Canine Pioneer

Tammy Bar-Joseph is a researcher specializing in the study of human-dog relations in Israel and the Holocaust. In 2024, she graduated with honors from her thesis at the Open University of Israel, focusing on the examination of numerous stories depicting the rescue of Jewish children during the Holocaust through the assistance of dogs and their relationships with them. Additionally, Bar-Joseph serves as a member of the steering committee of the “Forum of Human-Animal Relations Researchers in Israel,” operating at Tel Aviv University.

Rachel Koriat was raised by her parents, Pnina (née Volanov) and Shmuel Tzvieli-Toretzky on Kibbutz Tirat Zvi in the Beit She’an Valley. From 1962 to 1964, she served as an education officer in the Nahal Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). After completing her military service, she left the kibbutz and began her long journey in education and teaching. She received a BA (with honors) in Hebrew language, Hebrew literature, and political science from the University of Haifa, and an MA (with honors) from Tel Aviv University. Her master’s thesis on Dr. Rudolphina Menzel is the basis for her article in this book. She has held roles in teaching, education, management, and teacher training in various educational frameworks, and she is married to Moshe Koriat, with whom she shares four children and six grandchildren.

Susan M. Kahn is the Associate Director at The Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law at Harvard Law School. She has published in science studies, animal studies and Jewish studies, and her book Reproducing Jews: A Cultural Account of Assisted Conception in Israel (Duke 2000) won a National Jewish Book Award, as well as the Eileen Basker Prize for Outstanding Research in Gender and Health from the American Anthropological Association.

Binyamin Blum joined the UC Law SF faculty in spring 2018. Prior to coming to UC Law SF, Professor Blum was on the Law Faculty of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem from 2012 to 2017. As a legal historian of the British Empire, Blum specializes in the relation between law and colonialism during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Blum’s current book project, Forensic Culture in the Age of Empire, focuses on the colonial origins of forensic science. Building on the observation that forensic technologies were often invented by non-scientists in the colonies, the book explores the cultural underpinnings of forensic epistemology as a new approach towards fact-finding. Stemming from perceived notions concerning native mendacity, non-cooperation and the difficulties of cross-racial identification, forensic science rendered crime scenes legible without the mediation of native eyewitnesses, thus facilitating policing across the cultural gaps of empire.

Blum also writes on current issues of evidence and proof, such as the exclusion of unlawfully obtained evidence, spousal privilege among same-sex partners, rape shield statutes and character evidence.

After receiving his B.A. and LL.B (summa cum laude) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Blum clerked for the Honorable Justice Ayala Procaccia of the Israeli Supreme Court. He went on to earn a doctorate in law and an M.A. in history as a Presidential Fellow at Stanford University. In 2009, Blum was a fellow at the J. Willard Hurst Institute Legal History at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

At Hebrew University Professor Blum taught legal history, law and colonialism and evidence. He co-chaired the Jerusalem Legal History Forum, which runs a biennial workshop and the Jerusalem Crime Group an interdisciplinary forum for law enforcement policy analysis. He is the co-founder of the British Colonial Legalities Collaborative Research Network in the Law and Society Association. In 2013 and 2014 Professor Blum served as a visiting professor at Stanford Law School.

Myrna Shiboleth has been breeding Canaan dogs since 1969 and has produced over fifty dogs that have claimed titles, including International Champion and World Winner. She is very proud that her dogs provide the basis for most of the Canaan dogs around the world. She is considered the world authority on the breed and has lectured on the Canaan dog in Israel, Finland, France, England, Italy, Kazakhstan, and the United States. She became a judge of Collies in 1971 and is now an Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI) judge of all breeds. She has judged in the United States, Israel, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Luxembourg, Poland, Germany, Cyprus, Greece, Belgium, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Estonia, Latvia, Russia, France, Australia, and Denmark. She is a past member of the board of the Israel Kennel Club, and past president of the Israel Spitz Dog Club. She frequently writes for various dog publications in Israel and abroad, and was a regular contributor to Collie Revue in Germany. Among her publications are the breed guide The Israel Canaan Dog (first and second editions, Loveland, CO: Alpine Publications, 1985 and 1996; third edition, Hendelmade, 2012) and Tails of Shaar Hagai: A Wild Life with Wildlife (Durham, NH: Sephirot Press, 2008). She regularly lectures on a wide variety of canine subjects, including behavior, structure and movement, communication, service and therapy dogs, training methods, and breeding, both in Israel and abroad; and she has given the first advanced course in canine subjects for the judging aspirants of the Cyprus Kennel Club. Overall, she lives with and enjoys her dogs.

Prof. Monika Baar specializes in the history of East-Central and South-Eastern Europe, with a research focus on the history of disabilities. As Joint Chair, one of her main aims is “to work towards a more diverse and inclusive European history that pays attention to marginalised groups.” Simultaneously, she hopes to raise awareness of the status and needs of vulnerable citizens in Europe and beyond.

Lea Lehavi received her B.A. in world history and Israel studies and her M.A. in Jewish History from Tel Aviv University. Her master’s thesis, Rudolphina Menzel and the Military Canine Formation in the “Yishuv” during Mandatory Palestine 1932-1948, was supervised by Motti Golani. She also served in the IDF’s elite canine unit Oketz.