Welcome! 

I am a postdoctoral fellow at the Policy, Elections, and Representation Lab (PEARL) at the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto. I earned my PhD in Political Science from Tel Aviv University in 2023. 

I study comparatively the political behavior of the public and elites with area expertise in Israeli politics. My core research interest focuses on the determinants of attitudes toward government intervention and policies, positioning my work at the intersection of political science and public policy.  My broader research interests include voting behavior, elite behavior, public policy, representation, paternalism, and democratic attitudes. Methodologically, I specialize in and teach quantitative methods, particularly surveys and experiments.

One central theme of my research is understanding public and elite attitudes toward government paternalism—policies designed to "protect citizens from themselves." I examine the factors that shape preferences for paternalistic policies, exploring when coercive interventions are favored over non-coercive alternatives. I have studied public attitudes toward these policies in the U.S. and Israel, during both normal times and crises. Currently, I am investigating the perspectives of local politicians in Israel and Canada, as part of the European Panel of Local Officials project. 

In another line of inquiry related to this theme, I explore how partisanship and policy information influence policy preferences. This taps into the ongoing debate about the role of political affiliation in shaping public opinion, focusing on how partisan cues versus policy content shape preferences in the U.S., Israel, and Canada. 

Finally, during the 2024/25 academic year, I will be part of a University of Toronto-Hebrew University of Jerusalem collaboration on online hate speech, leading research on public opinion toward the regulation of various forms of online hate speech. 

My work on Israeli politics is rooted in the idea that Israel, while unique in some ways, often exemplifies broader global phenomena. As a researcher with the Israel National Election Studies (INES) project and the ISF Center of Excellence "Looking beyond the Crisis of Democracy: Patterns of Representation in Israeli Elections," I study subjective perceptions of representation, personalism, and democratic attitudes in Israel. I am currently co-authoring a project that examines how Israel's growing polarization, highlighted by the 2023 judicial reform crisis, affects perceptions of welfare deservingness.  This work joins the research mentioned above, in which I use Israel as a case study.  

My research has been published in Public Opinion Quarterly, Regulation & Governance, and European Political Science.  

I hold an M.A. in Political Science (Magna Cum Laude) from Tel Aviv University and a B.A. in Philosophy and Middle Eastern History (Summa Cum Laude) from the University of Haifa.

When I am not engaged in academic work, I enjoy spending time with my family, reading fiction, practicing yoga, running, and hiking.