Oxford seeks professor of Israel studies after Penslar move to Harvard

Oxford University is looking for a new professor of Israel studies after the inaugural holder of the post returned to North America.

Professor Derek Penslar, the author of numerous books on Zionism, antisemitism and modern Jewish history, has taken up the William Lee Frost chair in modern Jewish history at Harvard University.

Professor Pensalar said he was “very happy at Oxford, and I am glad over the past four years to have built up Israel studies there as an academic field, with a cohort of post-graduate students and a regular Israel studies seminar. Although my experience at Oxford was overwhelmingly positive, from the beginning I faced the problem that my family is in Ontario, and over time the trans-Atlantic commute became too difficult to sustain.”