Marcela Menachem Zoufalá

PhDr. et Mgr. Marcela Menachem Zoufalá, Ph.D.

E-mail: marcela.zoufala@gmail.commarcela.zoufala@ff.cuni.cz

 

Education & Fellowship & Membership

2023 – 2026 Vice-chair of the Board of the European Association of Israel Studies (EAIS)

2020 – 2022 Member of the Academic Council of the European Association of Israel Studies

2020 – 2021 Member of Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry (ASSJ)

2020 – 2021 Member of Association for Jewish Studies (AJS)

2019 –2021 Permanent Fellow of The Moses Mendelssohn Center for European Jewish Studies, University of Potsdam

2019 – Guest Professorship in Israel Studies, Selma Stern Center for Jewish Studies in Berlin-Brandenburg & The Moses Mendelssohn Center for European Jewish Studies, University of Potsdam – 5 months stay

2019 – 2021 Board Member of the Herzl Center for Israel Studies (HCIS), Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University

2017 – till now, Member of Association for Israel Studies (AIS)

2016 Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP). Summer Institute on Curriculum Development for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism

2016 Masaryk Distinguished Chair (Academic Program at IDC Herzliya/TAU, Israel)

2015 – 2021 Tel Aviv University, Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, Research Fellow

2015 Brandeis University, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Summer Institute for Israel Studies

2014-2015 Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Charles University. Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe Project Title: Through the eyes of Czech Jews: Jewish Identity and Contemporary Antisemitism

2014 Masaryk Distinguished Chair (Academic Program at IDC Herzliya/TAU, Israel)

2012 University of Southern California Shoah Foundation, Teaching Fellow, Focus on Contemporary Antisemitism in Central Europe

2010 Ph.D. Cultural Studies (Cultural Anthropology), Charles University, Dissertation: “Religion, Gender, and Culture: The Influence of Orthodox Judaism Authorities on the Status of Jewish Women in Contemporary Israel”

2009-2010 The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Visiting Research Fellow

2008-2009 The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Ph.D. research project (One-semester Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund)

2008 Charles University

PhDr. degree – Cultural Studies (Cultural Anthropology)

2006 University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC), Brazil

M.A. research project (One-semester CUNI scholarship)

2005 Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

(One-semester, Italian government scholarship)

2001-2002 University Nova de Lisboa, Portugal

(One-year scholarship – Erasmus Program)

1999-2006 Charles University

M.A. – Cultural Studies (Cultural Anthropology) – Summa Cum Laude / With highest praise

1998-2005 Charles University

M.A. – Portuguese Language and Literature

 

Professional Experience

2022-2024       Principal Investigator and Coordinator of an Intl. project: Jews, Muslims and Roma in the 21st Century Metropolises: Reflecting on Polyphonic Ideal and Social Exclusion as Challenges for European Cohesion, EU EACEA Grant received by Charles University with Potsdam University (MMZ), and Jagiellonian University

2017till now Researcher, Lecturer of the Centre for the Study of the Holocaust and Jewish Literature, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, (Deputy Director 2020-2021)

2022                Grant for strategic cooperation between Charles University and University of Oxford (FSP 2022)

2022-2023       Member of an intl. research team led by Jagiellonian University, project ID WSMiP.2.3.2022, Jewish and Muslim Minorities in Urban Spaces of the Central Europe

2022                Co-Chair of the Program and Organizing Board of the Expert meeting at the International Terezín Declaration Conference held during the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU at Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nov 2-4, 2022

2021-2022       Czech Republic policy expert in the project titled “Addressing Modern Antisemitism in the Visegrad Countries (AMAV4 – 875456)” organized by Tom Lantos Institute (TLI), in partnership with the Institute of Public Affairs (IVO), funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality, and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020).

2018 – 2021     Principal Investigator and Coordinator (together with Prof. Jiří Holý) of International Study: ‘United in Diversity’ – An Interdisciplinary Study of Contemporary European Jewry and Its Reflection, EU EACEA Grant with Tel Aviv University, Potsdam University (MMZ), and Comenius University.

2021                Co-Chair of the Program and Organizing Board of One Biography, Multiple Places: The Life and Work of Shmuel Hugo Bergmann Between Prague and Jerusalem (1883–1975) Conference, Charles University, Prague, November 3-4, 2021

2021-2022       Grant for strategic cooperation between Charles University and Jagiellonian University(FSP 2021; 2022)

2019                Co-Chair of the Program and Organizing Board of the European Association of Israel Studies    8th Annual Conference (together with Prof. Joanna Dyduch): Democracy in Challenging Times: Israel, Europe and the World, Charles University, Prague, September 8-10, 2019

2015-2017       Program & Executive Director & Member of Academic Board of the Prague Centre for Jewish Studies, CUNI

2013-2015       Executive Director & Member of Academic Board of the Prague Centre for Jewish Studies, Faculty of Arts, Charles University

2013-2019       Founder and principal organizer of the “Israel Week at Charles University”. Series of annual academic lectures and discussions (over 50 in total), science popularization events (20), cultural events (18) held in 2013; 2014; 2015; 2016; 2019.

2012                Co-founder & Coordinator & Member of Academic Board of the Prague Centre for Jewish Studies, Faculty of Arts, Charles University

2010-2012       Program Manager of the Prague Jewish Studies program, Charles University

 

Publications

Selected chapters, articles or studies

“Israel Studies in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Germany: Paths of Development, Dynamics, and Directions of Changes”, Joanna Dyduch, Marcela Menachem Zoufalá, Olaf Glöckner in: Derek Penslar, Johannes Becke /eds./: Israel Studies as a Global Discipline, Journal of Israeli History, 2023.  https://doi.org/10.1080/13531042.2023.2212891

“Racism Debate and Israel. Impact of Discriminated Groups on (Re)forming of Israeli and International Discourses.” In: Kumaraswamy, P.R. (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook of Israel. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2717-0_35-1

“Jews and Muslims in Dubai, Berlin, and Warsaw: Interactions, Peacebuilding Initiatives, and Improbable Encounters” Menachem Zoufalá, Marcela, Joanna Dyduch, and Olaf Glöckner. 2022. Religions 13, no. 1: 13. ISSN 2077-1444 https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13010013

“Countering Antisemitism in the Visegrád Countries”. A. Gliszczyńska-Grabias, M. Menachem Zoufalá, N. Tóth, M. Vašečka, with I. Barna and T. Kohut. Tom Lantos Institute and Institute for Public Affairs, 2022. https://tomlantosinstitute.hu/files/en-206-d3-2-policy-paper.pdf

“Israel Studies in Central Europe: Past, Present, and Future” Joanna Dyduch, Marcela Menachem Zoufalá, Olaf Glöckner. In Studies in Honor of Itamar Rabinovich on the Occasion of his 80th Birthday, Bucharest, October 2022, The “Theodor Herzl” Center for Israeli Studies within the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA) https://mcusercontent.com/6aa59077a1581a6c9bda45072/files/8ef17ccd-d84e-47bf-70d2-8915e30188c2/final_brochure.01.pdf

“Ethno-religious Othering as a reason behind the Central European Jewish distancing from Israel”, in: Haim Fireberg, Olaf Glöckner, Marcela Menachem Zoufalá /eds./: Being Jewish in 21st Century Central Europe. Series: Europäisch-jüdische Studien, De Gruyter, 2020. ISBN-13: 978-3110579659, in English. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110582369/html

“Being Jewish in Europe in the 21st Century: Jewish Identity and Contemporary Antisemitism”, in: Zoufalá, Marcela /ed./: Jewish Studies in the 21st Century: Prague – Europe – World. Jüdische Kultur: Studien zur Geistesgeschichte, Religion und Literatur. Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz 2014, pp. 213-223, ISBN 978-3-447-10128-8, in English. https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/titel_887.ahtml

“Israel Studies – a new academic discipline seeking its identity”, in Zoufalá, Marcela – Sládek, Pavel – Zdichynec, Jan /eds./: Židovská studia ve 21. století [Jewish Studies in 21st Century], Historie – Otázky – Problémy 2013/1 – FF UK, Praha 2013, pp. 19-25, ISSN 1804-1132, in Czech.

“Contemporary antisemitism in the Czech Republic and elsewhere: Selected causes, trends and context”, in Zoufalá, Marcela – Sládek, Pavel – Zdichynec, Jan /eds./: Židovská studia ve 21. století [Jewish Studies in 21st Century], Historie – Otázky – Problémy 2013/1 – FF UK, Praha 2013, pp. 121-131, ISSN 1804-1132, in Czech.

“Selected Sources and Manifestations of Antisemitism in Contemporary Czech Society”, in Machačová, Helena /ed./: Collection of Second Prague Seminary of Association of Jewish Academics: Holocaust – bygone story or moral challenge? Research, memory and the Czech society, 2013, pp. 73-78, ISBN 978-80-260-4936-4, in Czech.

“The Ordination of Women as Rabbis – Prospects of Female Believers in the State of Israel”. In Studia Ethnologica Pragensia, 2/2013, pp. 59-73, ISSN 1803-9812, in Czech.

“Judaism and Divorce Practices in the Modern State of Israel”. In Culturologia, 1(2), 2012. ISSN 1805-2886, in English.

“The Positions of Orthodox Judaism and the Roman Catholic Church on Some Selected Sexual Reproduction Subjects”. In Šulová, Fait, Weiss a kol.(2011): Výchova k sexuálně reprodukčnímu zdraví. Praha: Nakladatelství odborné literatury Maxdorf. ISBN 978-80-7345-238-4, in Czech.

“The Image of Aging Women in Israeli literature”. In Klimakterická medicína, 4/2010. ISSN 1211-4278, in Czech.

“Nightfall in Persepolis” – interview with Iranian dissident Mohsen Sazegara. In Nový Prostor, 2008, No. 301. ISSN 1213-1911, in Czech.

Peer reviewed collective monographs

‘United in Diversity’ – An Interdisciplinary Study of Contemporary European Jewry and Its Reflection. Marcela Menachem Zoufalá, Olaf Glöckner, /eds./, Series: Europäisch-jüdische Studien, De Gruyter, 2022. ISBN 978-3-11-078310-0, Under the contract.

Shmuel Hugo Bergmann: A Life between Prague and Jerusalem. Olaf Glöckner, Boaz Huss, Marcela Menachem Zoufalá /eds./, Series: Europäisch-jüdische Studien, De Gruyter, 2023. ISBN 978-3-11-104513-9, Under the contract.

Being Jewish in 21st Century Central Europe. Haim Fireberg, Olaf Glöckner, Marcela Menachem Zoufalá /eds./, Series: Europäisch-jüdische Studien, De Gruyter, 2020.  ISBN-13: 978-3110579659, in English. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110582369/html

Rozpad židovského života: 167 dní druhé republiky [The disintegration of Jewish Life: 167 days of the Second Republic], Marcela Zoufalá – Jiří Holý /eds./ Academia, 2016. ISBN 978-80-200-2597-5, in Czech. https://www.academia.cz/rozpad-zidovskeho-zivota-167-dni-druhe-republiky–zoufala-marcela–academia–2016

Jewish Studies in the 21st Century: Prague – Europe – World, Zoufalá, Marcela /ed./, Jüdische Kultur: Studien zur Geistesgeschichte, Religion und Literatur. Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz, 2014. ISBN 978-3-447-10128-8, in English. https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/titel_887.ahtml

Peer reviewed monograph

Judaismus a ženy v Izraeli [Judaism and Women in Israel] Praha, Karolinum University Press, 2012. ISBN 978-80-246-2039-8, in Czech. https://karolinum.cz/knihy/zoufala-judaismus-a-zeny-v-izraeli-13696

Edited special issues: Zoufalá, Marcela – Sládek, Pavel – Zdichynec, Jan /eds./: Židovská studia ve 21. století [Jewish Studies in 21st Century], Historie – Otázky – Problémy (HOP) 2013/1 – FF UK, Praha 2013, pp. 19-25, ISSN 1804-1132, in Czech.

Review: Sládek, P. (2012): Rashi (1040–1105) and the Origins of Biblical Commentary in the Franco-Rhenish Jewish Centers, Prague: 584 pp. Judaica Bohemiae 2 (2012), 1, p. 133-137, in English.

Terms in a Dictionary of Anthropology: “Occidentalism”; “Orientalism”; “Said Edward”; “Candomblé”; “Hanafi Hasan”. In Malina, J. a kolektiv (2009): Antropologický slovník (s přihlédnutím k dějinám literatury a umění) aneb co by mohl o člověku vědět každý člověk. Brno: Akademické nakladatelství CERM. ISBN 978-80-7204-560-0, in Czech.

 

Teaching

2021/2023       Charles University

                        “Israeli Minorities: Ethnicity, Gender, and Religion” (in English)

2019/2022       Charles University

                        “Israel’s Diverse Society: Ethnicity, Gender and Religion” (in English)

2018/2019       University of Potsdam

                        “Society, Culture and Religion of Contemporary Israel” (in English)

2018/2019       Charles University

“Czech-Israeli Literary, Cultural and Diplomatic Intersections in the 20th and 21st     Century”

2017/2018       “Contemporary Antisemitism in Czech society in the European Framework”

2016/2017       “Society and Culture of the State of Israel”

“Introduction to Jewish Studies”/ “Methodology in Jewish Studies” – shared courses

2009 /2013      “Different Aspects of Cultural Communication between West and East”

“The ‘Orient’ and Culture”

“Muslim Communities in Europe”

“Sources and Manifestations of Antisemitism in Contemporary Czech society”

2006/2008       Metropolitan University Prague

“The Middle East and the European Union”

 

 

Invited Lectures & Conference Presentations

2023 Jagiellonian University, Krakow: EUphony and Minorities Projects’ Workshop: “Jewish and Muslim Youth in Prague: Interactions between Stigmatized and Model Minority”

2022 38th Annual Conference of the Association for Israel Studies, Bar-Ilan University – Israel: Conflicts and Mobility in a Diverse Society: “Jewish-Arab Intermarriages in Israel: Coping with Multilateral Disapproval in a Deeply Divided Society”

2022 European Association of Israel Studies 10th Annual Conference, Oxford University: Opening Roundtable – “Contemporary Israel Studies in Europe”

2022 International Terezín Declaration Conference – Expert meeting: “Joint-Reading of the names of Jewish and Romani Holocaust victims on Yom HaShoah: Contemporary polemic in the Czech Republic” https://www.mzv.cz/jnp/en/foreign_relations/terezin_declaration/index.html

2022 University of Gothenburg and University of Southampton – Conference: A Jewish Europe? Virtual and Real-Life Spaces in the 21 st Century: “Jews as ‘the Pioneers of the Postmodern Condition’: The Ambivalence, Dilemmas, and Aporias of Central European Jewish Experience”

2022 Akademie für Politische Bildung, Tutzing in Cooperation with the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European-Jewish Studies, University of Potsdam, and the Tel Aviv University – Conference entitled: Latent Antisemitism: Forms of Expressions, Perceptibility, Counterstrategies: “Otherization through Allosemitism: In Perception of Central European Jews” (Online presence)

2021 Brandeis University, Center for German and European Studies in coordination with the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, “Jews and Muslims in Dubai, Berlin, and Warsaw: Interactions, Peacebuilding Initiatives, and Improbable Encounters”

2021 European Association of Israel Studies 9th Annual Conference: “Mizrahim’s ambiguous role as ‘Arab brothers’ in peacebuilding initiatives in the ‘new Middle East’” (Online)

2021 The European Association of Israel Studies Podcast series: “Israel’s Mizrahization and Central-Eastern Jews’ distancing from the Jewish state” https://fb.watch/7u9m1S4opx/

2021 Association for Israel Studies (AIS) 36th Annual Conference,Is there a new quality of Jewish-Arab relations? Berlin and Dubai as a Case Studies”

2020 Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) 52nd Annual Conference: “’Inconspicuousness’ as a guiding principle of social behavior of the Czech Jewish minority” (Online)

2019 CUNI´s Student Associations POLIS and ANTRE: “Judaism and Women in Israel”

2019 European Association of Israel Studies 8th Annual Conference: Plenary Round Table: “Israel Studies as a Discipline”

2019 Selma Stern Center for Jewish Studies in Berlin-Brandenburg “We defended the community against Hitler and Stalin – and now it should be given to someone from Bnei Brak?!” Ethno-religious Otherization as a tool of Central European Jewish distancing from Israel (Public Lecture)

2019 Association for Israel Studies (AIS) 35th Annual Conference, Kinneret, Israel: “[Israel as] the true heart of Europe – a heart strangely located outside the body”: Israel in the Mirror of Kunderian Central Europe

2019 The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden: Paideia Academic Conference: 1989 – 2019: Jews in Post-Communist Europe “Jewish and Israel Studies: Two Entangled Disciplines and their Current Specifics and Developments within the Central European Academia”

2018 European Association of Israel Studies – 7th Annual Conference, University of London, SOAS: “Israel as a Symbol of the Free World during the Prague Spring in 1968”

2018 Anthropological Seminar, Institute of Anthropology of the Faculty of Science, Masaryk University: “Czech-Israeli Cultural and Diplomatic Intersections in the 20th and 21st Century”

2018 International Workshop, Justus Liebig University Giessen: Holocaust in Polish, Czech and Slovak Literature and Culture: “The Shoah from a Women’s Point of View: Perspectives of Ruth Bondy and Heda Margolius Kovály”

2018 The World Union for Progressive Judaism, Charles University: “Can religion save Europe?”

2017 European Association of Israel Studies – 6th Annual Conference, University of Wrocław: “Shaping Jewish-Zionist Arab identity in Israel over the last decade: a case study”

2017 European Association of Israel Studies – 6th Annual Conference, University of Wrocław: “Israeli-European relations in the time of crisis (?)”. Setting up the agenda for Israeli-European Group for Development and Difficult Issues.

2017 Association for Israel Studies – 33nd Annual Conference, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University: “Meaning of Israel in Contemporary Reality and Imagination of Central European Jews: Case of the Czech Republic”

2017 Anthropological Seminar, Institute of Anthropology of the Faculty of Science, Masaryk University: “Contemporary Identity of the Czech Jews: Revival, de-assimilation or New Phenomenon?”

2016 Joint Research Workshop – Tel Aviv University and The University of Maryland: Israel and Europe: Probing Mutual Perceptions and Interpretations in the Diplomatic Archives, 1948-1990: “June 1967: The Six-Day War, severance of diplomatic relations between Czechoslovakia and Israel, and the aftermath”

2016 Joint conference of Rafael Institute and Tel Aviv Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Israeli Institute of Group Analysis: Civilians in War: “Jewish-Arab Conflicted Loves: Identity Crisis of Arabs in Israel”

2016 IDC Herzliya: “Contemporary prospects for European Jews: Aliyah, assimilation, anti-Semitism?”

2016 “Online Education” (Charles University´s and Czech Television´s joint project): “Israeli society in the 21st Century”

2015 4th Annual International Joint-Conference of the Prague Centre for Jewish Studies CUNI and Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, Tel Aviv University: Being Jewish in Central Europe Today: “Is there an emerging European Jewish identity?”

2015 3rd Israel Week at Charles University: Chairing round table “Contemporary prospects for European Jews: Aliyah, assimilation, anti-Semitism?” Guests: H.E. Gary Koren (Ambassador of the State of Israel), Louise Hecht (Kurt and Ursula Schubert Centre for Jewish Studies, Palacký University in Olomouc) and Gabriel Noah Brahm (Northern Michigan University and Hebrew University).

2015 Jewish Museum in Prague: “Through the eyes of Czech Jews: Jewish Identity and Contemporary Antisemitism”

2014 “Online Education” (Charles University´s and Czech Television´s joint project): “Contemporary antisemitism in the Czech Republic and elsewhere: Selected causes, trends and context”

2013 1st Israel Week at Charles University. Round table: “Old, new or none at all? Antisemitism in Europe and the conflict in the Middle East”.

2013 Anthropological Seminar, Institute of Anthropology of the Faculty of Science, Masaryk University: “Immigration and the Rise of Right-wing Extremism in the European Framework”

2013 Summer School of Interdisciplinary Studies (FA CU): “Agunot – anchored women in the State of Israel”

2012 International Symposium, Kurt and Ursula Schubert Centre for Jewish Studies, Palacky University, Olomouc: Judaism and Jewish Studies in the Modern World: “Jews and Judaism in Central Europe”

2012 1st Annual International Conference of the Prague Centre for Jewish Studies: Jewish Studies in 21st Century. Prague – Europe – World: “Sources and Manifestations of Antisemitism in Contemporary Czech Society with an Emphasis on so called New Antisemitism”

2012 Anthropological Seminar, Institute of Anthropology of the Faculty of Science, Masaryk University: “Use of Narrative Ethnography Method during the Fieldwork in Israel”.

2012 Anthropological Forum (PAKET), Faculty of Arts, Charles University: “The Ordination of Women as Rabbis – Prospects of Female Believers in the State of Israel”.

2011 Intercultural Communication and Multicultural Education, Faculty of Arts, Charles University: “Romeo and Juliet against the Backdrop of Jewish-Arab relations”.

2011 Cultural Studies through a Gender Lens, Faculty of Arts, Charles University: “’You are hereby permitted to all men’ – Judaism and Divorce Style in the Modern State of Israel”.

 

Invited Guest Speaker – Related Non-University Professional Experience

2017 International conference The MENE TEKEL: “Word, it’s strength and abuse” The Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic

2015 The European Day of Jewish Culture Jewish Museum in Prague: Presenting debate “Between Ideals and Community”: Prague chief rabbi David Peter and rabbinic seminar student David Maxa.

2014 Czech – Israeli Forum, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic: “Protecting Democratic Societies and Values in the Environment of Conflict”

2014 Jewish Museum in Brno: “Judaism and women in Israel”

2013 Moravian-Silesian Christian Academy: “Sources and Manifestations of anti-Semitism in contemporary Czech society”

2012 Second Prague Seminary of Association of Jewish Academics. Holocaust as a bygone story or moral challenge? Research, memory and Czech society: “External Impacts on the Contemporary Antisemitism in the Czech Society”. The Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic

2011 Czech State Television, Channel Studio 6, Interview on “Ramadan: Tradition in Transition”

Related Non-University Professional Experience

2018 Co-organizer of The third Prague seminar of the Association of Jewish Academics in the Czech Parliament focused on Jewish life in today’s Europe and on Contemporary antisemitism and radicalization of society in Europe

2013 Nahum Goldmann Fellowship Program

2009-2010 Internship at the Embassy of the Czech Republic, Israel (8 months)

2007-2008 Editor/Staffer at Nový Prostor magazine (Czech version of The Big Issue)

2006-2008 Press Monitoring, Reuters Agency, Prague

Language Skills

English                        Doctoral Studies Exam at CUNI: CEFR standard B2/C1

Portuguese                   M.A. Degree at CUNI

Spanish                        Language Exam at CUNI

Modern Hebrew           Level Bet, University of Haifa

German, Russian          Passive understanding

 

Various

Supervision of Ph.D. thesis with a title: “The Impact of Religion on The Dating Patterns Among Secular Israeli Jews”

 

Social Media Presence

Founder of Facebook page Jewish and Israel Studies in the Czech Republic with more than 2000 followers. https://www.facebook.com/JewishIsraelStudiesCzechRepublic

 

 

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