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Ayana Halpern has been a PhD Candidate since 2014 at the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She is currently a fellow at the Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Center and was also awarded the Herzl fellowship at the Bernard Cherrick Center.
Ayana completed her studies in Social Work at the Hebrew University with honors. Her master's thesis, which explored the narratives and life stories of female social workers who survived a mental crisis, was inspired by the story of Bertha Pappenheim, a Jewish German social worker and one of the pioneers of social work in Germany. Her story led Ayana to further investigation of the Jewish German origins of social work, particularly in Palestine and later Israel. Soon after her masters, and with the supervision of Professor John Gal and Dr. Yehudith Avnir, she enrolled in writing her PhD dissertation on the unique knowledge transfer of Jewish German social workers to Palestine, and the establishment and development of the social work profession in that country.
In adittion to her research activity, Ayana is also involved in social work and human rights activities. She has worked as a practitioner for several years in several places with diverse populations, and is a member of "Ossim Shalom" Organization, which consists of Arab and Jewish social workers collaborating to promote peace and welfare.

Research Project

Ayana is writing her dissertation under the title "Female Pioneers in Social Work in Palestine: The Impact of the Jewish German Tradition and of Zionism upon the Emergence of the Profession" and under the supervision of Prof. John Gal and Dr. Yehudith Avnir. The goal of this research is to examine a crucial period in the history of Israeli social work, between the early 1930's and the establishment of the state in 1948, with emphasis on the ideological and cultural influences of the time. This research focuses on the process of social work professional development during this period, exploring the unique social reality and inter-cultural encounters. The study will investigate issues such as the influence of Jewish German tradition and Zionist ideology and implementation on social work practice and social services, along with the role of the profession vis-a-vis the future state and society.
The methodology adopted in the study will comprise of a qualitative analysis of diverse primary and secondary documents. The analysis will be inspired by feminist and post modernistic theories. Most of the data collection will take place in Israel at the Central Zionist Archive, and at the archives of the Ministry of Welfare, the Israel National Library and of various municipalities. In addition, data will be collected from social work archives in Germany.
This historical research can enrich our understanding regarding the roots of social work in Israel, a subject which granted limited study so far; shed new light on the complex identity of Jewish immigrant women in the Yishuv, and contribute more generally to the academic discourse regarding Transnationality and evolution of social work.