About us

The Institute for Research of the Jewish Press was established in 1985 as part of the Humanities and Social Sciences Faculties at Tel Aviv University. In 2001 it was named after Andrea and Charles Bronfman, and since then has been part of the Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities. Since 2015, the Center is named in honor of its founder, Shalom Rosenfeld, and in 2019 it has been joined to the Daniel Abraham Center for International and Regional Studies.

The Institute's activity is aimed at furthering interdisciplinary research on the history of Jewish journalism and media in all their linguistic and ideological variety and the study of Journalistic activity pertaining to Jewish communities. This history runs over the course of more than 300 years, beginning with the appearance of the first Jewish newspaper, Gazeta de Amsterdam, in 1672, up to today's daily newspapers and magazines, electronic media and hypermedia (the Internet) in Israel and abroad.

Over these three centuries, the Jewish press has reflected the ever-changing multicultural and political Jewish problem, serving not only as a documenting instrument for the processes of modernization within Jewish societies, but also as an active agent, being a forerunner and advocate of these processes. It has had a significant contribution to the struggle of the Jewish people, as it stood up to protect Jews' human and civil rights as individuals and as it articulated the Jewish condition up until the establishment of the State of Israel and to this very day. In doing so, it contributed to the consolidation of a common Jewish consciousness, despite the linguistic, cultural and political variety in Jewish communities throughout the world, and despite the changing self-definition of the Jewish people as a religion, as an ethnic group and, in the State of Israel, as a nationality. As such, Jewish press and media serve as a source for understanding historical and social processes in modern Jewish history.

The Rosenfeld Institute publishes some of the research on these topics in its semiannual periodical Kesher and in books published regularly by the Institute. It has also been initiating and encouraging projects that involve teaching, archiving and collecting of data on Jewish media. It holds academic conferences as well as lectures for public audiences.

Past and present directors of the Institute:

The late Shalom Rosenfeld, one of Israel's foremost journalists, recipient of the 1987 Israel Prize for Journalism. He was the founder of the Institute and served as its Head in the years 1985-1998.

Prof. Michael Keren, Head 1998-2003.

Prof. Yosef Gorny, Head 2005-2011.

Prof. Yaacov Shavit, Head 2012-2015.

Prof. Meir Chazan, Head 2015-2018.

The Institute presently operates under the S. Daniel Abraham Center for International and Regional Studies, which is directed by Prof. Raanan Rein.