Dr. Jenny Hestermann joined the Heinrich Böll-Foundation Tel Aviv – Israel as Head of Office in February 2023. Before her new position, Jenny worked as Interim Professor for Israel and Middle East Studies at the Heidelberg Center for Jewish Studies.
Dr. Hestermann received her MA in Sociology, History, and Religious Studies from the University of Bremen in 2009. Afterward, she spent three years as Visiting Research Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, studying Hebrew while pursuing her Ph.D. in Contemporary History on German-Israeli relations (TU Berlin 2015). Since then, she has taught and researched German, European, and Israeli History at the Universities of Frankfurt, Potsdam, Heidelberg, and the European University Institute in Florence.
In the last decade, Jenny has written books and articles on the history of German-Israeli diplomatic relations, West German memory politics in the Post War Era, German-Israeli cooperation in the humanities, and the politics of Israel studies in Germany.