Professor Orit Rozin

Dr Orit Rozin is Professor of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University, where she serves as Academic Director of the Koret Center for Jewish Civilization and co-editor of the Journal of Israeli History. Her scholarship focuses on the social, legal, and cultural history of modern Israel, with publications addressing citizenship, legislation and jurisprudence, immigration, foodways, gender, and family life. Over the past decade, she has participated significantly in the development of the history of emotions as a field in Israeli academia.

Dr Rozin has co-edited two volumes: one, with Professor Yoram Shachar, on law and emotions; and another, with Emma Zohar and Hadar Feldman Samet, on emotions in Jewish history. Her recent book, Emotions of Conflict, Israel 1949–1967, examines the history of citizens’ emotions by analyzing both the ways individuals reported their feelings and the emotional regime crafted by political leaders and cultural agents. In particular, she shows how policymakers sought to bolster public morale and cultivate an emotional repertoire suited to the challenges of a frontier society. This emotional regime instilled a sense of moral rectitude, offered tools for managing fear, and, crucially, provided existential meaning in times of crisis—meaning that was essential for overcoming the pervasive fear of impending death.

Since 2022, Dr Rozin has been developing a new research project, Under Attack: Experiencing Palestinian Terror in 1970s Israel, which examines the impact of Palestinian terrorism on individuals, communities, and the broader Israeli polity. By analyzing both the immediate effects of attacks and the preventive measures adopted by the state, the project explores shifting state–society relations and the ways these measures reshaped daily routines, emotional responses, and embodied experiences. More broadly, the study reconstructs the lived experience of ordinary citizens—attending to emotions, bodily sensations, and sense-making practices—during the turbulent years from 1967 to 1982.

At Clare Hall, Dr Rozin is accompanied by her husband, Gideon Rozin, a director of engineering at a biotech company with broad expertise in engineering and software. He also plays the clarinet and is a passionate cat lover.