Received the Polonsky Travel Grant in 1993

 

In 1993 I was awarded the Polonsky Foundation grant for studies abroad and traveled to China to study in Peking University (Beijing Daxue). I collected materials, many of which would later become the foundation of my Ph.D. dissertation. In addition, I took Chinese language courses, attended lectures, had discussions with scholars, conducted interviews, and expanded my knowledge of the Chinese cultural world.

 

Upon my return I continued my doctoral studies and in 1997 I was awarded the Frieberg prize for scholarly excellence. A year later, a combination of Nathan Rotenstreich scholarship for three years and Fullbright scholarship for studies in USA, where I studied with Prof. Chang Hao in Ohio State University, allowed me to complete my dissertation (2000). In 2001 I was awarded the Shoul N. Eisenberg foundation grant for East Asian Affairs, and in 2003 I received a research grant from the Center for Chinese Studies (Taipei, Taiwan) where I studied for a short period.

 

Simultaneously, I dedicated myself to a teaching career. I taught courses on Chinese history, religion, philosophy, ecology and cultural relations with the West, in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, the University of Haifa, the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Bar Ilan University and other institutions. Since 2009 I became involved in the establishment of an East Asian Studies department in Tel-Hai College in the northern part of Israel. In late 2012 the department commenced with me as head of department. In Tel-Hai I serve as member of The Higher Internal Academic Committee. At the same time I still teach in Haifa University and in the Technion.

 

Since completing my Ph.D. dissertation several writings of mine were published. The Philosophy of the View of Life in Modern Chinese Thought is due to be published May 2013. Earlier (2009) I collaborated with others to edit At Home in Many Worlds, a collection of essays in honour of Professor Irene Eber from the Department of East Asian Studies in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Earlier still (2008) my Hebrew translation of Qian Mu’s Quiet Thoughts at the Lake was published. This book was a direct outcome of my aforementioned 1995 stay in Beijing and the Polonsky grant. In 2006 and 2007 I organized in collaboration with Avriel Bar-Levav two comparative conferences, on the concept of filial piety in Chinese thought and in Judaism, and on the concept of memory in Asian and in Judaic thought, respectively.

 

Articles I have written are mostly concerned with the intellectual history of modern China. I study Western missionaries’ Chinese writings in the 19th century. Additionally I have written several articles on varied aspects of the thought of the modern Chinese scholar and humanist Qian Mu (1895-1990). Indeed, except for a 1988 book by an American scholar that focuses on one specific source, my articles are the only English language studies of Qian’s thought, and I look forward to publish an intellectual biography in the near future. Currently I study the concept of memory