The Historical Society of Israel (HSI) serves the country’s lively and diverse research community, which includes generations of researchers in various fields, from archeology and the ancient world to contemporary history, all contributing and promoting advanced research. It continues an almost century-long tradition of scholarship that began in Jerusalem in 1924 with the establishment of The Ethnographical Society by Prof. Ben-Zion Dinur and Prof. Yitzhak Baer. In 1950, following the establishment of the State of Israel, the Society changed its name to The Historical Society of Israel. The Society is the professional organization of historians teaching and studying all aspects of history in Israel and is the representative of Israeli scholars in international organizations of historians.
As Israel’s professional organization for researchers of history, it seeks to advance the pursuit of historical knowledge among younger generations and to promote ties between academia and history teachers in secondary schools and other advanced education frameworks. The HSI is committed to voice its opinion in all matters concerning historical issues in the public discourse.
The Historical Society publishes two journals: Zion, devoted to Jewish history, and Historia, dedicated to world history. The journals feature research by distinguished scholars from various fields, from Israel and abroad.
The Historical Society of Israel initiates scholarly research symposia, international conferences as well as research workshops for doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers. The Society holds two annual events: the Jerusalem Lectures in History in Memory of Prof. Menahem Stern, and the Historical Society Annual Conference, held each year at a different university in Israel.
One of the goals of the Historical Society of Israel is to promote original historical research in Hebrew. To that end, HSI awards prizes for exceptional book, article and dissertation written in Hebrew. To encourage the future generation of researchers, HSI also distributes annual prizes for exceptional papers in history written by high school students. In addition, HSI’s scientific journals Zion and Historia are published in Hebrew, as well as HIS’s books series Beleshon avar, which is dedicated to books of historical research.
