The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Prof. Dr. Yaron Ben-Naeh
Bernard Cherrick Chair in the History of the Jewish People
Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry
Official University Profile: University of Jerusalem – Yaron Ben-Naeh
Expertise: Ottoman Jewish History; Sephardi and Mizrahi Jewish History; Jewish Communities in Islamic Lands; Social and Cultural History; History of Palestine during the Ottoman Period; Ladino Studies; Jewish Material Culture; Jewish Manuscripts; Jewish Photography; Book History.
Member of Editorial Board of European Hebrew Journal
CURRICULUM VITAE
Academic Profile
Prof. Dr. Yaron Ben-Naeh is Full Professor in the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and holds the Bernard Cherrick Chair in the History of the Jewish People. Since 2008 he has served as Chair of the Misgav Yerushalayim Research Center for the Heritage of Sephardi Jewry.
His research focuses on the social and cultural history of Jewish communities in Islamic lands, particularly within the Ottoman Empire, as well as the history of Palestine under Ottoman rule. Throughout his academic career he has investigated everyday life, material culture, Jewish communal institutions, family history, historical photography, libraries, manuscripts, and the transmission of Hebrew and Ladino texts.
Prof. Ben-Naeh has published more than one hundred scholarly articles, numerous book chapters, and several monographs. His work has become a major contribution to the study of Sephardi and Ottoman Jewry and is widely recognized internationally.
QUALIFICATIONS
1987–1989
B.A. (magna cum laude) in Archaeology and Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
1990–1992
M.A. (magna cum laude) in Jewish History, specializing in Ottoman Jewry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
1993–2000
Ph.D. in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Dissertation: The Jewish Society in the Urban Centers of the Ottoman Empire in the Seventeenth Century (Istanbul, Salonica and Izmir).
1995–1996
Advanced studies in Modern Turkish, Ottoman Turkish, and Ottoman History at Boğaziçi University (Istanbul) and Bilkent University (Ankara).
2002–2006
Postdoctoral Fellow, Scholion Interdisciplinary Research Center, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
ACADEMIC POSITIONS AND APPOINTMENTS
Instructor, Department of Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Lecturer, Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry.
Senior Lecturer with Tenure.
Associate Professor.
Full Professor.
Bernard Cherrick Chair in the History of the Jewish People.
Chair, Misgav Yerushalayim Research Center for the Heritage of Sephardi Jewry.
Head of the Modern Period Division, Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry.
RESEARCH
Prof. Ben-Naeh’s research explores the history of Jewish life in the Ottoman Empire from social, cultural, economic, and intellectual perspectives. His work emphasizes everyday life, gender, family history, poverty, philanthropy, commerce, manuscript culture, libraries, historical photography, and material culture.
Another major area of his scholarship concerns Sephardi communities in Palestine during the Ottoman period, especially Jerusalem, as well as Jewish communities throughout the eastern Mediterranean.
His recent research also investigates Jewish wills, egodocuments, archives of merchant families, Hebrew book collections, and the circulation of books and manuscripts across the Ottoman world.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Ottoman Jewish History
Sephardi Jewish History
Mizrahi Jewish History
Jewish Communities in Islamic Lands
History of Palestine during the Ottoman Period
Jerusalem under Ottoman Rule
Ladino Studies
Social and Cultural History
Material Culture
Jewish Libraries
Hebrew Manuscripts
Book History
Historical Photography
Jewish Egodocuments
Gender History
Economic History
ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP AND MEMBERSHIPS
Chair, Misgav Yerushalayim Research Center for the Heritage of Sephardi Jewry.
Head of the Modern Period Division, Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry.
Member of numerous international scholarly organizations in Jewish Studies and Ottoman Studies.
PUBLICATIONS
Selected Publications
Jews in the Realm of the Sultans: Ottoman Jewish Society in the Seventeenth Century.
The Legal Status and Socio-economic Integration of the Jews in the Ottoman State. In Jüdische Lebenswelten im Osmanischen Reich, 2024.
The Inheritance Register of a Jewish Financier in Eighteenth-Century Istanbul: Credit, Jewels, and Death Rites. Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 2025.
A Corpus of Jewish Wills from the Ottoman Empire.
Debar Śepatayim: An Ottoman Hebrew Chronicle from the Crimea (1683–1730).
Captives or Crooks? Pirates, Impostors, and Jewish Communities in the Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Empire.
Poverty, Paupers and Poor Relief in Ottoman Jewish Society.
Burial, Burial Societies and Funerary Inscriptions from the Jewish Cemetery of Cairo circa 1700.