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Shai Afsai’s research interests include Zionist historiography, the religious traditions of the Beta Yisrael Jewish community from Ethiopia, Jewish observance and identity in Nigeria, Jewish pilgrimage to Ukraine, Jewish-Polish relations, and Jews and Irish literature. His recent publications include: ‘A Persistent Interest in the Other: Gerry Mc Donnell’s Writings on Irish Jews,’ Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review 108:431 (2019); ‘Benjamin Franklin’s Influence on Mussar Thought and Practice: a Chronicle of Misapprehension,’ Review of Rabbinic Judaism 22:2 (2019); ‘A Postscript to “Jews, Freemasons, and Religious Accommodation: Rhode Island’s Redwood Lodge and the Congregation of the Sons of Israel and David,”’ Rhode Island History Journal 76:2 (2018); ‘Uman: Pilgrimage and Prayer,’ Reform Jewish Quarterly 65:3 (2017); and ‘Nigeria’s Igbo Jews: Jewish identity and practice in Abuja,’ Anthropology Today 32:2 (2016).
Statistically Impossible: A Critical Analysis of Hamas’s Women and Children Casualty Figures
Iran is slowly surrounding Israel with a ‘ring of fire’: On the West’s ongoing appeasement of Tehran and refusal to see plain the IRGC’s transnational Jihad
From Stalin to Hamas: The Return of the Left that Doesn’t Learn? | An Interview with Mitchell Cohen
Those Who Tried: Conversations with the Peace Processors | Episode 2: ‘Arafat could never end the conflict… his identity was shaped by struggle’ – A conversation with Dennis Ross
Iran’s ‘successful’ attack vs Israel – a blessing very effectively disguisedOur Voice of the Fortnight is from the Times of Israel's 'Wartime Diaries' podcast. In the immediate aftermath of October 7th, Shai Davidai – an Assistant Professor at Columbia University – became an unlikely public defender of Israel. And truthfully, even he was surprised by this turn of events: As a committed left-wing Israeli, he had spent years criticizing the government, and often took to the streets to demonstrate against its policies. But the atmosphere he witnessed on college campuses (and specifically on his own campus at Columbia), compelled him to speak up and speak out.
