Yaacov Yadgar, Oxford University’s new Stanley Lewis Professor of Israel Studies, who officially takes up the post tomorrow, said he will strive to make the university “a global leader” in the field.
The Israeli academic, who has come from Bar-Ilan University, succeeds Derek Penslar, who was the first professor in the subject at Oxford when he started five years ago.
Professor Yadgar, whose most recent book Sovereign Jews: Israel, Zionism and Judaism, was published earlier this year, will be a fellow at St Anne’s College.
He said his intention was to “create a space for tolerant and diverse engagement with Israel-related issues”.
