Mikhal Dekel is an Israeli-born author and professor of literature based in the United States, specializing in the theory of migrations, historical memoir, representations of trauma, and the overlap between law and literature. She teaches English and Comparative Literature at City College New York (CCNY) and the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center, and directs CCNY’s Rifkind Center for the Humanities and Arts Dekel is the author of '' Tehran Children: A Holocaust Refugee Odyssey'', ''The Universal Jew: Masculinity, Modernity and the Zionist Movement'', and the Hebrew monograph ''Oedipus be-Kishinev (Oedipus in Kishinev)''. Dekel has also published articles on topics such as George Eliot’s Hebrew translations, tragedy and revenge in Hebrew literature, and autism and the English novel. Her scholarly work has received support from the

National Endowment of the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

, the

Mellon Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, commonly known as the Mellon Foundation, is a New York City-based private foundation with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the product of the 1969 merger ...

, and the Lady Davis Foundation, among others.

Early life and education

Mikhal Dekel was born in Haifa, Israel, to Hannan and Zipora Dekel (Teitel). As an Israeli citizen, Mikhal Dekel completed her mandatory military service and went on to earn an L.L.B. from Tel Aviv University’s Buchmann School of Law and intern at the Tel Aviv State Attorney’s Office. Dekel is a member of the Israel Bar Association. She moved to New York and entered a graduate program in English at the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

. She then completed a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

Tehran Children

In 2019, Dekel published '' Tehran Children'', which reconstructs her father Hannan's journey as a child refugee fleeing Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. Hannan was one of nearly 1,000 child refugees who travelled from Central Asia to the Middle East as they fled the conflict. The book includes archival research, memoir, and travel reportage from Poland, Russia, Uzbekistan, Iran and Israel.

Other Writing

Dekel's previous book in English, ''The Universal Jew'', examines literary depictions of Jewish Nationhood and citizenship during the Zionist movement's formative period in the late nineteenth-century. It shows how literary works by

Theodor Herzl Theodor Herzl (2 May 1860 – 3 July 1904) was an Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist and lawyer who was the father of Types of Zionism, modern political Zionism. Herzl formed the World Zionist Organization, Zionist Organizat ...

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...

Hayim Nahman Bialik Hayim Nahman Bialik (; January 9, 1873 – July 4, 1934) was a Jewish poet who wrote primarily in Hebrew language, Hebrew and Yiddish. Bialik is considered a pioneer of modern Hebrew poetry, part of the vanguard of Jewish thinkers who gave voice ...

and others were shaped by, and also helped shape a new political reality and Jewish identity. Her articles have appeared in

Foreign Policy Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...

, The

Cambridge Review of International Affairs Cambridge ( ) is a city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of t ...

Guernica Guernica (, ), officially Gernika () in Basque, is a town in the province of Biscay, in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain. The town of Guernica is one part (along with neighbouring Lumo) of the municipality of Gernika-Lumo ...

, and other print and online publications.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dekel, Mikhal City College of New York faculty Historians of Europe 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers American people of Israeli descent American women non-fiction writers Jewish American non-fiction writers Jewish women writers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century births