Adi Mahalel

Dr. Adi Mahalel teaches Yiddish Studies. He earned his PhD from Columbia University and is the author of The Radical Isaac: I. L. Peretz and the Rise of Jewish Socialism (SUNY Press) and the translation and scholarly introduction of Hanan Ayalti’s Boom and Chains: A Yiddish Novel Set in Israel/Palestine (Wayne State University Press). Adi is a scholar of modern Jewish cultures whose areas of interest include modern Hebrew and Yiddish literatures, Jewish cultures in modern times, and the crossroads between culture and politics. He has published articles and translations on these subjects in Yiddish, English, and Hebrew, and has taught at Columbia University, the University of Maryland, McGill University, and the YIVO institute in New York.

Recent Peer-Reviewed Publications include:

“The Tunnels and Chains in the Hebrew and Yiddish Works of Ayalti.” Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. 32, no. 2, 2025, pp. 164-184. 

“Yerusholoyim unter der erd: Di opshpiglungen fun heylikayt in khonen ayalti’s ershtn yidish-shprakhikn roman.” (in Yiddish) Jiddistik-Mitteilungen: Jiddistik in deutschsprachigen Ländern, vol. 74, November 2025.