Data Resources

On this page, you will find references to databases for research of Israel which were brought to the attention of the AIS. If you are a member and have a datasource that you would like posted on this webpage please email the AIS with the information.

Collection of Zionist and Herzl memorabilia

To celebrate Israel’s 75th birthday, David Matlow of Toronto, Canada has selected 75 artefacts from his personal collection of Zionist and Herzl memorabilia and shared them in a new book, 75 Treasures: Celebrating Israel at Seventy-Five.  The pages of the book are filled with the photos and stories of these inspiring items, and the book challenges each reader to add their own page to Israel’s continuing story.

75 Treasures is available for free download at https://herzlcollection.com/75-treasures.  Please feel free to use and share the book, as well as the other resources which are available at David’s website: https://herzlcollection.com/ 

Israiliyat: Journal of Israeli and Judaic Studies is a peer-reviewed journal centered in Turkey.
The journal is published in Turkish and English. It has been published since 2017. It publishes
two issues per year. Further, conferences on Israeli and Jewish studies are held annually.
Six conferences have been organized so far. The journal published 9 issues. Since this journal is the only journal that publishes specifically in the field of Israeli and Jewish studies, which is not a common field in Turkey, it is of great importance in terms of contributing to the literature.

DONATING COPIES OF HAOLAM HAZE

For donation: a personal collection of hundreds of copies of the HAOLAM HAZE weekly magazine (1950-1989). Interested individuals or institutions, please contact Yehuda Lukacs for further details: ylukacs@gmu.edu

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HaOlam_HaZeh

ISRAEL AFFAIRS

https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/fisa20

BGRI INFRASTRUCTURE INFORMATION SYSTEMS

BGRI-IIS maintains and operates the Ben-Gurion Archives, accommodates a 30,000-item up-to-date academic library, and initiates projects for the acquisition of new collections of primary sources related to Israel Studies.

The Ben-Gurion Archives, housed at BGRI, contain more than four million items held by David Ben-Gurion that reflect the history of Zionism and Israel from 1900 to 1973. Also kept in the Archives is a vast collection of documents gleaned from other locations in Israel and abroad, relating to the pre-independence community, the Zionist movement, and the State of Israel. Included here are personal collections of historical figures such as the Fifth President of the State of Israel, Yitzhak Navon; the American Zionist leader Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver; the Revisionist activist Hillel Kook; and Ben-Gurion’s principal biographer, Shabtai Tevet.

One of the most recent initiatives of the Archives is the Community Archives Project, which aims to accumulate, digitize, and make accessible the vast archive collections of medium-sized urban communities in southern and northern Israel (Negev and Galilee).

The Archives are fully digitized and accessible online.

https://bengurionarchive.bgu.ac.il/en

ISRAELI SPEAKER, ISRAELI EXPERT, ISRAELI SECURITY

Professor Chuck Freilich, a former deputy national security adviser in Israel and long-time senior fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center, teaches political science at Columbia, NYU and Tel Aviv Universities. He writes extensively about Israeli national security affairs, including Israel’s national security strategy and decision-making processes, the Iranian issue, US-Israeli relations, the peace process, Israel and the cyber threat, Hezbollah and Hamas and more.

www.ChuckFreilich.com

SUBSCRIBE TO “PERSPECTIVE” BY ALAN DOWTY 

AIS members are invited to subscribe for free to Perspective, a new twice-weekly Substack newsletter/blog by Alan Dowty.  The objective of Perspective is to provide historical context and broad background for current developments in American and Israeli politics.  Subscriptions, at alandowty.substack.com, include delivery of current postings to the subscriber’s inbox and access to past posts.  

Of particular interest to AIS members are 3. The Israeli Election: More of the Same?, and 5. The Iran Nuclear Deal: Worth Renewing?

THE LITERARY LAB IN BEN GURION UNIVERSITY IS PLEASED TO INVITE YOU TO TAKE PART IN OUR NEW PROJECT: “ROMAN MAFTEACH: DISTANT READING IN THE HEBREW NOVEL”.

Project Objectives:

1. To create a new database, first of its kind, concerning the Hebrew novel (from Love of Zion, 1853, to this very day). The database is built on the synchronous work of scholars and readers, all contributing by filling out a questionnaire, then processed by the project’s staff.

2. To analyze the responses to the questionnaire, in order to make connections and draw insights as to the history of the Hebrew novel, its major trends, patterns of narrative and more.

3. To prepare the ground for a critical discussion of the chances, as well as the risks, that the computational methodology raises in the study of Hebrew literature, and particularly the Hebrew novel.

For more information and for a link to the questionnaire please visit the project’s webpage: https://www.lit-lab.bgu.ac.il/the-hebrew-novel.

For questions and suggestions please contact project initiator and manager, Dr. Yael Dekel: yaelde@bgu.ac.il

THE AMERICAN PUBLIC OPINION TOWARDS ISRAEL (APOI) LAB

We invite the AIS community to take a look and use our new data tool for viewing and plotting data on American public opinion toward Israel from the 1940s until today.  The data include hundreds of surveys in the United States asking various questions regarding Israel.  We’ve also included data on attitudes of Americans toward other countries in comparison to Israel.  Users can plot overall trends in support for Israel or inspect demographic and political divides in this support.  

To access the data go to the APOI website: www.idc.ac.il/apoi 

All data are provided with the express written consent from the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. The data are are collected by the APOI project at the IDC, Israel, and presented and analyzed in Cavari, Amnon & Guy Freedman. (2021). American Public Opinion toward Israel: From Consensus to Divide. New York: Routledge. 

Amnon Cavari and Guy Freedman 

RESEARCH INQUIRY

Events and trends in India and in Israel, with both Kashmir and the West Bank and Gaza Strip in mind, suggest a plethora of useful comparisons for research and analysis.  Along with others at the University of Pennsylvania, I am gathering names of people who are working on any such comparison and would be very interested in learning about publications, papers, or projects underway along these lines.  Please write to me at ilustick@sas.upenn.edu.

THE SCHUSTERMAN CENTER FOR ISRAEL STUDIES IS EXCITED TO INTRODUCE THE RESEARCH GUIDE TO ISRAEL STUDIES!

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

As social distancing continues and more researchers than ever work from home, the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University is proud to announce its new Research Guide to Israel Studies, a one-stop shop for Israel Studies queries, needs, and information.

Interested in photography of pre-state Israel? We have ideas for you. Want to know how Israelis voted in the last elections? We have the answer. Need to find a database of Hebrew literature? We’ve got that covered, too. This free guide contains resources for researchers of every kind. From the high schooler writing a class report, to a journalist looking for reliable information, to a senior academic with thirty years’ experience, everyone – especially those now working from home – will find it invaluable.

Produced with the Israel Studies faculty at Brandeis University, in conjunction with other leading scholars, and edited by the Schusterman Center’s Associate Director, Dr. Shayna Weiss, the Research Guide to Israel Studies is the most comprehensive guide of its kind available.

Please let us know what you think! We welcome all suggestions at scis@brandeis.edu. We also ask that you help spread the word. The Research Guide to Israel Studies is what everyone in the field has been waiting for. 

Stay safe and do let us hear from you.

Sincerely yours,

Jonathan D Sarna

University Professor and Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish history

Director, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University

Go to our website

 
Schusterman Center for Israel Studies | Brandeis University | scis@brandeis.edu
 www.brandeis.edu/israelcenter

ISRAEL VOICE INDEX

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to introduce you to our Center’s monthly “Israel Voice Index” focusing on current issues and trends in Israeli public opinion.

Our recent May 2019 edition revealed that 58% of all Israelis believe that reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians will improve Israel?s international status while only 30% think that unilateral withdrawal from territories will bring the same result. 

In another survey, when asked which countries are most friendly to Israel, 95% of the Israeli public identified the United States followed by India (62%) and Germany (58%).

The “Israel Voice Index” is an initiative of the non-partisan Guttman Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute.  Over a span of 60 years and through more than 1,200 surveys, the Center has applied rigorous and innovative research to document the Israeli public?s attitudes regarding thousands of issues in all aspects of life including politics, culture, ideology, religion, education, and national security. The Center’s surveys have become a basic reference for policy and decision-makers from across Israel?s political spectrum.

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

ISRAELI VOICE INDEX

DATA ISRAEL – THE ONLINE PUBLIC OPINION RESEARCH DATABASE OF THE GUTTMAN CENTER FOR PUBLIC OPINION AND POLICY RESEARCH

The Data Israel portal is an online public opinion research database created and administered by the Guttman Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research, at the Israel Democracy Institute. It is the second-largest database in Israel (second to the Central Bureau of Statistics), and contains data from hundreds of public-opinion polls conducted from 1967 to the present on a wide range of subjects such as society, economics, security, and political leaders and institutions. In the future, the portal will also contain research reports dating back to 1949.
The portal features an advanced, user-friendly search engine that uses keywords from a survey’s title as well as words that appear in the questions and the response categories. Searches may be performed in English and Hebrew, and the results appear in either language, according to the user’s preference.
Most of the surveys in the portal contain complete data, and users may perform simple statistical procedures, such as frequencies and crosstabbs. Users may also view the questionnaires and download the complete data file of surveys in SPSS or Excel format.*
The Data Israel portal may be accessed at the following link:
https://dataisrael.idi.org.il

PODCAST: INTERVIEWS FROM THE 32ND AIS ANNUAL CONFERENCE

The Tel Aviv Review is a biweekly podcast dedicated to reviewing the latest developments in nonfiction writing and scholarship about Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.
In partnership with TLV1 Radio and the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Gilad Halpern hosts leading scholars and researchers for long-form, in-depth discussions about their field of expertise.
In June 2016, the podcast covered the AIS Annual Conference in Jerusalem, yielding 20 interviews on a wide range of topics.
The interviews, alongside more than 250 archive interviews, can be found here: http://www.telavivreview.org/ais-conference-2016

ISRAELI-EGYPTIAN PEACE NEGOTIATIONS

The idea that Egyptian President Anwar Sadat came to Israel for an extremely dramatic visit in November 1977, and from then on it was a forgone conclusion that there would be peace between Israel and Egypt is of course wrong. The fact that the peace agreement between the two warring countries was signed only on 26th of March 1979, 35 years ago this week, hints that the negotiations were long, arduous and at times seemingly hopeless.

The Israel State Archives (ISA) has been publishing the documentation of these negotiations for some time, here and here, for example. This week we published almost 70 new documents, some in English, from the final laps of the negotiations, between the run-up to the Camp David talks in summer 1978 to the agreement itself in spring 1979. Among the documents are notes written by Aharon Barak, in illegible Hebrew, when he was alone with President Carter and PM Begin in the room; not only have these notes never previously been published, but until last year no-one was ever able to decipher them. Before this publication Justice Barak deciphered them painstakingly for us, adding comment as he did so.

Hebrew readers are encouraged to download this publication as a free e-book, designed for use on tablets.

ISRAEL NATIONAL ELECTION STUDIES (INES)

The site incorporates the data of the Israel national election studies and additional relevant information about elections in Israel and in comparative perspective. As you surely know, election surveys in Israel have been carried out since 1969, and these data have been available to the scientific community in Israel and in the world since. The site includes a bibliography with publications relying on these data. If you have used these data in your work – or if you are familiar with other such publications missing from the list – we will be happy to update the bibliography accordingly.

DOCUMENT ARCHIVE

DAILY ALERT ARCHIVES

Information on Israel’s national security issues – filtered, sifted, and stored for easy retrieval – from the treasury of electronic content at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) has recently finished compiling a research database that provides a searchable archive of the center’s Daily Alert publications. The Daily Alert is a publication that the center puts out every weekday to chronicle news articles from that day that pertain to Israel. The publication consists of a summary of each article and a link to the original source. The searchable archive dates back to 2002 and is free to use. 
The database can be accessed at http://www.dailyalert.org/rss/tagpage.php or through the JCPA website: http://jcpa.org/

THE BERMAN JEWISH POLICY ARCHIVE

The Berman Jewish Policy Archive @ NYU Wagner (www.bjpa.org) offers open access to a fully-searchable and annotated archive of nearly 5,000 documents as well as research tools for organizing and sharing information. We cover a broad range of topics, and emphasize issues of culture and identity covering both North America, and Israel, for example, Israel Advocacy, Diaspora Relations, and Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. The collection, which includes primary sources such as original reports and studies as well as analysis and policy recommendations, continues to expand. Many of the materials have never been digitized before or are not available anywhere else online.

VISUAL MEMORY
THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF ISRAEL

We invite you to embark on fascinating explorations of Palestine-Israel in the past 150 years. By means of this collection of photographic images, you can pay a visit to Jerusalem in the 19th century, Tel Aviv as it emerged over 100 years ago, the agricultural settlements of Palestine and the newly established State of Israel. You can follow in the footsteps of individuals, both famous and forgotten, witness cultural events and economic enterprises, archeological excavations and educational institutions. You can also become acquainted with the diverse cultures imported by the waves of immigration as well as local Arab culture. Countless experiences and revelations await you here, caught in the eye of the camera’s lens.

http://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/digitallibrary/photos/Pages/photo_portal.aspx

ELECTION CHRONICLES
THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF ISRAEL

​The cultural impact of an election campaign is not registered in the annals of literature or art, but in ephemeral manifestations that attest to the mainstream nature of the event. These manifestations take the form of print, radio and television propaganda, and in more recent years, Internet propaganda. The materials preserved by the National Library and other partners in this project enable us to give the public a full, rich, and varied portrait of significant events in the Israeli national memory. 
http://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/collections/treasures/elections/Pages/default2.aspx