BGU Student Receives Prize for Israel Studies
BGU Student Receives Prize for Israel Studies
February 13, 2014
Israel Studies, Culture & Jewish Thought
Claudia Oesau at the Yad Ben Tzvi Prize ceremony.
Claudia Oesau was recently awarded the Yad Ben Tzvi Prize for her master’s thesis on Eastern and Sephardic Jewish heritage.
Oesau, who is studying in BGU’s Israel Studies International Program (ISIP) at the Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism, received the prize for her thesis, “Perspectives of Jewish Emigration from Iran after the 1979 Revolution.”
In her thesis, she used qualitative interviews with Iranian Jews living in Israel to learn about their emigration experience. Many spoke of Iran with a mix of nostalgia and pain, and for all of them the translocation was an event of major significance.
“I am from Germany. I study at BGU because of my personal interest in the State of Israel. I chose BGU because I liked the atmosphere and I believe the ISIP program is unique,” she says.
BGU launched ISIP less than three years ago. The English-language graduate program is the first of its kind in Israel. Oesau is the first student in the program to win a research prize.
“The receipt of this prize is not just a great accomplishment for Claudia,” says Americans for Ben-Gurion University Executive Vice President Doron Krakow. “It also speakes volumes for the caliber of this young program, which is gaining worldwide prominence every day.”
During her speech at the ceremony, given in Hebrew, Oesau thanked her advisor, Prof. Esther Meir-Glitzenstein, and Institute Director and Program Chair Dr. Paula Kabalo.
“ISIP students function as a community of learners,” says Dr. Kabalo.
“Most of them live on the Sde Boker campus and are engaged in research projects at the Ben-Gurion Archives. They are part and parcel of the Institute and bring with them their diverse cultural backgrounds that enable them to choose unique topics and hidden perspectives of Israeli experience.”
The program consists of students from the United States, Germany, China, Korea, Bulgaria, Mexico, Argentina, Georgia, and Armenia. Next year, students from the United Kingdom, Azerbaijan and other countries will be enrolling in the program.
Stories Like This
