Philip Hollander

Lecturer, Modern Hebrew

Overview

Philip Hollander is an instructor of Modern Hebrew in the Department of Near Eastern Studies. He received a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University in 2004. Prior to joining the Cornell University faculty, he taught Hebrew language and literature at Tulane University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the Defense Language Institute. His book From Schlemiel to Sabra: Zionist Masculinity and Palestinian Hebrew Literature (Indiana University Press, 2019) focuses on Hebrew literature’s role in the development of Israeli culture and society and investigates the relationship between diasporic and Israeli Jewish identities—a primary theme in his published research.

Hollander’s Hebrew language teaching has centered on advanced level instruction and his previous experience teaching Modern Hebrew for both communicative and academic purposes informs his current work. Advanced Modern Hebrew I (HEBRW 3101) and Advanced Modern Hebrew II (HEBRW 3102) are designed for students transitioning to advanced Modern Hebrew classes and looking to develop their Hebrew language skills for both communicative and academic purposes. Alternatively, Advanced Hebrew Through Media (HEBRW 3103) and Advanced Hebrew Through Language ,Media and Culture (HEBRW 3104) employ the communicative approach to prepare students for immersion in the target culture; Life in Israel: Aspects of Israeli Society, Language and Literature (HEBRW 3105) and Dynamic and Changes of Israeli Culture Through Language and Literature (HEBRW 3108) focus on Hebrew literary and filmic texts and their analysis for students looking for a more in-depth understanding of Israeli and Jewish cultures.

Research Focus

  • Israeli Literature and Film
  • European and American Hebrew Literature
  • Masculinity Studies
  • Holocaust Literature
  • Yiddish Literature and Culture

Publications

  • From Schlemiel to Sabra: Zionist Masculinity and Palestinian Hebrew Literature (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2019).
  • “Pursuing Universalism through the Particular: Zionism and Transnational Modernism in Levi Aryeh Arieli’s ‘In the Light of Venus,’” Shofar 39.2 (2021): 85-122.
  • Philip Hollander and Gur Alroey, “Metahistorical Myth and Shmu’el Yosef Agnon’s Only Yesterday,” Israel Studies 25.3 (Summer 2020): 106-129.
  • “Lefe’amim zeh davar mesubakh, abba ve-ben: abahut, iyzun nafshi, ve-hitnahagut mussarit be-Kav ha-melakh meet Yuval Shimoni” In Iyyunim be-yetzirato shel Yuval Shimoni. Eds. Yigal Shvartz, Yaron Peleg, and Moriah Dayan Kodesh, 267-301. Tel Aviv: Hekhsherim Institute and Am Oved, 2020.
  • “Against the Sabra Current: Hanokh Bartov’s Each Had Six Wings and the Embrace of Diasporic Vitality” In Studies in Jewish Civilization 30: “Next Year in Jerusalem: Exile and Return in Jewish History,” ed. Leonard J. Greenspoon, 185-209. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2019.
  • “Rereading ‘Decadent’ Palestinian Hebrew Literature: The Intersection of Zionism, Masculinity, and Sexuality in Aharon Reuveni’s Ad Yerushalayim,” AJS Review 39:1 (April 2015): 3-26.
  • “Shifting Manhood: Masculinity and the Lebanon War in Waltz with Bashir and Beaufort” In Narratives of Dissent: War in Contemporary Israeli Arts and Culture. Eds. Rachel S. Harris and Ranen Omer-Sherman, 346-363. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 2012.
  • “Rializm minimalisti ve-ahrayut hevratit be-yetzirato ha-mukdemet shel Gadi Taub” (Minimalist Realism and Social Responsibility in the Early Work of Gadi Taub), ha-Dor: ha-shnaton ha-Ivri shel Amerikah 6 (2012): 131-140.
  • “Contested Zionist Masculinity and the Redemption of the Schlemiel in Levi Aryeh Arieli’s ‘Allah Karim!’” Israel Studies, 17.3 (Fall 2012): 92-118.
  • “ha-Sifrut ha-Ivrit be-Amerikah ke-mekor histori: yitzug shever ben dori bi-‘ke-shtile zetim’ shel Reuven Vallenrod,” (American Hebrew Literature as Historical Source: Representation of Intergeneration Conflict in Reuven Wallenrod’s ‘Like Almond Saplings’) ha-Dor: ha-shnaton ha-Ivri shel Amerikah 4 (2010): 81-90.
  • “Reclaiming Czernowitz in Aharon Appelfeld’s Flowers of Darkness” In Czernowitz at 100: The First Yiddish Language Conference in Historical Perspective. Eds. Kalman Weiser and Joshua Fogel, 95-110. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2010.
  • “The Role of Homosociality in Palestinian Hebrew Literature: A Case Study of Levi Aryeh Arieli’s ‘Wasteland,’” Prooftexts 29.2 (2009): 273-304.
  • “Beyond Martyrdom: Rereading Shamir’s With His Own Hands,” Hebrew Studies 49 (2008): 101-119.
  • “Voicing Alternative Hebrew Cultural Visions: Menachem Ribalow and Antologiyah shel ha-shirah ha-ivrit be-Amerikah (Anthology of Hebrew Poetry in America).” In Russkie evrei v Amerike, (Russian Jews in America) Vol. 16, ed. Ernst Zaltsberg, 71-89. St. Petersburg: Akademichesky Project, 2008.
  • “Building Bridges Destined to Fall: Biological and Literary Paternity in Appelfeld’s ‘The Ice Mine.’” In Arguing the Modern Jewish Canon: Essays on Modern Jewish Literature in Honor of Ruth Wisse. Eds J. Cammy, D. Horn, A. Quint, and R. Rubinstein, 357-369. Boston: Harvard Center for Jewish Studies, 2008.
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