Israel

The award ceremony of the 6th Israeli History Competition took place on 11 November 2019 at the Van-Leer Institute in Jerusalem. The event offered sopportunities for mutual exchange between prizewinners and leading historians such as Miriam Eliav-Feldon (Tel-Aviv University) and Shmuel Feiner (Bar-Ilan University).

The prizewinners were awarded at the ceremony by Hallel Azulay and Yasmin Richie Yahav. The awards were handed over by Prof. Shmuel Feiner, Chairman of the Historical Society, Ms. Michal Nakar, CEO of the Zalman Shazar Center and Dr. Micha Perry from the University of Haifa, School of History. All three organisations contributed to the competition.

The competition again left the choice of topic to the participants. The entries were evaluated by an academic committee including Prof. Miriam Eliav-Feldon (Tel-Aviv University), Prof. Eli Lederhendler (The Hebrew University), Prof. Michal Biran (The Hebrew University), Prof. Meir Chazan (Tel-Aviv University), Dr. Shamir Yeger (Center for Educational Technology) and Dr. Ts’ela Rubel (The Historical Society of Israel).

After the prizegiving ceremony, the winners were invited to participate in the award ceremony of The Zalman Shazar Center that included a panel discussing the historical research of the Holocaust, past and present. The panel was held by Prof. Yehuda Bauer (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Prof. Hava Dreifuss (Tel-Aviv University) and Prof. Guy Miron (The Open University of Israel).

Since 2013, about 350 pupils took part in the Israeli competition that is organised by The Historical Society of Israel in partnership with The Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History. The Zalman Shazar Center supports research into the history of the Jews in the diaspora and, in the spirit of the efforts of former President Zalman Shazar, aims to promote Jewish historical awareness. The Historical Society of Israel represents Israeli historians, promotes scientific publications and supports projects on political-historical education.

Other partners of the project are the Israeli Ministry of Education and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO), the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, the Dahan Center for Culture, the Society and Education in the Sephardic Heritage and the University of Haifa’s School of History. Latter institution promotes academic exchange between students and researchers and organises workshops, conferences and seminars on historical topics with experts from Israel and abroad.