Research Fields

• Social Jewish history
• daily life and practices
• visual culture

About

Dr. Helman is a social historian whose books focus on Mandate Era Palestine and 1950s Israel.

 

Selected Publications

 

Young Tel Aviv: A Tale of Two Cities (Lebanon NH: Brandeis UP and UPNE, 2010).

A Coat of Many Colors: Dress Culture in the Young State of Israel (Brighton MA: Academic Studies Press, 2011).

Becoming Israeli: National Ideals and Everyday Life in the 1950s (Lebanon NH: Brandeis University Press and University Press of New England, 2014).

Consumer Culture and Leisure in the Young State of Israel (Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center, 2020). [in Hebrew]

 

Selected Awards

2004 – The Polonsky Prize for Creativity and Originality in the Humanistic Disciplines.

2008 – The Mordechai Ish-Shalom Prize (Yad Ben-Zvi) for "first-fruit" book on Israel History. 

2008 – The Shapiro Prize for best book in Israel Studies (Association of Israel Studies).

2021 – The Erika and Dr. Netanel Lorch Prize for best book on Israeli History.

 

Teaching

Consolidating a Hebrew National Culture in the Land of Israel

Visual Culture in Eretz Yisrael

Israel: The First Decade

Jews and Sport, 1780-1939