Dr. Dana Avrish is a scholar of Jewish art and culture, curator, architect, and designer. Her research focuses on Jewish communities in the Islamic world, particularly Moroccan Jewish culture and synagogue architecture, exploring the intersections of space, material culture, tradition, community, and identity. She brings together academic research, writing, curatorial practice, and cultural and public engagement. Her book, Anti-Judaism, Anti-Zionism, and the Question of Restitution of Jewish Property from the Islamic World, was nominated for the Prime Minister’s Prize by the Dahan Center at Bar-Ilan University. She Created and curated Leaving, Never to Return!, an exhibition at the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv devoted to the heritage of Jews from Arab countries and Iran, and lectures on Jewish art, visual culture, and heritage. 

She holds a PhD in Art History from Bar-Ilan University and an MA in Diplomacy from Tel Aviv University, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. 

In the “Sephardi Beit Midrash” panel, she brings a female and interdisciplinary perspective to the conversation, connecting tradition, place, art, and memory.