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Dr. Rafi Tsirkin-Sadan, Senior Lecturer

Contact Info

The Open University of Israel Department of Literature, Language and Arts One University Road P.O.B. 808 Ra’anana 4353701, Israel
Office:09-7781657 Fax:09-7782671 Email:rafaelt@openu.ac.il

Additional Information

My CRIS profile

Areas of Interest
  • Russian Literature
  • Russian Intellectual and Cultural History
  • Hebrew Literature in the European Context
  • Poetics of Space
  • Literature and History

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2004-2010
Ph.D. the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Institute of Contemporary Jewry
Dissertation: Y. H. Brenner's Work and Its Connection to Russian Literature and Thought
Supervisors: Prof. Menachem Brinker (ז''ל); Prof. Jonathan Frankel (ז''ל)
2000-2003
M.A. magna cum laude the Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
Dep. of History, specialization in Russian Studies
Thesis: Nihilism in Russian Literature, 1862-1866
Supervisor: Prof. Jonathan Frankel (ז''ל)
1997-2000
B.A. magna cum laude the Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
Depts. of History and of Islamic and Middle-Eastern Studies
Since 2018
Department of Literature, Language, and the Arts, The Open University of Israel: Senior Lecturer
2015-2019
Department of Comparative Literature, Tel Aviv University: Adjunct Lecturer
2014-2016
Department of German, Russian, and East-European Studies, The Hebrew University: Adjunct Lecturer
2013-2014
Department of Hebrew Literature, the Hebrew University and Department of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Sapir College: Adjunct Lecturer
2012-2013
Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies, Columbia University: Visiting Lecturer
2010-2012
Department of Hebrew Literature and the School of History, the Hebrew University: Adjunct Lecturer

Post-Doctoral Fellowships

2016-2018: German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development

2014-2015: Israeli Inter-University Partnership in Russian and East-European Studies

2013-2015: Daat Hamakom: I-Core in the Study of Modern Jewish Culture

2012-2013: Rabin Fellowship, Institute of Israel and Jewish Studies, Columbia University

2012-2013: Anne Tanenbaum Fellowship, Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Toronto, (declined)

2011-2012: Warburg Fellowship, the Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies, the Hebrew University

2010-2012: Herzl Fellowship, Cherrick Center for the Study of Zionism, the Yishuv, and the state of Israel, the Hebrew University

2010-2011: Yad Ben-Zvi Institute Post-Doctoral Award

Doctoral Awards

2006-2010: Israeli Council for Higher Education Rotenstreich Fellowship for Outstanding Doctoral Candidates (Vatat)

2010, 2006-2007:: Beit Shalom Aleichem Award for Doctoral Candidates

2005-2006: Shlomo Glass and Fanny Balaban-Glass Memorial Fund Award in Jewish studies, Institute of Contemporary Jewry, the Hebrew University

2004-2005: David and Ruth Livingston Scholarship, Institute of Contemporary Jewry, the Hebrew University

2004-2005: Ginzburg Award, Department of Russian and Slavic Studies, the Hebrew University

Personal Research Grants

ISF, 841/20, 2020- 2023, Project: David Vygodsky: Translator, Critic, Poet, 140,000 NIS per annum

International Research Projects

2016-2019: International Research Project: In their Surroundings: Localizing Modern Jewish Literatures in Eastern Europe, German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development (with Dr. Natasha Gordinsky, University of Haifa) 

2011-2013: International Research Project: Literature by Emigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Germany and Israel, Connect Program of German-Israeli Frontiers of Humanities, von Humboldt Foundation (with Dr. Hans-Joachim Hahn, University of Zurich)

2010-2012: International Research Project: Jewish Migration from and within Eastern Europe, 1855-Present, the Leonid Nevzlin Research Center for Russian and East 
European Jewry, The Hebrew University

Participation in Research Groups

2019-2020, The Young Scientist Forum in the Humanities and Social Sciences (Head Prof. Yoel Rak)
The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities

January 25 - 26, 2023: Revolutionizing the City: Urban Reality in the Wake of October 1917
International conference, The Open University of Israel, University of Amsterdam and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (with Dr. Semion Goldin, Prof. Bart Wallet) 

November 15, 2020 Annual conference, Israeli Partnership in Russian and East 
European studies, 
The Open University of Israel (with Dr. Inna Leykin)

February 5, 2020: Chernobyl as a Parable: To Understand Nuclear Disaster During Post-Truth Period
The Open University of Israel (with Dr. Inna Leykin and Prof. Ishai Landa)

March 15-16, 2015: To Moscow! To Moscow! European Metropolis and the Birth of Modern Hebrew Literature
International conference, The Hebrew University (with Dr. Natasha Gordinsky)

May 7, 2012: Kolot min-ha-Nekhar: Culture and Immigration in Israel
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Ben-Zvi Institute

Since 2023 – Anastasia Wissotzky, Ph. D Thesis Political Theology in Dostoevsky’s Karamazov’s Brothers, Tel Aviv University (with Uri S. Cohen)    

Since 2022 – Michael Gordon, MA Thesis Comparative Historiography of the Great Duchy of Lithuania, The Open University of Israel, MA program in History (with Prof. Iris Shagrir)

Since 2023: Institutional Supervisor for Quality Assurance

Since 2020: Head of Literature Section, Department of Literature, Language, and the Arts

Since 2019: Head of Library Committee

2022-2023: Member of Steering Committee on Behalf of The Open University, Israeli Partnership in Russian and East-European Studies

2022-2023: Member in Judging Committee, Sapir Prize Annual Literary Award, Mifal HaPayis

Since 2022: Advisor, The Department of Exemplary Literature Translation in Israeli Center for Libraries  

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Tsirkin-Sadan, R. Y. H. Brenner's Work and Its Connection to Russian Literature and Thought, Supervised by Prof. Menachem Brinker and Prof. Jonathan Frankel, 2010

 Tsirkin-Sadan, R. (2015).¬ Wandering Heroes of Committed Literature: Nihilists and Nihilism in Russian Literature, 1862- 1866 [in Hebrew]. Jerusalem: Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and Ha-Kibbutz Ha-Meuhad, 151 pages.

- English version (under contract). Bloomington, IN: Slavica, Indiana University.

Tsirkin-Sadan, R. (2013). Jewish Letters in the Pushkin Library: Y. H. Brenner's Work and Its Connection to Russian Literature and Thought [in Hebrew]. Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 260 pages.

Tsirkin-Sadan, R. and Jonatan Meir (2022). Scientific editing and introduction, The Ground Exile: Seven Essays by Yosef Haim Brenner [in Hebrew]. Jerusalem-Berlin: Blima Books, 166 pages. 

Gordinsky N and Tsirkin-Sadan, R. (2019). Guest editor of special issue of Jerusalem Studies in Hebrew Literature:  The Image of European Metropolis in Modern Jewish Literature

Dubnov, A., Florsheim, F., and Tsirkin-Sadan, R. (2009). Zionism As Seen from Without, part of the series Selected Issues in the History of the Yishuv and the State of Israel [in Hebrew]. Bialik Institute, 124 pages.

Tsirkin-Sadan, R. (accepted for publication). "The Gospel According to Mikhail: The Economics of Redemption and the End of History in The Master and Margarita", OT: A Journal of Literary Criticism and Theory, [in Hebrew].

Tsirkin-Sadan, R. (accepted for publication). "The Art of Rhetoric: A Comparative Analysis of Essayistic Aspects in the Works of Yosef Ḥaim Brenner and Fyodor Dostoyevsky”, Prooftexts: A Journal for Jewish Literary History

Tsirkin-Sadan, R. and Gordinsky, N. (2023) "The Hebrew Text of Gomel: Space, Genre, Modernity," Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. 113, Number 3 (Summer 2023), pp. 424 - 451 

Tsirkin-Sadan, R. (2022). "Adaptation as Dissent: The Master and Margarita in the Retellings of Andrzej Waida and Aleskandar Petrovic", Australian Slavonic and East European Studies, Vol. 36, pp. 75 – 101.  

Tsirkin-Sadan, R. (2022). "Zwischen Ablehnung und Anerkennung: Simon Dubnow als Literaturkritiker ," Jahrbuch des Dubnow-Instituts, Vol. 18, pp. 459 - 480

Tsirkin-Sadan, R. (2020). "Genre and Politics: The Concept of Empire in Joseph  Brodksy's work",Partial Anwers: Journal of Litrerature and the History of Ideas, pp.119 - 143

Tsirkin-Sadan, R, (forthcoming 2020). "From Revision to Rehabilitation:  Simon Dubnov as a Literary Critic", Jahrbuch des Simon-Dubnow-Insituts [in German].

Tsirkin-Sadan, R. (2019). "A Curse of Forbidden City: Peterburgian Sonnets of Haim Lensky and the Image of St. Petersburg in Russian and Hebrew Literature", Jerusalem Studies in Hebrew Literature, pp. 121 – 142 [in Hebrew].

Tsirkin-Sadan, R. (2017). "Empire, Nationalism and East-West Dichotomy in Samson by Ze’ev Zabotinsky", Theory and Criticism: Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, pp. 81 – 104 [in Hebrew].

Tsirkin-Sadan, R. (2014). "Between Marginal and Transnational: Post-Soviet Immigration in Hebrew Literature." East European Jewish Affairs, special issue on Jewish Migration, Vol. 44, pp. 253-268.

Tsirkin-Sadan, R. (2012)."Tolstoy, Zionism and the Hebrew Culture." Tolstoy Studies Journal, volume XXIV, 2012, pp. 26-35.

Tsirkin-Sadan, R. (2011)."Theology and Politics in The Brothers Karamazov", Zmanim, November 2011, pp. 52-65. [in Hebrew].

Tsirkin-Sadan, R. (2009). "Y. H. Brenner's Criticism and the Theory of Russian Realism". Jerusalem Studies in Hebrew Literature, Vol. 23, pp. 183-214. [in Hebrew].

Tsirkin-Sadan, R., (2022). "Hebrew Verse and the End of St. Petersburg: A Close Reading of Haim Lensky's The Day Came Down," in In Their Surroundings: Localizing Modern Jewish Literatures in Eastern Europe, Yfaat Weiss, Sabina Koller, Efrat Gal-Ed, Natasha Gordinsky (eds.). Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, pp. 157 – 170. 

Tsirkin-Sadan, R. (2019). "From Revision to Rehabilitation:  Simon Dubnov as a Literary Critic",  Am ve-Olam: A Tribute to Professor Israel Bartal, edited by Dimitry Shumsky, Jonathan Meir, Gershon David Hundert [in Hebrew]. Zalman Shazar Insitute for the Jewish History, pp. 97- 116.

Tsirkin-Sadan, R. (2013). "Self-Evaluation by Means of Art: Brenner's Reading of Belinsky" in Bounded Mind and Soul: Russia and Israel, 1880-2010, edited by Horowitz, Brian and Shai Ginsburg. Bloomington, IN: Slavica, Indiana University. pp. 97-107.

Tsirkin-Sadan R. (2022). "Review on Sivan Beskin's Seven Days of Spring – A Memoir, Panas: Supplement to literary criticism, Vol. 12. [in Hebrew]  

Tsirkin-Sadan. R (2018). "Review on Shelly Zer Sion's HaBima in Berlin: the Institutionalization of a Zionist Theatre, East European Jewish Affairs, vol. 47, issue 2-3, pp. 324 – 327.

Tsirkin-Sadan, R. (2013). "Review of Leonid Livak's The Jewish Persona in the European Imagination: A Case of Russian Literature", Studies in Contemporary Jewry, vol. 27, pp. 328-330.

Tsirkin-Sadan. R. (2018). "Joseph Brodksy: The Last of the Imperial Poets". Alpayim and More: Multidisciplinary Journal for Contemporary Thought and Literature, Nitza Drori (ed.), pp. 194 -215. [in Hebrew].

Tsirkin-Sadan, R. (2013). "Margins of Freedom: Joseph Brodsky's Essayist Writing". Kol Kore: Metula Poetry Festival Vol. 1, Ury Hollander (ed.), May 2013: pp. 29-34. [in Hebrew]

Conferences

February 15-16, 2009: "'Self Evaluation' by means of art: Brenner Reading Belinskii"
International Conference: The Expanse of Russia in Israel
University of Tulane, New Orleans.

September 23, 2009: "The reception of Leo Tolstoy in the Hebrew Literature"
International Conference: Teach the Young According to Their Way: Trends in Late 19th-Early 20th Century Jewish Education
University College London

March 6-7, 2010:"Brenner's Literary Criticism and Theories of Russian Realism"
International Workshop: Perspectives on Brenner
Columbia University, New York

October 3-6, 2010: "Place, Language, and Belonging in Joseph Brodsky's Essays"
International Conference: In and Out of Place: Dynamics of Belonging, 2nd Annual German-Israeli Frontiers of Humanities Symposium (GISFOH 2010),
Potsdam

January 2, 2011: "Tolstoy, Zionism, and the Hebrew Culture",
The Scholion Lectures Marathon
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

October 15-19, 2012: "From Particular to Universal: Hebrew Literature by Post-Soviet Immigrants"
International Conference: Russian Jewish Migration Across Borders, Across Time Columbia University, New York

March 18, 2014: "Between Aesthetics and Politics: Reflections on Early Hebrew Criticism"
Inter-disciplinary conference: Borders
Sapir College, Sderot

June 24-26, 2014: "Brenner and Dostoevsky"
Annual Conference of National Association of Professors of Hebrew Annual Conference
Ben-Gurion University, Beer Sheva

Dec 28-30, 2014: "Simon Dubnov as Literary Critic"
International Conference in the honor of Prof. Israel Bartal: Making History Jewish
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

January 11-12, 2015: "The East-West Dichotomy in Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky's Samson"
International Conference: Mediating Israeli and East-European History
Saitama University, Tokyo

. March 15-16, 2015: "Cities of Joseph Brodsky"
International Workshop: To Moscow, To Moscow! European Metropolis and the birth of Modern Hebrew Literature,
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

June 1, 2015: "Manuscripts don't burn! They turn into the movie scripts: Master and Margarita on the screen"
Annual Conference of Israeli Inter-University Partnership in Russian and East-European Studies
Ben Gurion University of Negev

May 15, 2017:"Sensualists or Revolutionaries? Sex and Radicalism in 19th century Russian Literature"
Conference: Autobiography Literature and Testimony in Russian Context and Beyond
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

October 16-17, 2017: "Slivers of Empire: Towards the Collective Biography of Post-Soviet Hebrew Writers"
International Conference Exodus of the Mind: East-West Knowledge Transfer Since 1989
German and Israeli foundation for Scientific Research and Development (GIF), Potsdam

December 14-15. 2017: "Homel as a Laboratory of Modern Hebrew Literature"
International Workshop in the framework of GIF research project At their Surroundings: Localizing Modern Jewish Literatures in Eastern Europe
University of Regensburg

. December 26-28, 2017: "Round Table: Israeli Culture and the Reds"
International Conference Russian and Zionist Revolutions: Visions of New Society in 1917and Today 
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

October 23- 25, 2018: "Close Reading of Haim Lensky's poem 'The Day Came Down' 
International Conference Shared Spaces – Contact Zones: Modern Hebrew and Yiddish Literature in Eastern Europe
Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture, The University of Leipcig.

May 13-16, 2019: "Empire and Nationalism in Vladimir Jabotinsky's Samson
International Conferences Mapping Victorian Empires, Cultures, Identities
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and The University of Haifa  

December 29, 2019: "Gomel: The Lost Center of Hebrew Modernism",
Annual Inter-University Conference for the Study of the Hebrew Literature,
The Open University of Israel (with Natasha Gordinsky)

January 22, 2020: "Round Table: Hebrew and Russian as Source and Translation Languages in Israel"
Founding Conference of the Jewish-Russian Literature Program 
Bar-Ilan University

February 5, 2020: "Round Table: Memories and Morals of Chernobyl"
Chernobyl as a Parable: To Understand Nuclear Disaster During Post-Truth Period
The Open University of Israel

April 29-May 1, 2020: "Defending the World Republic of Letters in the Age of Totalitarianism: The Case of David Vygodsky"
International Conferences The Limits of (un)freedom: Intellectuals and Illiberalism in Central, Eastern and Baltic Europe,University of Tartu -Postponed due to Covid 19-

June 21 - 22, 2021: "Between Palestine and Odessa: Samson by Vladimir Jabotinsky"
International Conference Odessa, Cosmopolitanism, Modernism
The Israel Institute for Advanced Studies

June 28-31, 2021: "The City of Gomel: Laboratory of Hebrew Modernism" 
International Conference The History, Culture and Heritage of Jews in Belarus Across the Ages
Belarusian-Jewish Cultural Heritage Center in Minsk and University of Southampton

November 3, 2021: "Brenner and Dostoevsky"
Yosef Haim Brenner and his Work
The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities

December 7-9, 2021: "Joseph Brodsky: The Last Imperial Poet"   International Conference, Mnemopoetics of the 20th-century Traumas: History and Culture, University of Lausanne 

January 25-26, 2023: "From Periphery to Center and Back: Haim Lensky’s Leningrad Sonnets"
International Conference, Revolutionizing the City: Urban Reality in the Wake of October 1917, University of Amsterdam

Guest Lectures and Seminars

April 27, 2010: "Y. H. Brenner's Work and Russian Thought and Literature"
Guest Lecture, Cummings Center for Russian and East-European Studies
Tel Aviv University

December 1, 2011: "The East-West Dichotomy in Russian Zionism"
Guest Lecture, Cherrick Center Forum for the Study of Zionism
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

February 25, 2014: "Post-Colonial Readings of Samson by Vladimir (Ze’ev) Jabotinsky"
Guest lecture, Cherrick Center Annual Reception for Herzl Fellows
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

May 8, 2014: "Jerusalem as a Site of Desire: The Cases of Yehuda Amihai and Uri Zvi Greenberg"
Guest Lecture, Sapir College

February 20, 2015: "Hebrew Literature in the European context" (with Dr. Natasha Gordinsky)
Seminar, Deutsche Literaturarchiv, Marbach

May 19, 2016: "Under Russian Eyes: Israeli Place and Literature in Russian-language literature in Israel"
Guest Lecture, Cherrick Center Forum for the Study of Zionism
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

March 29, 2017: "Joseph Brodsky: The Last of Imperial Poets"
Guest Lecture, Department of Comparative Literature
Haifa University

June 2, 2019: "Eros and Revolution: Two Poles in The World of Leftist Radical in 19th Russian Literature"
Guest Lecture, Russian and East-European Studies Program
Tel Aviv University

June 5, 2019: "Nikolai Gogol and Bureaucracy"
Guest lecture, Department of Hebrew and General Literature   
Beit Berl College

March 15, 2021: "Russian and Hebrew Literatures: Contacts and Influences"
Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Sefer Center for University Teaching of Jewish Civilization in Moscow   

June 11, 2023: "Poetry and History: The Concept of the Empire in Joseph Brodsky’s work"   
Guest lecture, Department if History, Philosophy, and Judaic Studies , The Open University of Israel

Public Talks

December 18, 2011: "The Immigrant as a Critic, the Writer as an Immigrant," Keynote Address
Literary Encounter on Immigration and Literature with the participation of
H.E. Mr. Shimon Peres, President of the State of Israel
President of the State of Israel Residence, Jerusalem

September 11, 2012: "Immigration in Modern Jewish Literature"
Columbia University Hillel, New York

February 2014: Series of lectures on Russian-Jewish Literature
Zalman Shazar Center, Jerusalem

December 1, 2014: "Between Jewish Renaissance and Russian Decadence: Literary Works by Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky"
Menachem Begin Heritage Center, Jerusalem

May 27, 2014: "Between Leo Tolstoy and Meir Shalev: Russian Romances of Hebrew Literature"
Catedra Lecture Series "Mother Russia and Eretz Israel"
Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv

April, 2019: "Literature as History, History as Literature: Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace"
Radio University Series War and Peace, Galei Tzahal 

November  9, 2020: Book Launch Event, Am ve-Olam: A Tribute to Israel Bartal (eds. Jonatan Meir, Dimitry Shumsky, Gershon Hundert), Zalman Shazar Center

January 4, 2022: Book Launch Event, The Russian Context of Hebrew Literature by Hamutal Bar Yosef
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 

May 19, 2022: Conversation with 2018 Noble Prize Winner Olga Tokarczuk
The Open University of Israel

June 4, 2023: Book Launch Event, Problems of Discipline: Secondary Education, Activism, and the Origins of The Jewish Intelligentsia in the Russian Empire by Alex Valdman
Tel Aviv University   

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  • Cities and Books (in process)
  • Introduction to the Arts (Coordinated by Prof. Adia Mendelson-Maoz and Dr. Michael Fagenblat), Literature Unit
  • The Bildungsroman and its Variations: Generic, Formal, Political and Psychological Implications
  • Basic Conventions of the 19th Century Novel

  • The World in Literature

  • Selected Hebrew Short Stories: Early 20th Century

  • Since 2020: Modern Russia: History and Culture, MA program in History, Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies, The Open University of Israel
  • 2018-2019: Russian Story: Heroes, Images, Ideas, MA, Comparative Literature, Tel Aviv University
  • 2017-2018: Saint Petersburg: Texts, Images, History, MA, Comparative Literature, Tel Aviv University
  • 2017-2018: After the Revolution: Russian Literature in 20th century, BA, Comparative Literature, Tel Aviv University
  • 2016-2017: Nikolay Gogol:  A Strange Classic of Russian Literature, BA,
    Comparative Literature, Tel Aviv University
  • 2016-2017: Literary and Philosophical World of Leo Tolstoy, BA, Comparative Literature, Tel Aviv University
  • 2015-2016: From Moscow to Jerusalem: Post-Soviet Immigration to Israel in Film and Literature, MA, Russian Studies, The Hebrew University 
  • 2015-2016: Literary and Philosophical Worlds of Fyodor Dostoevsky, BA, Comparative Literature, Tel Aviv University
  • 2015-2016: Introduction to Russian Literature, BA, Comparative Literature, Tel Aviv University
  • 2014-2015: Individual and Family in Leo Tolstoy's Works, BA, Russian Studies, The Hebrew University
  • 2014-2015: The October Revolution in Film and Literature, BA, Russian Studies, The Hebrew University
  • 2013-2014: Introduction to Romantic Literature, BA, Liberal Arts and Sciences Dept., Sapir College
  • 2013-2014: Immigration in Israeli Literature, Hebrew Literature Dept., BA, The Hebrew University
  • 2013-2014: The Magic of Russia in Hebrew Literature, BA, Hebrew Literature Dept., The Hebrew University
  • 2012-2013: The Image of Jerusalem in Modern Hebrew Literature, Columbia University
  • 2012-2013: Immigration in Modern Jewish Literature, Columbia University
  • 2010-2012: Trends in Modern Historiography BA, School of History, The Hebrew University
  • 2011-2012: Y. H. Brenner: Writer, Critic, Journalist, BA, Hebrew Literature Dept., The Hebrew University
  • 2011-2012: Zionist Socialism: Ideology and Culture, MA, History of the Jewish People and Contemporary Jewry Dept., The Hebrew University
  • 2010-2011:  Literature and Immigration from Eastern Europe, BA, School of Literature, The Hebrew University