-1306), in S. Menache (ed.), Communication in the Jewish diaspora – The Pre-modern World (1996), Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 171-225.
2. R. Ben Shalom, Medieval Jewry in Christendom, in M. Goodman, J. Cohen and D. Sorkin (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies (2002), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 153-192.
3. R. Ben Shalom, The Myths of Troy and Hercules as Reflected in the Writings of Some Jewish Exiles from Spain, in H.J. Hames (ed.), Jews, Muslims, and Christians in and Around the Crown of Aragon; Essays in Honour of Prof. Elena Lourie, Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers (2004), 229-254.
4. R. Ben-Shalom, Exempla and historical consciousness in the Middle Ages: The Case of Philip, Alexander the Great and the conquest of Athens, in A. Horowitz et al. (eds.), The Past and Beyond: Studies in History and Philosophy Presented to Elazar Weinrib [Hebrew] (Raanana 2006)., 99-116 (Hebrew).
5. R. Ben-Shalom, The Social Context of Apostasy among Fifteenth-Century Spanish Jewry, in: eds. J. Cohen and M. Rosman, Rethinking European Jewish History, London 2008, pp, 173-198 (forthcoming)

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Invited Commentaries in Refereed Journals

1. D. Schwartz, Yashan be-kankan hadash: The Philosophy of a Fourteenth Century Jewish Neo-Platonic Circle (Jerusalem, 1996), Zion, LXIV (1999), 235-242 (Hebrew).
2. M. Orfali, Imanuel Aboab’s Nomologia o Discursus legales: The Struggle Over the Authority of the Law, The Jewish Quarterly Review, XCI (2001), 433-437.
3. R. Ben-Shalom, The Jews of Spain on the Eve of the Expulsion: Fading or flourishing, Pe'amim, XCI (2002), 193-198 (Hebrew).

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Articles in Conference Proceedings

1. R. Ben-Shalom, Polemic Historiography in Sefer Yuhasin. Proceedings of the Eleventh World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, 1994, II, 1, 121-128 (Hebrew).
2. R. Ben-Shalom, Exempla and Popes: Church Imagery in the Spanish and Provencal Jewish Mentalité, Convivencia de Culturas y Sociedades Mediterráneas. V Encuentros Judaicos de Tudela, Pamplona, 2004, 177-190.
3. R. Ben-Shalom, "The Tibbonides Heritage and Christian Culture: Provence, c.1186 – c.1470", in: ed. D. Iancu-Agou, Des Tibbonides á Maïmonide: Rayonnement des Juifs andalous en Pays d’Oc (forthcoming)

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Edited Books

1. A. Horowitz, O. Limor, R. Ben-Shalom and A. Bar-Levav, The Past and Beyond: Studies in History and Philosophy Presented to Elazar Weinrib [Hebrew] (Raanana 2006).

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Other Publications

1. D. Bahat in collaboration with R. Ben-Shalom, Israel – 2000 Years; A History of People and Places (1999), Jerusalem.

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