Staff
Prof (Emeritus) Ben-Ami Shilony
Department of Asian Studies
Prof. Ben-Ami Shillony is Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and honorary president of the Israeli Association of Japanese Studies.
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After receiving his Master degree in history from the Hebrew University in 1965, he studied Japanese language in Tokyo, and received his Ph.D. degree from Princeton University in 1971. Since then he taught Japanese history and culture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem until his retirement in 2006. He also taught, lectured and did research at the universities of Harvard, Berkeley, Tokyo, Oxford, Cambridge, and Colorado. In 2000 the Japanese emperor bestowed on him the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold and Silver Star. In 2013, his book The Secret of Japan's Strength (the Japanese version of his Hebrew book Yapan bemabat ishi) was awarded the prize of the best book promoting international cultural understanding in Japan. His main books are Revolt in Japan (Princeton University Press, 1973), Politics and Culture in Wartime Japan (Clarendon Press, 1981. Paperback edition Oxford University Press, 1991), Yapan hamesoratit: tarbut ve-historia (Schocken Publishing House, 1995. Revised and expanded edition, 2001), Yapan hamodernit: tarbut ve-historia (Schocken Publishing House, 1997.), The Jews and the Japanese, (Charles E. Tuttle, 1992), Collected Writings of Ben-Ami Shillony (Japan Library, Curzon Press, 2000) Enigma of the Emperors: Sacred Subservience in Japanese History (Global Oriental, 2005). ed., The Emperors of Modern Japan (Brill, 2008), Yapan bemabat ishi (Tel Aviv: Schocken Publishing House, 2011), ed., Critical Readings on the Emperors of Japan (Leiden: Brill, 2012).
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Prof. David Shulman
Department of Asian Studies
Prof. David Shulman's research interest are Indian poetics, live Sanskrit theater, the Renascence in South India in the 16-17 centuries and the Islam in south India and the Carnatic classic music.
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ilingual in Hebrew and English, he has mastered Sanskrit, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, and reads Greek, Russian, French, German, Persian, Arabic and Malayalam. He has authored or co-authored more than 20 books on various subjects ranging from temple myths and temple poems to essays that cover the wide spectrum of the cultural history of South India. Prof. Shulman is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
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Dr. Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein
Korean Studies
Dr Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein is a Senior Lecturer in the Asian Studies Department. His main research focus is North Korean society and history, with a special interest in surveillance, and social and political control, as well as state-society relations and North Korea’s markets. He received his PhD in History from University of Pennsylvania in 2021 with a dissertation about the historical evolution of surveillance in North Korea from the late-1950s till the present. He is also a Non-Resident Fellow at the Swedish Institute for International Affairs and at the Stimson Center’s program 38 North.
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He is frequently cited on North Korea and Korean affairs by international media outlets such as the BBC, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Economist, and many others. At Hebrew University, he teaches courses on Korean history, North Korean society and politics, and security issues in East Asia.
Office phone: 02-5883910, cell: 050-5954885. Office hours: by appointment via email, benjamin.katzeffsilberstein@mail.huji.ac.il.
Publications: "What's Up with North Korea's Skyrocketing Exchange Rates?", https://www.38north.org/2024/10/whats-up-with-north-koreas-skyrocketing-exchange-rates/
Co-editor: "Everyday Politics in North Korea," special issue of Asian Studies Review, vol. 28, 2024, issue 2, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10357823.2024.2312140.
"The Red, Big Family: Utopian Surveillance in North Korean Cities," chapter in Pursuing Sustainable Urban Development in North Korea, ed. Pavel Em (London, UK: Routledge, 2024).
"Strategies of Political Control under Kim Jong Un: Understanding the Changing Mix of Containment, Repression, Co-optation, and Coercive Distribution," Asian Survey, vol. 63, no. 4 (2023): pp. 557–583. With Peter Ward.
"Social (Im)mobility and Bureaucratic Failings: Family Background and the Sŏngbun System in North Korea," Journal of Korean Studies, vol. 28, no. 1 (2023): 111–137.
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Dr. Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr Katzeff Silberstein received his PhD in History from the University of Pennsylvania in 2021. His research primarily focuses on social history and everyday life in North Korea. He is also a non-resident fellow with the Stimson Center and 38 North where he researches the society and economy of North Korea. He has previously worked as a journalist and as an advisor to the Swedish government, and frequently publishes and comments on East Asian affairs.
Ms. Kumiko Yayama
Department of Asian Studies, Japanese Studies