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Nation & Citizen

The Heroes of Israel’s Volunteer Civil Service

Rabbi Tully Harcsztark and Professor Effie Shoham-Steiner
November 17, 2023

This special episode of the Grand Conversation emerged from the meaningful UJA mission to Israel that our Founding Principal Rabbi Tully Harcsztark was fortunate to join. On that mission, Rabbi Harcsztark ran into Effie Shoham- Shteiner in Jerusalem, an historian specializing in Medieval Jewish History. He is an associate professor at Ben-Gurion University in Be’er-Shevah. Since October 7th, Effie has not been pursuing his academic interests. Instead, he has been volunteering around-the-clock on behalf of the citizens of Medinat Yisrael, especially those from the south who were most directly impacted by the October 7th attack. We are honored to share with you Rabbi Harcsztark in conversation with Effie about the work he has been doing since October 7th.

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Rabbi Tully Harcsztark

Rabbi Harcsztark is the Founding Principal of SAR High School and Dean of Machon Siach. He is the recipient of the 2017 Covenant Award for Excellence in Jewish Education.

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Professor Effie Shoham-Steiner

Prof. Ephraim (Effie) Shoham-Steiner is a historian specializing in Medieval Jewish History. He is an associate professor at the Department of Jewish History at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Be’er-Shevah Israel (BGU). He is also the director of The Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters at BGU. His research focuses on the social aspects of Jewish history with a special interest in social information that can be extracted from rabbinic source material from medieval Western Europe.

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