Miriam Szamet completed her PhD requirements at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the fall of 2017. Since then she has been a visiting scholar at the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow in Leipzig. Her thesis, titled “Immigration and Education: Jewish Pedagogues and the Pedagogical discourse in Palestine, 1880 – 1930,” deals with the cultural transfer of pedagogical theories from Europe, and particularly from Germany, to Palestine during the first decades of the twentieth century. Her research interests are: History of education, Jewish education, Jewish history and Israel studies. Her recent publications include: “The German-Hebrew Teachers’ Seminar in Ottoman Palestine, 1907–1910,” Naharaim: Zeitschrift für deutsch-jüdische Literatur und Kulturgeschichte (forthcoming 2018); “The Concept of Honor in Jewish Society in Early Modern Germany as Reflected in the Memoirs of Glikl Bas Leib,” Jahrbuch des Simon-Dubnow-Instituts (JBDI), (forthcoming 2018); “Zvi Lamm: His Thought and Its Importance to the Historical Study of Hebrew-Zionist Education,” Gilui Daat: Education, Society and Culture 13, (forthcoming 2018) [Hebrew].

Puah Rakovsky (1865–1955): An Innovative Educator in a Changing World

Szamet’s current research project deals with the biography of the Jewish-Polish activist and educator Puah Rakovsky (1865-1955) and provides an analysis of Rakovsky’s life and work through an intricate thematic prism focusing on: educational paths, family life, and her manifold public activities. Within this framework, the research sheds new light on the intensive processes of change and cultural innovation that characterized the Jewish society in Central and Eastern Europe from the end of the nineteenth century and until 1939.