Published: 23 November 2017
Last updated: 4 March 2024
Leading Arab Israeli researcher of the Holocaust says it’s ‘in my DNA’ (Times of Israel)
It took Asfahan Bahloul, a leading Arab Israeli researcher of the Holocaust, quite some time to formulate how she feels when she sees Israeli jets soaring over Auschwitz. She had to think about it for weeks. And then a few more days. She finally sent her answer by email, to which this article will later return.
Bahloul’s deliberations, which she agreed struck at the heart of the identity struggle inherent in her work, are characteristic of both her approach to interviews and her research style — she’s modest and unwilling to give answers to questions she is not sure about.
The Hebrew University PhD candidate, who received a Mandel scholarship for outstanding doctoral students, is one of the country’s leading researchers into the oft-ignored question of how Arabs in Israel, where the Holocaust maintains a weighty presence in society, used to and currently do talk about the Shoah.
Photo: Doran Golan
