Dr. Irad Ben Isaak
Irad Ben Isaak is an author and literary scholar who specializes in Jewish literatures. He is based in Lucerne, Switzerland, and Berlin, Germany. He studied at the Freie Universität Berlin and Tel Aviv University, and earned his Ph.D. in Cultural Studies from Europa-Universität Viadrina in 2024. From 2018 to 2022, he served as a Research Associate at the Selma Stern Center for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg. His research focuses on modern Yiddish and Hebrew literatures and the Bildungsroman genre.
| 2017-2024 |
Europa-Universität Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Institute of Cultural Studies Doctoral Researcher Project: The Yiddish Bildungsroman – Literary Portrayals of Jewish Adolescence Advisors: Prof. Annette Werberger (Europa Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt-Oder) and Prof. David G. Roskies (Jewish Theological Seminary, New York) |
| 2017 |
Tel Aviv University | M.A. in Yiddish Literature Master thesis: “Ikh bin ayn vegetaryer”: The Vegetarianism in Melech Ravitch's Work and Life. Completed with distinction (magna cum laude). Advisors: Prof. David G. Roskies and Prof. Galili Shahar |
| 2012 |
Freie Universität Berlin | M.A. in Sociology – European Societies Master thesis: “European Identity and the Case of Jewish Israelis with Dual Israeli-European Citizenship” |
| 2005 |
Tel-Aviv University | Double Major B.A. Program in: - Sociology & Anthropology - Interdisciplinary studies: - Central European Studies, Philosophy, Cognitive Sciences |
Scholarships, grants and awards:
- 2017 – scholarship of the Beth Sholem Aleichem – Tel Aviv Center for Yiddish Culture, Israel
- 2016 – excellence award of the National Authority for Yiddish Culture, Israel
- 2013-2015 – M.A. scholarship of the Goldreich Family Institute for Yiddish Language, Literature and Culture.
Research Interests
- Modern Yiddish Literature
- Modern Hebrew Literature
- Bildungsroman theory
Publications:
- The Yiddish Bildungsroman. From Abramovitsh to Bergelson. In preparation for publication.
- Die vegetarische Poesie des Melech Ravitch. Jiddische Dichtung über das Tier im Wien der Zeit nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg, Gans Verlag Berlin 2025, 145 pages.
- “Explaining the Yiddishland to Israelis. Beni Mer's Translation of Menachem Mendl,” in Olaf Terpitz ed. Yiddish and the Field of Translation. Agents, Strategies, Concepts and Discourses across Time and Space, 117-134 (Vienna: Böhlau, 2020)
- “I am a Vegetarian: The Vegetarianism of Melech Ravitch” in Jacob Labendz, Shmuly Yankowitz (eds.) Jewish Veganism and Vegetarianism. Studies and New Directions, 49-66 (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2019)
- “Izraelczycy w Berlinie, czyli co łączy Berlin z Tel Awiwiem,” Cwiszn. Żydowski Kwartalnik o Literaturze i Sztuce(Cwiszn. Jewish Quarterly on Literature and Art), issue 4/2012, 49-51.Article on the identities of Israelis living in Berlin
- Review of Andreas Kraß / Moshe Sluhovsky / Yuval Yonay (eds.): Queer Jewish Lives between Central Europe and Mandatory Palestine. Biographies and Geographies (Bielefeld: transcript Verlag), in Invertito. Jahrbuch zur Geschichte der Homosexualitäten, forthcoming.
- Review of Zukunft der Sprache – Zukunft der Nation?: Verhandlungen des Jiddischen und Jüdischen im Kontext der Czernowitzer Sprachkonferenz by Carmen Reichert, Bettina Bannasch, Alfred Wildfeuer (eds.) (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2022), in Nordost-Archiv 32 (2023): 135–137. Link
- Review of Naomi Seidel, The Marriage Plot, Or, How Jews Fell in Love with Love, and with Literature (Stanford University Press, 2018). Kult Online, Giessen University (55/2018). Link
- Review of Der Bildungsroman im literarischen Feld. Neue Perspektiven auf eine Gattung by Elisabeth Böhm & Katrin Dennerlein (eds.) (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016). Kult Online (51/2017). Link
- Review of Efrat Gal-Ed, Niemandssprache. Itzik Manger – ein europäischer Dichter (Berlin: Jüdischer Verlag im Suhrkamp Verlag, 2016). Kult Online (48/2016). Link
Literary and academic translation:
- Bruno Preisendörfer, Sätze, die die Welt verändern. Eine Gedankenreise von Sokrates bis Nietzsche. From German to Hebrew, forthcoming at Am Oved Book Publishing, Tel Aviv.
- Theodore Herzl, youth memoirs. Translation of Theodore Herzl’s youth memoirs, forthcoming at Jewish National Fund, Jerusalem, 2025
- Jacob Grimm (1808) and Ludwig Gotthard Kosegarten (1794), the literary magazine "Dehak," Tel Aviv, 2024. Translations of selected texts, German to Hebrew
- Perets Markish, “Volin,” Tekstualia, Warsaw, no 33/2013. Yiddish to Polish translationPerets Markish’s narrative poem, together with Mariusz Kałczewiak