Anita Shapira (IL)

Anita Shapira (Hebrew: אניטה שפירא‎, born 1940) is an Israeli historian. She is the founder of the Yitzhak Rabin Center for Israel Studies, Emerita Professor of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University and former head of theWeizmann Institute for the Study of Zionism at Tel Aviv University. She received the Israel Prize for History in 2008.

Shapira was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1940, immigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1947 and grew up in Tel Aviv. The family lived on Yavneh Street sharing a kitchen and bathroom with other families. Later, they moved toYad Eliyahu.

She studied general and Jewish history at Tel Aviv University, completing her Ph.D in 1974 under Professor Daniel Carpi. Her dissertation, "The Struggle for Hebrew Labor, 1929-1939," indicated her interest in the history of the Labor Zionist movement, which was to be a continuing focus of her research. In 1985 she was appointed full professor at Tel Aviv University, serving in 1990-95 as dean of the Faculty of Humanities. From 1995 until 2009 she held the Ruben Merenfeld Chair for the Study of Zionism. From 2000 to 2012, she was head of the Chaim Weizmann Institute for the Study of Zionism and Israel at Tel Aviv University. From 2008 to 2013 she was a director in the Israel Democracy Institute.

From 1985 to 1989, she was a member of the Planning and Budgeting Commission of the Council for Higher Education in Israel; in 1987-90 she was chair of the board of Am Oved publishing house; since 1988 she has been a board member of the Zalman ShazarInstitute. In 2002-2008, she was president of the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. She founded the Yitzhak Rabin Center for Israel Studies and was its first director in 1996-99. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Jewish Review of Books and co-editor of the Journal of Israeli History.

Published works: 

Berl: The Biography of a Socialist Zionist, Berl Katznelson, 1887-1944/ Anita Shapira, translated by Haya Galai. Cambridge University Press, 1984, ISBN 0-521-25618-6
Land and Power: The Zionist Resort to Force, 1881-1948 (Studies in Jewish History)/ Anita Shapira ; translated by William Templer. Oxford University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-19-506104-7)
Essential papers on Zionism / edited by Jehuda Reinharz and Anita Shapira. New York: New York University Press, 1996.
Zionism and religion / Shmuel Almog, Jehuda Reinharz and Anita Shapira, editors. Hanover: Brandeis University Press in association with the Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History, 1998.
Israeli historical revisionism: from left to right / edited by Anita Shapira and Derek Penslar. Portland, Ore.: Frank Cass, 2003.
Israeli identity in transition / edited by Anita Shapira. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004.
Yigal Allon, Native Son: A Biography/ Anita Shapira, translated by Evelyn Abel. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-8122-4028-3
Brenner: Sippur hayim ("Yosef Haim Brenner: A Biography"), Am Oved, 2008.
Israel: A history, Brandeis University Press, 2012.
Ben-Gurion: Father of Modern Israel, Yale University Press, 2014.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Shapira