Eitan's Internship at Yad Izhak Ben Zvi Institute

I am [finishing up] my internship at the Yad Izhak Ben Zvi Institute. The Yad Izhak Ben Zvi Institute, or Yad Ben Zvi for short, is located in beautiful Rechavia, Jerusalem. The Rechavia neighborhood was founded in a communal, moshav-like spirit and its architecture and culture reflect those ideals. Rechavia is known for its beautiful gardens and narrow, inviting streets that are conducive for getting to know your neighbors. Yad Ben Zvi is in fact located in the apartment complex that used to belong to Israel's second president, Izach Ben Zvi. Today the institute has expanded from its original location in that apartment to include parts of three adjacent buildings. They are building a new facility that will house the bulk of the institutes offices and archives.

Yad Ben Zvi's mission to research and do advocacy on behalf of the Jewish communities of the East; that is to say any Jewish community that is not Ashkenazi or of European descent. Yad Ben Zvi is also a leading institute in documenting the history of Jerusalem. The Ben Zvi Institute is associated with the Hebrew University and has partnerships with the Yad Vashem Institute for Holocaust Research. Many of its foremost researchers teach in universities in Israel and abroad.

The focus of my internship with Yad Ben Zvi is looking at how World War II affected the Jewish communities living in North Africa. While the policies of Nazi Europe were not wholly applied to North African Jewry, those communities experienced many hardships during the war and that experience has not been documented as thoroughly as their European counterparts. The aim of the project is to broaden the narrative of the Holocaust in order to foster a more communal response to the Holocaust amongst Jews, while filling large gaps in the academic literature.