Yair Wallach
Biographic Data
| ID | 913821 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Yair Wallach |
| GIVEN NAMES | Yair |
| FAMILY NAME | Wallach |
| SIGNATURE | WALLACH Y |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of London |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2009-3975 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 41 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 15 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The Ottoman Production of Ashkenazi Identity
The Unexplored History of Ashkenazi Integration in Late Ottoman Palestine
To what extent did Ashkenazi Jews integrate and acculturate into the local society, culture, and politics of late Ottoman Palestine? This question has been almost entirely ignored by the voluminous scholarship on the migration of Jews from central and eastern Europe to Palestine. This article challenges the widely held assumption that such integration was nonexistent and impossible. Building on recent work on Ashkenazi adoption of Arab clothes, A…
The racial logic of Palestine’s partition
The partition of Palestine was first proposed more than eight decades ago. It remains a consensus international approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Why was Palestine the only settler-colonial context outside Europe in which partition became a dominant “solution”? This article argues that the explanation is found in European racial attitudes towards Jews and Arabs in the first half of the twentieth century. British and international poli…
Tourist, Pilgrim, Migrant, Settler
This article looks at Ashkenazi-operated hotels in Tiberias, Beirut, Jerusalem, Jaffa, Cairo, Alexandria, and elsewhere, in the late Ottoman period and under British rule, to consider the confusing ambiguities that these stories reveal. Ashkenazi presence in Palestine is typically understood in terms of either the pious, zealot pilgrims, or the nationalist settlers. And yet the story of the hotel owners and operators could also fit into a differe…
Toda’at Mishna, Toda’at Mikra
The Unbuilt Parliament
The deliberations over the establishment of a legislative assembly in Mandatory Palestine have long been dismissed by the historiography as one of many failed ideas of the Mandate. Yet the legislative assembly was not a mere concept thrown around in pointless rounds of negotiations; it was also an architectural project that came remarkably close to being built, involving several plots of land in Jerusalem, countless architectural drawings, and cl…
MDMA-assisted therapy for severe PTSD
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) presents a major public health problem for which currently available treatments are modestly effective. We report the findings of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multi-site phase 3 clinical trial (NCT03537014) to test the efficacy and safety of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)-assisted therapy for the treatment of patients with severe PTSD, including those with common comorbidities suc…
How to fight antisemitism? Lessons from the Russian Revolution
Brendan McGeever’s book on Antisemitism in the Russian Revolution provides an analysis of Soviet response to “Red Antisemitism” – the involvement of some Bolsheviks in the pogroms of the Civil War. McGeever’s analysis provides insights that are relevant to contemporary anti-racist praxis, and particularly to response antisemitism on the left. Antisemitism, in 2021, takes place radically different set of material entanglements than in 1919, and it…
A City in Fragments
In the mid-nineteenth century, Jerusalem was rich with urban texts inscribed in marble, gold, and cloth, investing holy sites with divine meaning. Ottoman modernization and British colonial rule transformed the city; new texts became a key means to organize society and subjectivity. Stone inscriptions, pilgrims' graffiti, and sacred banners gave way to street markers, shop signs, identity papers, and visiting cards that each sought to define and …
Defining neighbours
Defining neighbours: religion, race, and the early Zionist-Arab encounter." Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 17(4), pp. 511–512
Rethinking the yishuv
This article argues for a significant revision in the understanding of Jews in late-Ottoman Palestine: from a model of a singular community (the yishuv) to a model of multiple communities, embedded within local, regional and global networks. The conceptualization of Palestine’s Jewry is reappraised, from the Jerusalem School to recent literature. Despite acknowledging their ethnic and linguistic diversity, the historiography has long portrayed Pa…
Israel Has Moved
The politics of non-iconic space
City streets and squares have become centre stage for political change, in the wave of protests in Europe and the Middle East. Most protest locations are iconic sites of national resonance. Yet this was not the case in the summer 2011 wave of social protests in Israel. Rothschild Boulevard, which was the heart of the protest movement, is a non-iconic street usually associated with the good life of sushi and espresso bars and constant cycle traffi…
Creating a country through currency and stamps
Recent studies have examined the use of currency and stamps for nation-building in various contexts, with these artefacts seen as vehicles for indoctrination and gaining legitimacy by ruling elites – as a form of "banal nationalism". This article goes further to argue that in moments of geopolitical upheaval, these symbolic artefacts can play a crucial role in shaping the very framework of nationhood. This article focuses on the Middle East durin…
Trapped in mirror-images
The map of Israel/Palestine has long been used by both Israelis and Palestinians, from their unequal power positions, as a celebrated national symbol. It is virtually the same map, depicting a sliver-shaped land between River Jordan and the Mediterranean, two overlapping homelands in one territory. Thus, a single geo-body appears to contain two antagonistic and asymmetrical nations, locked in a bitter struggle. The article interprets the uncanny …
Creating a country through currency and stamps
Recent studies have examined the use of currency and stamps for nation-building in various contexts, with these artefacts seen as vehicles for indoctrination and gaining legitimacy by ruling elites – as a form of "banal nationalism". This article goes further to argue that in moments of geopolitical upheaval, these symbolic artefacts can play a crucial role in shaping the very framework of nationhood. This article focuses on the Middle East durin…
Trapped in mirror-images
The map of Israel/Palestine has long been used by both Israelis and Palestinians, from their unequal power positions, as a celebrated national symbol. It is virtually the same map, depicting a sliver-shaped land between River Jordan and the Mediterranean, two overlapping homelands in one territory. Thus, a single geo-body appears to contain two antagonistic and asymmetrical nations, locked in a bitter struggle. The article interprets the uncanny …
Rethinking the yishuv
This article argues for a significant revision in the understanding of Jews in late-Ottoman Palestine: from a model of a singular community (the yishuv) to a model of multiple communities, embedded within local, regional and global networks. The conceptualization of Palestine’s Jewry is reappraised, from the Jerusalem School to recent literature. Despite acknowledging their ethnic and linguistic diversity, the historiography has long portrayed Pa…
The politics of non-iconic space
City streets and squares have become centre stage for political change, in the wave of protests in Europe and the Middle East. Most protest locations are iconic sites of national resonance. Yet this was not the case in the summer 2011 wave of social protests in Israel. Rothschild Boulevard, which was the heart of the protest movement, is a non-iconic street usually associated with the good life of sushi and espresso bars and constant cycle traffi…
The Unexplored History of Ashkenazi Integration in Late Ottoman Palestine
To what extent did Ashkenazi Jews integrate and acculturate into the local society, culture, and politics of late Ottoman Palestine? This question has been almost entirely ignored by the voluminous scholarship on the migration of Jews from central and eastern Europe to Palestine. This article challenges the widely held assumption that such integration was nonexistent and impossible. Building on recent work on Ashkenazi adoption of Arab clothes, A…
Creating a country through currency and stamps
Recent studies have examined the use of currency and stamps for nation-building in various contexts, with these artefacts seen as vehicles for indoctrination and gaining legitimacy by ruling elites – as a form of "banal nationalism". This article goes further to argue that in moments of geopolitical upheaval, these symbolic artefacts can play a crucial role in shaping the very framework of nationhood. This article focuses on the Middle East durin…
Trapped in mirror-images
The map of Israel/Palestine has long been used by both Israelis and Palestinians, from their unequal power positions, as a celebrated national symbol. It is virtually the same map, depicting a sliver-shaped land between River Jordan and the Mediterranean, two overlapping homelands in one territory. Thus, a single geo-body appears to contain two antagonistic and asymmetrical nations, locked in a bitter struggle. The article interprets the uncanny …
The politics of non-iconic space
City streets and squares have become centre stage for political change, in the wave of protests in Europe and the Middle East. Most protest locations are iconic sites of national resonance. Yet this was not the case in the summer 2011 wave of social protests in Israel. Rothschild Boulevard, which was the heart of the protest movement, is a non-iconic street usually associated with the good life of sushi and espresso bars and constant cycle traffi…
Rethinking the yishuv
This article argues for a significant revision in the understanding of Jews in late-Ottoman Palestine: from a model of a singular community (the yishuv) to a model of multiple communities, embedded within local, regional and global networks. The conceptualization of Palestine’s Jewry is reappraised, from the Jerusalem School to recent literature. Despite acknowledging their ethnic and linguistic diversity, the historiography has long portrayed Pa…
Israel Has Moved
Defining neighbours
Defining neighbours: religion, race, and the early Zionist-Arab encounter." Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 17(4), pp. 511–512
A City in Fragments
In the mid-nineteenth century, Jerusalem was rich with urban texts inscribed in marble, gold, and cloth, investing holy sites with divine meaning. Ottoman modernization and British colonial rule transformed the city; new texts became a key means to organize society and subjectivity. Stone inscriptions, pilgrims' graffiti, and sacred banners gave way to street markers, shop signs, identity papers, and visiting cards that each sought to define and …
MDMA-assisted therapy for severe PTSD
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) presents a major public health problem for which currently available treatments are modestly effective. We report the findings of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multi-site phase 3 clinical trial (NCT03537014) to test the efficacy and safety of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)-assisted therapy for the treatment of patients with severe PTSD, including those with common comorbidities suc…
How to fight antisemitism? Lessons from the Russian Revolution
Brendan McGeever’s book on Antisemitism in the Russian Revolution provides an analysis of Soviet response to “Red Antisemitism” – the involvement of some Bolsheviks in the pogroms of the Civil War. McGeever’s analysis provides insights that are relevant to contemporary anti-racist praxis, and particularly to response antisemitism on the left. Antisemitism, in 2021, takes place radically different set of material entanglements than in 1919, and it…
The Unbuilt Parliament
The deliberations over the establishment of a legislative assembly in Mandatory Palestine have long been dismissed by the historiography as one of many failed ideas of the Mandate. Yet the legislative assembly was not a mere concept thrown around in pointless rounds of negotiations; it was also an architectural project that came remarkably close to being built, involving several plots of land in Jerusalem, countless architectural drawings, and cl…
The racial logic of Palestine’s partition
The partition of Palestine was first proposed more than eight decades ago. It remains a consensus international approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Why was Palestine the only settler-colonial context outside Europe in which partition became a dominant “solution”? This article argues that the explanation is found in European racial attitudes towards Jews and Arabs in the first half of the twentieth century. British and international poli…
Tourist, Pilgrim, Migrant, Settler
This article looks at Ashkenazi-operated hotels in Tiberias, Beirut, Jerusalem, Jaffa, Cairo, Alexandria, and elsewhere, in the late Ottoman period and under British rule, to consider the confusing ambiguities that these stories reveal. Ashkenazi presence in Palestine is typically understood in terms of either the pious, zealot pilgrims, or the nationalist settlers. And yet the story of the hotel owners and operators could also fit into a differe…
Toda’at Mishna, Toda’at Mikra
The Unexplored History of Ashkenazi Integration in Late Ottoman Palestine
To what extent did Ashkenazi Jews integrate and acculturate into the local society, culture, and politics of late Ottoman Palestine? This question has been almost entirely ignored by the voluminous scholarship on the migration of Jews from central and eastern Europe to Palestine. This article challenges the widely held assumption that such integration was nonexistent and impossible. Building on recent work on Ashkenazi adoption of Arab clothes, A…
The Ottoman Production of Ashkenazi Identity
Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies (10 works) · Political science (9 works) · History (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Politics (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Ancient history (6 works) · Archaeology (5 works) · History (5 works) · Judaism (5 works)