Rishona Fine

Rishona Fine
Rishona
Fine
Cherrick Fellow 2022-23, 2023-2024

Rishona Fine was born and raised in Washington D.C. and immigrated to Israel at the age of 18.  She completed her B.A. at Bar Ilan University with a double major in Land of Israel Studies and Sociology & Anthropology and has since developed her career as a licensed tour guide.  Today she is an M.A. student in the Program for Folklore and Folk Culture at Hebrew University and the recent recipient of the Immanuel Olswanger Award for Excellence in Seminar Research for her paper entitled, “Elijah’s Throne and the Empty Chair: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of an Ancient Jewish Folk Relic.”  Likewise, she currently serves on the research team headed by Dr. David Rotman of the Hebrew University in his broad-scale study tracing the development of Rachel the Matriarch rituals in the last decades, funded by the Israel Science Foundation.

As a researcher, Ms. Fine has grown from the field of anthropology and her M.A. thesis explores sacred space among the Beni Israel community of Mumbai and Maharashtra.  Her fieldwork runs between India and the Israeli periphery, while her research focuses upon the transmission of story, space and ritual among immigrant populations in transition.