Professor Gideon Bohak holds the Jacob M. Alkow Chair for the History of the Jews in the Ancient World at Tel Aviv University, where he teaches at the Department of Jewish Philosophy and Talmud and the Program of Religious Studies. His main field of research is the history of Jewish magic. His books and articles focus on the publication and analysis of new texts, and programmatic discussions of Jewish culture and Jewish history in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Find more about Prof. Bohak’s work by pressing the Arrow

​Anna Cherkashina graduated from the Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, with a master’s degree in Oriental Studies. Her master’s thesis studied Syriac magic as attested by the manuscripts dated back to the 18th-20th cc. In June 2023, she completed her PhD on Syriac love magic in the Higher School of Economics, Moscow. Besides Syriac magic she has been working with Aramaic and Semitic lexica contributing to a number of projects: “Etymological dictionary of Akkadian” (Jena, Germany), “Semitic Etymological Dictionary” (Moscow, Russia), “A New Historical Dictionary of Classical Syriac” (NJ, USA). Find more about Anna Cherkashina's work by pressing the arrow.

Michal Barak Maor is a PhD candidate in the Department of Jewish Culture at Tel Aviv University. She holds a B.A. in Jewish Philosophy and History, also from Tel Aviv University. During her undergraduate studies, she participated in OFAKIM, a distinctive program aimed at training future teachers. Consequently, Michal currently serves as a high school teacher in Jewish Philosophy. She also holds an M.A. in Jewish History, with her thesis titled "Plausible reason for her words makes her trustworthy": Feigning NIDDAH in Jewish sources between Antiquity and the Middle Ages". Michal's primary research interest lies in the social history of women in late antiquity. The title of her doctoral dissertation will be determined in the near future.

Yanir Marmor is currently pursuing two master's degrees, one in Talmud at Tel Aviv University and the other in Computer Science at the Weizmann Institute. His master's thesis in Talmud focuses on Jewish liturgy within the Incantation Bowls from Babylon. Over the past few years, he has been actively involved in several projects that blend digital technology with computational humanities. Find more about Yanir Marmor's work by pressing the arrow.

With expertise in technology and rich experience managing projects across diverse organizations, Tamir (M.A. in Comparative Religion) oversees the administrative aspects of our research group.

Daphne Baratz recently completed her PhD in the Department of Talmud at Tel Aviv University. The title of her dissertation is “Origins and Development of Josephus’ Interpretations in his Version of the Pentateuch”. Her field of specialization is Second Temple and rabbinic literature, as well as ancient Greek literature. She holds a B.A. degree in Talmud and Classical Studies and an M.A. in Classical Studies and is a graduate of Matan’s Advanced Talmudic Institute. Find more about Daphne Baraz's work by pressing the arrow.

Ohad Abudraham received his PhD. in the Department of Hebrew Language at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. His published dissertation “A Grammar of Early Mandaic” presents a comprehensive grammatical description of the early stratum of Mandaic. Ohad is an active member of the Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae (CIIP) and was recently honored with the Hebrew Language Academy Award in Memory of Ze’ev Ben-Haim. His academic pursuits revolve around Aramaic dialects, Hebrew grammar, Semitic epigraphy, and Jewish Magic. Find more about Ohad Abudraham's work by pressing the arrow.

Adi Wiener is a PhD candidate in Jewish Philosophy at Tel Aviv University. She holds an M.A. in Talmud from Tel Aviv University, and a B.A. in Jewish History and Political Science from the Hebrew University. Adi's main fields of interest are Jewish magical, astrological and divinatory texts of Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages. She took part in a research project on Cairo Geniza Jewish magical texts (Tel Aviv University), and in the Leipzig-TAU GIF-project on ancient textual amulets. Her first article, "The Importance of Context: Intertextuality, Hermeneutics and Instrumentalism in Biblical References on Ancient Jewish Amulets", was published in Gideon Bohak and Angelika Berlejung (eds.), Amulets of Protection and Texts for Fears in Antiquity [Orientalische Religionen in der Antike], Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2024.

Gefen Wiesner Lavee has a B.A. in Talmud and the Multidiciplinary Humanities program from Tel Aviv University and is currently pursuing her M.A in Talmud. She is interested in the connection between Rabbinic Literature and the Non-Rabbinic life reflected in the Cairo Genizah and in other non-rabbinic texts. Her thesis focuses on magical practices of protection for travel, as reflected in rabbinic and non-rabbinic literature.