General Information
Contact
החברה ההיסטורית הישראלית
The Historical Society of Israel
Yakir Baranes
The Historical Society of Israel
Beitar St. 2, Jerusalem, 91041
P.O. Box 4179
Israel
Phone: +972-2-5650449
eMail: Yakir@history.org.il
Homepage history competition: https://tali990.wixsite.com/competition
Homepage: http://www.historical.org.il/en/
About the organisation
The Israeli history competition is organised by The Historical Society of Israel which was founded in 1926 and is based in Jerusalem. It is the professional organisation of historians teaching and studying all aspects of history in Israel. It is the representative of Israeli scholars in international organisations of historians. It collaborates with the Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History in programmes promoting education in Jewish History in Israel, including courses and an annual conference intended to bring the results of the latest historical research to wider audiences. Other partners of the project are also the Israeli Ministry of Education and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO), Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, Dahan Center for Culture, Society and Education in the Sephardic Heritage and University of Haifa’s School of History.
The history competition
The first Israeli history competition was inaugurated in October 2013. The topic for each year will be announced by the academic steering committee overseeing the competition. The committee is headed by Prof. Eli Lederhendler, head of the School of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and includes other academics as well as teachers and representatives from the Ministry of Education.
One of the goals of the project is to enrich the “toolbox” of teachers who teach or aspire to teach according to the principles of research methods. To this end, teachers who are supervising their students during the writing process will meet for a series of workshops over the course of the year and will in turn work closely with the project’s staff throughout all the stages of the competition.
There are three different options/tracks to participate in the competition: school, municipal/regional and individual. Each educational institute and every individual participant can choose the kind of option/track that suits best.
School track: This track involves an entire class or grade and the subject teacher, who will support participants through all stages of their research. At the end of which students will submit a research paper that will be recognised by the school as part of the obligatory educational requirements. In this track it is possible to integrate students who are writing research papers (such as students specialising in historical research in class).
Municipal/regional track: This track is suited to students interested in historical research but for whom professional guidance within their own school framework is not an option. A citywide or regional group will be created for these students and will be accompanied by an external tutor.
Individual track: The teacher will present the competition to the students and offer personal guidance to whoever is interested. The research paper will be submitted directly to an external evaluation committee and will not be considered part of the required classroom material. This track is more appropriate for highly motivated high school students with high academic abilities.
Requirements
The competition is open to students in middle schools and high schools throughout the country (aged 12 to 18) who will compete in three separate age categories. The three winners in each age group will advance to the final stage after which a national winner will be announced. There will be different requirements for each group but the scope of the paper will be between ten and forty pages for every group. In exceptional cases it will be possible to present shorter or longer works, depending on the circumstances. The paper will be written and submitted in Hebrew. Abstracts in English will be added to those papers that advance to the finals.
Jury
The preliminay jury is composed of the competition team and history teachers. The final jury has 5 members and includes professional historians along with the chairman of the Shazar Center and a member of the Ministry of Education.
Awards
The three winners in each age group will advance to the final stage after which a national winner will be announced. All awarded students and their tutors are invited to the ceremony. The awards are going to be handed out by the members of the jury.