Department of Visual and Material Culture
המחלקה לתרבות חזותית וחומרית
قسم الثقافة البصرية والمادة
Dr. Gal Hertz is the head of the Visual and Material Culture Department at Bezalel. He is a Germanist and a cultural researcher. His research creates a connection between the history and philosophy of science and cultural studies. He examines the rise of social disciplines around 1900 in the German-speaking world, such as criminology, sociology, sexology, law and psychiatry; This is from an affinity to popular culture, development of the press and media, theater, literature, and art. According to Hertz, the connecting point between seemingly unrelated fields is the establishment of a social order based on a new imagined normative base. Hertz holds a master's degree and a doctorate from the Cohn Institute at Tel Aviv University, pursued post-doctoral studies at the Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research (ZfL Berlin), and taught at both Humboldt University and the Free University of Berlin. After that he was co-director of the research project "Humanities in Conflict Zones" at the Minerva Humanities center, and served as a research and teaching fellow at the Cohn Institute and the School of Cultural Studies at Tel Aviv University. In parallel to his work at the university, he is the editor of "MiNituk LeShiluv" (“From Disconnection to Integration”), an academic journal of the Ministry of Education Department for the Education of Children and At-Risk Youth, in which he is also involved in the processes of training teaching staff and in the development and implementation of the department's approach: therapeutic pedagogy.
Ruven Kuperman, painter and lecturer lives and works in his studio in Tel Aviv.
As a zealous user of texts and avid consumer multicultural folklore, Kuperman adopts the myriad options and in his unique way develops an eclectic series characterized by stylistic multiplicity. From the endless supply of information and unlimited options that he employs, he manages to differentiate himself, formulate a unique voice, and leave a distinct and personal mark. The painting he presents is virtuosic, resonating with artistic traditions in a range of mediums and materials, shifts between the public and the private, and draws inspiration from Eastern and Western history and myths.
Kuperman has received an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York (1993). His solo shows include the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Wilfried Israel Museum in HaZore’a, Golconda Fine Art Gallery, Rosenfeld Gallery and Raw-Art Gallery in Tel Aviv, Kit Schulte Contemporary Art in Berlin, Janco Dada Museum in Ein Hod, and exhibitions in United States. Kuperman's work has been exhibited in group exhibitions worldwide, in venues such as the IV Odessa Biennale of Contemporary Art, Kit Schulte Contemporary Art in Berlin, Cain Schulte Contemporary Art in San Francisco, Salon d'art contemporain in Monaco, The Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Petach Tikva Museum of Art, Ashdod Museum of Art and more.
Prof. Einat Leader, Born in Jerusalem (1966), a jeweller, lecturer, researcher and curator in the field of metalwork, design and craft. A graduate of the Jewelry department, Bezalel (B.A. 1992) and a masters degree in industrial design from the Technion, Haifa (M.Sc. 2003). Associate Professor and faculty member at the department of Jewelry and Fashion (department head, 2005-2013) and in the department of Visual and Material Culture at Bezalel.
Her works have been exhibited among others at the The Ramat Gan Museum / Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv / Artists‘ Studios, Tel Aviv / Periscope Gallery, Tel Aviv / Benyamini Contemporary Ceramics Center, Tel Aviv / The Design Museum, Holon / The Israel Museum, Jerusalem / Tel Aviv City Museum / Magnes Museum, UC Berkeley / Fundación COAM, Madrid / Museum Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires / Jewellery Museum, Pforzheim / Mingei Museum, San Diego / Institut National des Metiers d’Art, Paris / Galerie für Angewandte Kunst, Munich / Jüdisches Museum, Hohenems / Froots Gallery, Shanghai / SMAC, Chemnitz / South Karelia Museum, Lappeenranta, / Jüdisches Museum, Hohenems / DIVA, Antwerp / The Silberwarenmuseum Ott-Pausersche Fabrik, Schwäbisch Gmünd.
About her works - publications lately: “70 Years of Craft and Design in Israel”, Smadar Samson, Mingei Museum, 2018 / “All About Tel Aviv - Jaffa Die Erfindung einer Stadt”, Hannes Sulzenbacher and Hanno Loewy, Jüdisches Museum, Hohenems, 2019 / “Contemporary Crafts in Israel”, Efrat Dgani, Eitav, 2019 / “Jewelers Speak Out”, Ursula Ilse-Neuman, Metalsmith Magazine, 2019 / “Jewellery: Creating a Practice of Meaning through Gesture”, Aya Bentur, Journal of Jewellery Research, 2020 / KORU7, International Contemporary Jewellery triennial 2021 / 20th International Silver Triennial, Arnoldsche Art Publishers, 2022 / “Craft and Leisure”, Tel-Aviv City museum. Curator: Galit Gaon, 2023.
Prizes and grants, among others: The Meisler Design, the Greiber Prize - Bezalel Academy Jerusalem 1990-91 / The Spertus Museum honorable mention, Chicago 1993 / The Deans summa cum laude Karplus prize, the Technion, Haifa, 2003 / Grants of the Rabinovich Foundation for solo and duo exhibitions, Tel Aviv 2003, 2009, 2015 / The Design Award, Culture Ministry of Israel 2010 / Alix de Rothschild Foundation honorable mention for craft work, Tel Aviv, 2012 / Mifal Hapais Scholarship for artist book, with David Goss, Tel Aviv, 2017.
Writings and publications by Einat Leader, Lately: “The Angels of Craft - Craft as a Cultural Vocation”, Israel - 70 Years of Craft & Design, The Mingei Museum. Editor and curator: Smadar Samson, California, 2018 / “Term of Adornment”, text for the exhibition Utopian Fantasists. (Curators: Shachar Cohen, Einat Leader(, Published on Beit Binyamini online, 2022 / “The Status of the Craft: A Local Historical Perspective on Attempts to Regulate and Promote the Arts and Crafts”, Decade Book of The Benyamini Contemporary Ceramics Center, Tel Aviv. Editor: Shlomit Bauman 2022 / “Mehahar”, with Vered Kaminski, curatorial text for the exhibition Sagsoget - the Bezalel academy’s Jewelry, at the Design museum - Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich. (curators : Vered Kaminski, Einat Leader) 2023.
Dalya Y. Markovich is a lecturer at the Visual and Material Culture department, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem.
Markovich received her PhD from the School of Education, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2007), followed by Post-doctoral studies, Ben Gurion University of the Negev (2008), followed by M.A from the History of Art Department, Tel Aviv University (2010). In 2003 she was a Fellow at Heschel Sustainability Center, followed by fellowship at The Mandel Leadership Institute (2004-2006).
Markovich's main fields of research are the theory and practice of teaching (art) education in multi-national and diverse cultural society. She was the editor of Bezalel Journal of Visual and Material Culture (2014-2016); Hakivun Mizrach (2003-2005); Noga (2004-2005); Iton 77 (2006-2007); Block, City, Media, Theory and Architecture (2008). Her edited collection – Understanding Campus-Community Partnerships in Conflict Zones, Engaging Students for Transformation Change – was published at Palgrave McMillan Publisher (2019). Her book Nationality and Ethnicity in an Israeli School: A Case of Jewish-Arab Students – was published at Routledge (2019).
Daniel Meir (b. 1972, in Haifa Israel) is a Tel Aviv based sound designer and sound artist, specializing in sound design and original music for video art, documentaries, film, and theater.
He works with critically acclaimed video artists, film makers, and musicians from around the world. Notably, he has collaborated on works that have been featured in the Venice Biennale, among Academy Awards nominated films, and a Cannes Festival winning film.
His work can be heard daily in cinemas, museums and exhibitions worldwide.
Daniel teaches sound art and sound design at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem.
In addition, He is the co-founder and director of Halas Radio, an experimental internet radio station sponsored by The Israeli Center for Digital Art.
For CV and Credit list see danielmeir.com
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The Booth, Daniel Meir, 2019. Photo by Dor Even-Chen
Lecturer and researcher in the fields of Museology and Visual Culture.
Geologist, specialized in science education and museums and the Visual Culture of Science.
PhD. Museum Studies, University of Leicester
Dr. Naomi Meiri-Dann
Art historian and Visual Culture researcher.
Her realms of specialization range from Medieval Art (mainly Italian); Architecture of memory and commemoration (mainly in Israel); Interrelations between religious art and secular culture` and issues concerning encounters between “high” and popular cultures.
Naomi teaches at the Departments of Visual and Material Culture (including the B.A. program), as well as the Master in Policy and Theory of the Arts and the M.Des. Program in Visual Communication.
Was born in Tel-Aviv, Israel, 1976, Lives and works in Tel-Aviv.
BFA and MFA, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv and the Cooper-Union, New-York.
Award Recipient of the Lauren and Mitchell Presser Photography Award for a Young Israeli Artist (2015), Rudin Prize, Norton Museum of Art (2015),
The Lottery Council for Culture and Art (2013), The Critics Choice Award, Radical-Jung Festival, Munich, Germany (2013), IAAB and Culture-Scapes scholarship
and residency, Basel, Switzerland (2011), Young Artist Prize, Israeli Ministry of Science and Culture (2009), Joshua Rabinowitz Foundation Prize for the Arts (2004).
Maymon has had solo exhibitions at the Tel Aviv museum of art, the Norton Museum of Art, Florida, the 12th Biennale of Contemporary Art, Naples, Italy, Helena Rubinstein Pavilion, Tel Aviv, Herzliya Museum of Art, The Artists Studios Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Iltis Bunker, Kiel, Germany, Hinterhof space, Basel, Switzerland, The 2nd International Photography Festival, Jaffa, Volkstheater, Munich, Germany, Volkstheater, Nikosia, Cyprus, Roxy Theater, Basel, Switzerland, Hezi Cohen gallery, Tel Aviv, Tal Esther Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Noga Gallery of Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv, among other venues. Maymon participated in numerous group exhibitions in Israel and abroad and his works have been published in many journals, books and magazines in Israel and abroad. 1999-2004/ Photographer for “Purple” magazine.
As of 2002, Lecturer and a member of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem and from 2015-2019 the head of the Midrasha photography department, Kfar-saba.
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Rami Maymon, "Further Reading", Tel Aviv museum of Art 2015-2016
Tal Mor Sinay is an independent designer, head of the ‘About Design’ track and lecturer at the M.Des Program of Industrial Design at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design Jerusalem and at the Industrial Design program and the Masters of Design Innovation and Technology at RMIT University, Melbourne Australia between 2016-2020. He is about to complete his PhD from RMIT researching informal commemorative practices. He uses Project based research methods (PBR) within the Industrial Design fields and is currently involved in research that looks at the intersection of design and primary school education. He holds a bachelor B.Des (magna cum laude) from 2006 and a master M.Des from 2009 at Bezalel academy.
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Flower drying devices, 2013
English teacher, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem
English teacher, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, 'Oman' – Haredi Extension
English teacher, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, 'Oman' – Haredi Extension, Mechina.
MA with high honors in Teaching Languages, English, Tel Aviv University.
BA in English Linguistics + teacher's certificate, Bar Ilan University.
Graduate Certificates in Teaching English to students with learning disabilities, Kibbutzim College.
Lecturer and researcher in the field of Cinema and Television Studies. Tomer teaches at the Department of Visual and Material Culture at Bezalel as well as at the Steve Tisch School of Film and Television at Tel Aviv University. Her research is concerned on the ties between cinema, technology and music. Her work is primarily focused on phenomenological experiences of viewing and listening in popular culture: from music channels to professional wrestling, between the classical Hollywood Musical and the Historical Epic film, as well as reflexive and cinephilic practices in cinema and on the internet. She has completed her Master’s Thesis titled “The Period Film Musical as an Experience of Saturated Historicity” at the Steve Tisch School of Film and Television at Tel Aviv University. She is a graduate the Screen Based Arts Department at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem.
Dr. Elad Persov, Faculty, M.Des Industrial Design, and expert in sustainable design management, system design, sustainable development. In 2005 he founded the Design Management track in the M.Des Program and managed it through the first decade. He represented Bezalel at numerous research meetings across Europe and published papers at various peer-reviewed conferences and journals. His Ph.D. dissertation "Sustainable Design Management: Educating Designers as Roles Change" was conducted at Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Tel Aviv University, explored the interface between Higher Education and the design practice from a sustainability perspective. As a researcher, Elad participated in grant writing and research and management of DESURBS (FP7 2010-2015), CPUDP (COST 2014-2016), CLEVER (ERASMUS + 2015-2019), along with initiation of local industrial R&D collaborations. Throughout the years, Elad has promoted sustainability at Bezalel in partnership with lecturers and students by establishing the 'Bezalel Interdisciplinary Sustainable Design Group'. In 2020 he founded the Bezalel Center for Sustainable Development.
Prof. Dror Pimentel teaches at the Visual and Material Dept. and at the M.A. Program for Policy and Theory of the Arts. His main areas of expertise are continental philosophy, phenomenology, aesthetics and semiotics. His publications include: The Dream of Purity: Heidegger with Derrida (Magnes Press, 2009 [Hebrew]); Aesthetics (Bialik Institute, 2014 [Hebrew]); Heidegger with Derrida: Being Written (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), Aesthethics: Of Hospitality in Art (Bialik Institute, 2024 [Hebrew]); and articles in: Iyyun: The Jerusalem Philosophical Quarterly; Heidegger Studies; British Journal of Aesthetics and Phenomenology; Performance Philosophy Journal; Inscriptions; Aesthetic Investigations, among others. He translated to Hebrew Heidegger’s Letter on “Humanism” (Magnes Press, 2018). His book Aesth-ethics: Art as an Ethic of Hospitality is about to appear at Palgrave-Macmillan NY.
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Entrepreneur (food industry production chains); Researcher (CDFIs, impact investments, social design and social finance); Adjunct Professor (Hebrew U. Jerusalem business school, Coller Business School, Tel Aviv University, Bezalel); EU Project manager - Creative economy and beneficiary of several EU grants such as Marie Curie (FAB‐MOVE) and Erasmus + CLEVER, Former JDC Head of Social-Finance Innovation. Until 2014, was the head of the Recanati Business School’s Development and International Relations Unit. Completed a B.A. in Economics and Philosophy and an M.A. in Communication Technologies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Ph.D. on the evolving of the new economy at McGill University, Montreal, Canada, focusing on the high-tech industries in North America and Europe. As a recipient of a Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) scholarship she participated in the McGill Program for Economic and Social Rights, working with the Mohawk people (first nation) in Kahnawake, Canada, and writing an assessment report of business opportunities in the Mohawk community (the KANATA 2000 Report). Prior to her time spent in Canada Yifat worked for five years with the Association for Human Rights in Israel as director of the consulting department, working with security forces and public service leaders. She mentor entrepreneurs from around the world as part of the Pears Program for Innovation and International Development, is involved in numerous initiatives in Israel to promote social entrepreneurship and has acted as a judge for several enterprise pitching competitions. Her current academic activities consist of participation in an international research group on social and sustainable finance (Oxford-Helsinki), focusing on alternative socio-economic models and acting as board member, writing social-finance case studies and leading and managing the Horizon 2020 ENI project on creative platform for regional economies based on food industries.
Dr. Yoav Ronel has received his PhD degree from the Department of Hebrew literature at Ben-Gurion university in 2019 and is a lecturer at the department of Visual and Material Culture at Bezalel, where he teaches courses dealing with poetic and theoretical representations of love and desire. His dissertation dealt with matters of melancholy and nationality in the work of Micha Yosef Berdichevsky.
His current research is concerned with a critique of work in the neoliberal age, and with philosophical, poetic and social representations of idleness.
Among his latest publications ate an article about Berdichevsky’s melancholy in Mikan Hebrew and Israeli Literature journal, and an article about love in the thought of Giorgio Agamben and Roland Barthes, published in Theory Now journal.
Dr. Ravid Rovner is an academic and curator in the field of design, with a focus on the convergence of design history, theory, and philosophy. She holds a B.Des in Industrial Design and a PhD in Philosophy. Her scholarly contributions to design theory explore diverse topics such as the history of originality, the idea of ‘truth to material’, critical design, and gender design. Rovner wrote the curriculum for the Israeli high school diploma in design, “Aspects of Design History”.
She has curated exhibitions on object poetry and rhizomatic mind mapping, a research technique instructs as a tool for research innovation. Her forthcoming book on “Beit Hayotzer” ceramic factory promises to illuminate the invention of tradition through ceramic design. At Bezalel, Rovner teaches design research, rhizomatic research, critical design, and gender design.
Noah Hysler Rubin is a cultural geographer and a town planner, a graduate of the Hebrew University. Her research deals with spatial aspects of political, social and cultural encounters and the effect of these on the modern discipline of town planning. In her PhD, which was written in Jerusalem and in London, she analyzed the planning theory and practice of Patrick Geddes in comparative context, examining his work in Britain, India and Palestine. Aside from teaching planning history and theory at Bezalel, she also practices planning, mainly on projects of urban conservation and currently runs the Jerusalem Digital Archives project in collaboration with the Jerusalem Development Authority. Dr Hysler Rubin's current interests include the genesis of urban planning in Israel/Palestine, the planning of divided Jerusalem, post-colonial planning critique, and values and criteria for conservation and digital heritage.
Asher Salah is Associate Professor at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He has been a fellow at the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies in 2011-2012 and in 2014-2015, and at the Maimonides Center for Advanced Studies in Jewish Scepticism in 2016-2017 and 2020-2021. His scholarship deals with Jewish literature in early modern Italy, Sephardic studies and Jewish cinema in the Mediterranean area. His publications include a translation into Italian and an analysis of Samuele Romanelli’s Masa‘ Be‘arav (Florence: Giuntina, 2006), La République des Lettres: Rabbins, médecins et écrivains juifs en Italie au XVIIIè (Boston/Leiden: Brill, 2007), L’epistolario di Marco Mortara: un rabbino italiano tra riforma e ortodossia (Florence: Giuntina, 2012), Diari Risorgimentali: due ragazzi ebrei si raccontano (Livorno: Belforte, 2017), and with D. Flesler and M. Friedman, editor of “Genealogies of Sepharad,” Quest. Issues in Contemporary Jewish History, 18 (2020).
Liat Savin Ben Shoshan, Ph.D. A writer and scholar who focuses on the material, socio-political and methodological interrelations of architecture and urban space, and visual images – analogical and digital, still and moving images. She writes researches and teaches on film, politics and space, and on film as means of understanding the history and present of the built environment. She is doing her postdoctoral research on Israeli architect and urbanist Itzhak Perlstein in the 1930s-1950s at the Technion Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning (2020-2021).
She has published in academic peer reviewed journals on documentary diary film and domestic space, on architecture and its reflection in film in the mid-century eras of post war and nation building, and has edited an issue of an online journal on architecture and documentary film. Teaches at Bezalel, at the faculty of Architecture and Town Planning in the Technion, Haifa, and at Tel Aviv University, Faculty of Arts.
A registered architect who specializes in Historic Preservation. She is an Adjunct Lecturer at the Department of Architecture, in the Urban Design Master's Degree Program, and in the Department of Visual and Material Culture. Adi serves as Bezalel Project Coordinator for EDICULA - Educational Digital Innovative Cultural heritage related Learning Activities (Erasmus+ Project). Adi received her B.Arch from the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. She holds a Diploma in Conservation of the Built Heritage from the Faculty of Arts, Tel Aviv University and Master of Art in Cultural Heritage and Preservation Studies from Rutgers University, N.J. Currently she is a PhD candidate at Sapienza University of Rome. She received the Bezalel Commendation for excellence in teaching (2021-22) She specializes in urban heritage, the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) approach, ethics in conservation, documentation, evaluation, and conservation consultation. She is the conservation consultant for the Reginal Planning Unit at the Israel Planning Administration, the Southern Region Planning Committee, and for Holon Municipality. She was the Conservation Policy Coordinator for the Israel Antiquities Authority. Adi is the Chairperson of the Cultural Routes Scientific Committee, ICOMOS Israel, a voluntarily position.
I immigrated from South Africa with my husband in 1987. Our two children were born in Israel. I have been teaching English as a foreign language at the Hebrew University since 1991.
My first degree is in Psychology and History from UNISA (University of South Africa). I have a teaching Diploma and post-graduate degree in remedial Education from The University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa) and a master’s degree in English Literature from The Hebrew University.
In my years at the university I have taught English to students studying humanities, social sciences, sciences and nursing. I am looking forward to teaching new material to creative students and working with Joanna and the other members of English Unit.
I have always incorporated all four skills in teaching and I am happy that the MALAG has now made this approach official. I believe Bezalel students want to be part of the international academic community. Proficiency in English is essential to achieve this goal.
I will be teaching the basic level course. This course aims at building a solid foundation in English; preparing for the challenges of the higher levels and increasing confidence to use English both academically and for everyday usage.
A historian of visual art and lecturer. Involved with the fields of Israeli art and modern Jewish art.
2012 - Ph.D., Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Title: Cross-Stitching Cross-Cultural Identities: Elaine Reichek's Art of Text and Textile.
2003 - M.A. Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Title: Micha Ullman: The Quiet Dialogue, Hidden Sculptures in Public Space.
Recording, writing and performing artist since 1987. Released 12 albums, as well as being a
member in several groups, such as Shunra, Balagan, The Flies and Luis Marshal. The compilation “Didn’t Pack Alone”, released in the summer of 2016, sums up 30 years of musical work.
The double album “Didn’t Pack Alone” is a compilation featuring songs from three decades of Dan Toren’s musical work. Throughout the years, Toren wrote, composed, produced and collaborated with leading Israeli musicians, while pursuing his solo career. The double album features hits Toren penned for others, as well as some of his best known solo work.
Ronit Vered is a researcher of food culture, a journalist, and author of food and travel books. Her column engages with local food traditions, and has appeared weekly since 2007 in the Haaretz newspaper. Her articles have been published in numerous culinary magazines and books, in Israel and elsewhere. Ronit is a frequent lecturer and moderator of international panels on themes relating to cuisines and identity, food and politics, the Jewish kitchen, and the flourishing of Israeli cuisine. In the past few years she has also been involved in culinary curation, creating artistic-culinary programs for cultural institutions (including Tel Aviv university, Jerusalem Cinematheque and the Polish Cultural Institute) and in culinary consulting to TV shows and publishers.
Dr. Yona Weitz is a field anthropologist (Ph.D), a Researcher and a Lecturer teaching in the undergraduate Department of Visual and Material Culture studies and in M.Des, the Graduate Industrial Design Programme in Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. Yona`s research, teaching and mentoring work in Bezalel focuses on human based research & toolkits for design, social design, design management and urban socio-spatial analysis for site planning.
