Maytal Mark

Maytal Mark joined the Jewish studies program at Smith in fall 2026. She is assistant professor of Jewish studies and holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew/Judaic studies and history from New York University and an M.A. in modern Middle East history from the University of Maryland, College Park. She recently completed fellowships at the Center for Jewish History in New York City and the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture.

Professor Mark is a historian of modern Middle Eastern Jewry. Her current research focuses on how Jewish intellectuals in Egypt, Lebanon, and Iraq developed a distinctive understanding of the idea of the “Jewish question” in their encounter with the Zionist movement in the first half of the twentieth century. Her research uncovers how these thinkers responded to the Zionist movement’s claims about Jewish history, assimilation, and national identity. She is especially interested in how their unique position as multilingual, non-European intellectuals with a distinct relationship to minority rights and emancipation distinguished their responses.

Professor Mark offers courses on Middle Eastern and North African Jewish history, the history of Zionism and anti-Zionism, and global Jewish intellectual history. All are welcome in her classes, and she looks forward to meeting as many Smith students as possible in her first year!