Visiting Professor
Professor Nahum Karlinsky’s scholarship engages in diverse fields of inquiry, among them the study of the social, cultural, urban and economic history of modern Israel/Palestine; modern Jewish Philanthropy; Hasidism; Jewish Fundamentalism; and modern Jewish historiography.
He is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism where he has taught numerous courses on Israeli identity; the social, cultural and urban history of Israel/Palestine; Post-Zionism, Neo-Zionism and Jewish Fundamentalism. In 2006-2007 he headed of the Israel Studies Program at Ben-Gurion University.
During the academic year of 2004-2005 he was on sabbatical at Harvard University’s Center for Jewish Studies. In 2008-2009 he was Fellow at the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, the University of Pennsylvania. Since 2008 he has been affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and MISTI-Israel as a Visiting Associate Professor at MIT’s Political Science Department. In 2010/11 he also served as a Research Affiliate at MIT’s Center for International Studies.
Over the past year, Nahum Karlinsky has been a fellow at Brandeis University’s Institute for Advanced Israel Studies, participating in an international cohort of scholars examining the contemporary Israeli diaspora.
His edited volume, The Modern Israeli and Palestinian Diasporas: A Comparative Approach (University of Texas Press, December 2025), which was conceived and supported by the Center, has received positive reviews in five academic journals, including Contemporary Jewry, Israel Studies Review, and Mashriq & Mahjar. It is now also available as an audiobook and is currently being translated into Russian.
In June 2026, he spoke at an international conference honoring Israeli philosopher Prof. Adi Ophir, to be held at the Katholische Akademie in Berlin.
In October 2026, the European Association for Israel Studies will dedicate a special session to Karlinsky’s edited volume.
This year, Prof. Karlinsky has taught courses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as on Israeli culture and identity, with a particular emphasis on fostering a classroom environment that enables thoughtful and constructive engagement with these issues beyond the classroom.