Doctoral research fellow  Fredi Rotman

Born in 1985 in Mogilev, Belarus, Fredi Rotman completed a specialist's degree in History at Belarusian State University, followed by the one-year Paideia program at the European Institute for Jewish Studies (Stockholm) and an MA in Jewish Civilizations at HfJS Heidelberg. He has held research and internship positions at the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (Jerusalem) and worked on the archival projects “J-Doc” and "Jewish Heroes" (Tel Aviv). Since 2024, he has been a research assistant to Prof. Dr. Roland Gruschka at HfJS, working on paleographic and textual analysis of Yiddish sources. Fredi is a member of the European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS), the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS), and the German Middle East Studies Association (DAVO) . 

His project analyzes how the biographical and intellectual trajectories of key Jewish public figures who transitioned from Zionism to anti-Zionism shaped Soviet anti-Zionist discourse. It employs six primary case studies, including Soviet figures, alongside a comparative analysis of Palestinian/Israeli counterparts. The research is situated within the "knowing the enemy" theoretical framework.