Hagar Lahav (born May 5, 1966 in Kibbutz Horshim) is a senior lecturer in the Department of Communication at Sapir College, which specializes in sociology of journalism, sociology of faith and feminism. She is Sapir's College co-commissioner for prevention of sexual harassments, and a former deputy head of the Ha'aretz newspaper news department. She lives in Tel Aviv with her partner Yossi Cassuto, and their sons Orai and Omer.
She earned her bachelor's degree at Tel Aviv University in the Department of Political Science and graduated Cum Laude in 1989. During her degree, she served as research assistant to Prof. Avi Ben-Zvi and began working in Haaretz newspaper. Lahav worked in the newspaper in a variety of editing and writing roles, and was a reporter coordinator, the head of the news desk, a reporter for the Prime Minister's Office (at the time of Benjamin Netanyahu's first term). Her last job in the paper was the deputy head of the newspaper's news department, from which she retired in 2000.
In 1999, Lahav began her MA studies in the Political Communication Program at the Department of Political Science at Tel Aviv University, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2002. Her thesis, "Media Agenda and Dominant Culture: The Israeli Case," written under the direction of Prof. Gad Barzilai, analyses the headlines of major Israeli newspapers for 30 years. In 2003, Lahav won the Dan David Prize for Young Researchers for Thesis.
Between 2003 and 2006, Lahav studied for a third degree in the Department of Communication at Tel Aviv University, under the direction of Prof. Dafna Lamish. Her doctorate, "Transparent: Patriarchy and Editing the Journalist Text," dealt with the way Yedioth Ahronoth, Ma'ariv and Ha'aretz covered a gang rape case at a high school in Ramat Hasharon in 1999. The study revealed how all newspapers, despite their differences, framed the affair in a patriarchal manner. As of 2007, Lahav is a senior faculty member in the Department of Communication at the Sapir Academic College.
Hagar Lahav is considered a pioneer in a feminist study of the representation of sexual assaults in the press. In Hebrew, two of her articles were published on the subject: "'Shocking Case': Media Coverage of Sexual Assault in Israel" (2008) and "The Defendant, the Nightmare and he Clockwork Strawberry" (2009). Both articles have become basic elements in the study of media coverage of sexual assaults in Israel and are taught in many academic courses.
In addition, Lahav published articles dealing with the sociology of journalism in many international academic journals. Much of this work was done in cooperation with Prof. Zvi Reich of the Beer Sheva University. In addition to the study of journalism, Lahav has also been involved in the sociology of faith, a field of research focusing on the modes and meanings of beliefs, both secular and religious. Lahav focuses on the study of secular Jewish believers in Israel. She claims that 25% of Israel's Jewish population defines itself as secular, but also believes in God, and examines the identity, beliefs, practices and experiences of members of this group. She has published many articles in international journals on the phenomenon and has even operated for a period of time a blog called "God without a Yarmulke", which also deals with the phenomenon.
Awards, Grants and Scholarships
2012 Research Grant, Sapir College, Israel.
2010 Research Grant, Sapir College, Israel.
2009 Residence Scholarship, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, Brandeis University.
2008 Shalom Hartman Institute Fellowship.
2007 Research grants, Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Israel.
2006 Research grants, Chaim Herzog Institute for Media, Politics and Society, Tel Aviv University.
2005 Dean’s list of excellence, Faculty of Social Science, Tel Aviv University.
Komorov Scholarship for Excellency in Communication Studies.
2004 Research grants, Heinrich Boll Foundation, Israel.
2003 The International Dan David Prize for Young Outstanding Researchers.
2001 Dean’s list of excellence, Faculty of Social Science, Tel Aviv University.
Inbal Scholarship for excellent students in Social Science, Tel Aviv University.
(a) Refereed Articles in Scholarly Journals
1. “The ONE: God's Unity and Genderless Divinity in Judaism,” Feminist Theology 16(1): 47-60 (September 2007). http://fth.sagepub.com/content/16/1/47.short
2. With Dalia Gavriely and Nirit Topol, “Women’s Representation in the Israeli press during the Yom Kippur War (1973),” Global Media Journal 3 (1): 1-10 (Spring 2008). http://www.genderlinks.org.za/article/women-representation-in-the-israeli-press-during-the-yom-kippur-war-19731-2009-09-01
3. “Media Coverage of Sexual Violence in Israel,” Igarta 10, A monograph. Chaim Herzog Iinstitute for Media, Politics and Society, Tel Aviv University (May 2008) (Hebrew). http://www.tau.ac.il/institutes/herzog/igarta10.pdf
4. “’If you can’t earn enough – teach’: Newspaper journalists as journalism lecturers in Israel,” Journalism Practice 2 (3): 463-475 (October 2008). http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17512780802281206
5. “The accused’: A case study of press coverage of a rape,” Megamot 46(1-2): 86-108 (February 2009) (Hebrew). http://www.szold.org.il/?CategoryID=198&ArticleID=303
6. "The giver of life and the griever of death: Women in the Israeli TV coverage of the Second Lebanon War (2006)," Communication, Culture and Critique 3: 242-269 (June 2010). http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1753-9137.2010.01069.x/abstract?systemMessage=Wiley+Online+Library+will+be+disrupted+on+15+September+from+10%3A00-12%3A00+BST+%2805%3A00-07%3A00+EDT%29+for+essential+maintenance&userIsAuthenticated=false&deniedAccessCustomisedMessage
7. With Zvi Reich, "Authors and poets write the news: A case study of a radical journalistic experiment," Journalism Studies 12 (5) (October 2011). http://www.caerdydd.ac.uk/jomec/resources/foj2011/foj2011-Lahav.pdf
8. With Zvi Reich, "Are reporters replaceable? Literary authors produce a daily newspaper," Journalism (January, 2012). http://jou.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/10/19/1464884911421701.abstract?rss=1
9. "Martin Buber and A. D. Gordon as postsecular theologians," Israel Studies 19(1) (Spring 2014), pp, 189-213. https://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/israel_studies/v019/19.1.lahav.pdf
10. "Beyond the God of our Fathers: Postsecular theology and the Jewish Feminist discourse in Israel, Yiunim Betoldot Israel, Thematic Serious No. 7 (Summer 2014), pp. 185-213 [Hebrew]. ** http://www.bialik-publishing.co.il/product_info.php?products_id=1693&osCsid=thjjl0a2d8o5knkugqdj0frs82
11. "Postsecular Jewish Feminist Theology? The view from Israel," Journal of Modern Jewish Studies Volume 14, Issue 3 (2015), pp. 355-372, http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14725886.2015.1039313?journalCode=cmjs20#.Vo9n5fkrKUk
12. "Postsecular theology: Daly, Hampson, Buber and Gordon," Theology Today, Vol. 72, Issue 4 (2015), pp. 415-430 http://ttj.sagepub.com/content/72/4/415.short
13. "What do Secular-believer Women in Israel Believe in?," Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol. 31, Issue 1 (2016), pp. 17-36. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13537903.2016.1109866?journalCode=cjcr20
14. "Jewish Secular-believer women in Israel: A Complex and Ambivalent Identity", Israel Studies Review, Vol. 32, Issue 2 (2017), pp. 66-88.
15. "William James in the Holy Land: Religious experience and secular-believer women in Israel", Israel Studies, Vol. 22, Issue 2 (2017), pp. 55-77.
16. With Zvi Reich, "Do you really know your reporters? Evaluation methods of editors-in-chief", Journalism, First Published July 10, 2018 https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884918786144
(b) Articles in Refereed Collective Volumes
1. "'If You Can’t Earn Enough – Teach' - Newspaper Journalists as Journalism Lecturers in Israel." In Bob Franklin (ed.), The Future of Newspapers. London: Routledge, 2009. http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415602020/
2. "Genderless Divinity in Judaism." In Stephen Hunt (ed.) Judaism and Islam (The Library of Essays on Sexuality and Religion series). Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2010.
3. "It's their Fault There's no Chance for Peace: Key Trends in Israeli coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict". In Dan Caspi and Daniel Rubinstein (eds.), Reporting the Middle East (pp. 119-140). World Scientific. 2017.
4. "Postsecular theology", in Justin Beaumont (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Postsecularity. Routledge (Nov. 2018): 166-176 https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-Postsecularity/Beaumont/p/book/9781138234147
(c) Pedagogical Guides
1. With Shiri Iram and Hannah Green, Reading Between the Lines, Jerusalem: KESHEV 2011, [Hebrew] [http://www.keshev.org.il/images/stories/PDF/reading_between_the_lines_2011.pdf
2. With Shiri Iram and Michal Zak, Dialog Beyond the Headlines: Thatcher's Guide, Jerusalem: KESHEV 2013 [Hebrew] http://www.keshev.org.il/teaching-modules/teachers-guide-dialogue-beyond-the-headlines-2013.html#.VGWslPmsV8F
(d) Professional Reports
1. Et al., Social Protest in the Media, KESHEV 2012, [Hebrew] http://www.keshev.org.il/images/stories/PDF/Social_protest_in_the_media_heb.pdf
2. With Hannah Green and Ofer Volodivsky, The Journalistic Coverage of "Pillar of Defense", KESHEV 2012 [Hebrew]** http://www.keshev.org.il/images/stories/PDF/pillar_of%20_defense_hebrew.pdf
3. With Shiri Iram, Nothing to Do, No One to Talk To, KESHEV 2014 [Hebrew]** http://www.keshev.org.il/images/stories/PDF/nothing_to_do_no_one_to_talk_to.pdf
(e) Other Professional Monographs and Articles:
1. "Gendered view of Israeli television coverage of 2006 Lebanon War," KESHEV Report, A monograph. (December 2007) (Hebrew). http://www.keshev.org.il/media-analyses/women-media-and-conflict.html
2. "Holding in thin air: Journalism in the Post-Modern condition," Eretz Acheret 45: 44-47 (May-June 2008) (Hebrew). http://acheret.co.il/?cmd=articles.119&act=read&id=214
(g) Book Review in Professional Journals
1. Hagar Lahav, "Nellie Elias et al.'s Passages in Communication," The Public Sphere 11 (2017)
2. Hagar Lahav, "Sagi Elbaz's Loyalty to the Source: Media, Ideology and the Political Culture in Israel," Gilui Daat 6: (Fall 2014).
3. Hagar Lahav, “Judith Plaskow: The Coming of Lilith: Essays on Feminism, Judaism and Sexual Ethics,” NASIM 12: 301-308. (Fall 2006).
Scholarly Lectures and Presentations:
2018 – the 9th Israeli Conference for the Study of Contemporary Spiritualities, Gender and Spirituality, Haifa University, 29.5.2018.
2016 - The 32st Annual Conference of the Association of Israel Studies, What do secular-believer Jewish women in Israel believe in? Yed Ben Zvi, Jerusalem, June 20-22
2015 - The 7th Israeli Conference for the Study of Contemporary Spiritualities, Buber and Gordon as postsecular philosophers, May [Hebrew]
The 31st Annual Conference of the Association of Israel Studies, Where is Postsecular Theology? ‘It’s complicated’ : Secular-believer Jews in Israel
2014 - The 6th Israeli Conference for the Study of Contemporary Spiritualities, Secular-believer Women in Israel, Tel Aviv University, April 24 [Hebrew]
The European Conference on Ethics, Religion and Philosophy, It's Complicated: Secular-Believer Jewish Women in Israel, Brighton, United Kingdom, http://iafor.org/iafor/ecerp2014-programme/
2013 ¬- Media and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Tel Aviv University http://peace.tau.ac.il/index.php/list-of-recent-events/113-21-7-2013
The 5th Israeli Conference for the Study of Contemporary Spiritualities, A.D. Gordon and Martin Buber as Post Secular Theologians, Tel Aviv University http://isaaclubelsky.wordpress.com/2013/05/24/%D7%94%D7%9B%D7%A0%D7%A1-%D7%94%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%A8%D7%90%D7%9C%D7%99-%D7%94%D7%97%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%99-%D7%9C%D7%93%D7%AA-%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%97%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%A2%D7%9B%D7%A9%D7%95/
The 27th Annual Conference of the Association of Israel Studies, Where is Postsecular Theology? A Critical Analysis of Jewish Feminist Discourse in Israel http://www.aisisraelstudies.org/program_onlinedraft.pdf
2012 The 4th International Conference for the Study of Contemporary Spiritualities, Haifa University, "The Divine as a Verb: Gender/political spirituality in Mary Daly's philo-theology."
The 27th Annual Conference of the Association of Israel Studies, Haifa University, "Postsecular reading of Martin Buber and A.D. Gordon."
Critical Theology, Foundation Conference, Tel Aviv University, "Intersecting Angles: A Postsecular Feminist Jewish Theology."
2011 The 61st Annual Conference of the International Communication, Boston "Mapping [ir]replaceable elements of news reporting: A “quasi-experiment” (with Zvi Reich)
The 26th Annual Conference of the Association of Israel Studies, Boston "Secular believers: Postsecularity and Jewish feminist theology in Israel"
The Future of Journalism conference, Cardiff University, "'Living ugly or dying beautifully': A case study of the interpretation and rejection of an innovation in journalism" (with Zvi Reich).
2010 The 2nd Conference for the Study of Contemporary Spiritualities, Haifa University, "Secular faith as a feminist tool"
Gender and Jewish Identity: An International Conference, Hadassh-Brandeis Institute and Bar Ilan University, "A feminist reading of public and academic discourse about religiosity and secularism among Israeli Jews"
The Israeli Democracy in Crisis Conference, Department of Political Science, Haifa University, "The borders of democracy in Israeli journalism"
2009 The 41st annual conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, LA.
“Spiritual but not religious: Gender ramifications of faith among secular Israeli Jews”
Gender and Jewish thought Conference, Hadassh-Brandeis Institute, Brandeis University, "New arenas for 'doing' Jewish feminist thought"
The 59th Annual Conference of the International Communication, Chicago,
"'Hard' news, 'soft' news and the gendered discourse of 'important' and 'interesting'"
The 59th Annual Conference of the International Communication, Chicago,
"The giver of life and the griever of death: Women in the Israeli TV converge of the Second Lebanon War (2006)"
The 8th Annual Conference of Israeli Association of Language and Society, David Yalin College, Jerusalem, “Women in war – The media representation” (with Dalia Gavriely-Nury)
Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University, "The state of the Israeli journalism"
2008 The 58th Annual Conference of International Communication Association, Montréal, “Women’s Representation in the Israeli press during the Yom Kippur War (1973)” (with Dalia Gavriely-Nury)
The 24th Annual Conference of the Association of Israel Studies, N.Y
"A Gendered View of Israeli Television Coverage of the 2006 Lebanon War"
The 24th Annual Conference of the Association of Israel Studies, NY
“Women’s Representation in the Israeli press during the Yom Kippur War (1973)” (with Dalia Gavriely-Nury)
The 12th Annual Conference of the Israeli Association of Communication, Tel Aviv, "A Gendered View of Israeli Television Coverage of the 2006 Lebanon War"
The 12th Annual Conference of the Israeli Association of Communication, Tel Aviv, “Women’s Representation in the Israeli press during the Yom Kippur War (1973)” (with Dalia Gavriely-Nury)
Netania Academic College, Netania, Women, Media and Conflict Symposium, "A Gendered View of Israeli Television Coverage of the 2006 Lebanon War"
National Security and Gender Conference, Bar Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, “Women’s Representation in the Israeli press during the Yom Kippur War (1973)” (with Dalia Gavriely-Nury and Nirit Topol)
2007 The Future of Newspapers Conference, Cardiff University, “Newspaper journalists as journalism lecturers in Israel”
Discourse and Gender in Israel Conference, Bar Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, "Framing and Meta-framing in press coverage of sex violence”
2006 The 10th Annual Conference Israeli Association of Communication, Jerusalem, “The magic powder of feminist research”
Religion, Gender and Society Conference, Bar Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, “Between Irigaray’s ‘divine woman’ and the psycho-Kabala's tikun ha’lev”
2005 Women and the Divine Conference, The Institute of Feminist Theory and Research, University of Liverpool, "The ONE – God’s unity and genderless divine in Judaism"
The 5th Annual Conference of Kolech – Religious Women’s Forum, Jerusalem, "The ONE – God’s unity and genderless divine in Judaism"
2003 The 8th Annual Conference of the Israeli Association of Communication, Ramat-Gan, "The civic discourse in the Israeli press headlines 1970-2000”