Jeffrey Herf Reports On University Of Maryland-Tel Aviv University Workshop

Professor Herf has reported on the University of Maryland-Tel Aviv University Workshop: “Israel and Europe: Probing Mutual Perceptions and Interpretations in the Diplomatic Archives, 1948-1990.”

On July 13-14, 2016 Professors Jeffrey Herf and Piotr Kosicki participated in a workshop co-sponsored by the University of Maryland’s Joint Research Workshop program at Tel Aviv University in Israel. The title of the workshop was: “Israel and Europe:  Probing Mutual Perceptions and Interpretations in the Diplomatic Archives, 1948-1990.” The workshop was co-organized by Jeffrey Herf together with Ranaan Rein, Professor in the Department of History and Vice-President of Tel Aviv University, and Dr. Roni Stauber, Senior Research Fellow at the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University. 

The purpose of the workshop was to bring historians of Israel and Europe together to explore how Israeli officials had interpreted European politics and policies and how European officials had viewed Israel. Given that very few European historians read Hebrew, it was particularly important that the Workshop include historians who had that linguistic ability.  We are pleased to report that the Workshop succeeded in accomplishing these goals in the course of two days of presentation of papers and stimulating discussion. Fourteen scholars teach and do research at universities in Israel. Seven participants came from the United States, Great Britain, Germany and the Czech Republic. Papers dealt with Israeli relations with Czechoslovakia, Great Britain, France, East Germany, West Germany, Italy, Romania, the Soviet Union, Spain as well as the European Union. Piotr Kosicki’s paper dealt with the intersection of theology and politics in the Vatican’s policies toward Israel. Jeffrey Herf presented his recent research on Soviet bloc and East German antagonism to Israel. A range of excellent other papers included overviews of a field as well as reports from recent research. The participants spanned a range of historians who are well established and internationally known to those who are productive in mid-career to recent PhD’s.

The workshop confirmed that historical research on Israeli-European relations has become a very active field of diplomatic, political, military, intellectual and economic history. It is one that will foster future research collaboration and communication between scholars in Israel, Europe and the United States who are working on these issues. For a more detailed report of specific papers and an extension of this article, see the following PDF, here.