Co-Head Fellow, 2024-25 Frankel Institute "Jews and Media"
she/her
About
Olga Gershenson is Professor of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies and Film Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. A multidisciplinary scholar, her interests lie at the intersection of culture, history, and film. Her first book, Gesher (2005), pioneered the study of Russian immigrant cultural production in Israel. Her second book, The Phantom Holocaust (2013), reveals unknown Holocaust films from the Soviet Union; Holocaust and Genocide Studies called it foundational to the field. Her third book, New Israeli Horror (2024), explores the emergence of horror films in Israel from inception to reception. According to Mark Jancovich, it is "an exemplar for horror scholarship for decades to come." Gershenson is also the editor of Ladies and Gents (2009), which established the discipline of Toilet Studies, and co-editor of a special issue of Eastern European Jewish Affairs mapping new Jewish museums in post-communist Europe. She is currently editing The Handbook of Judaism and Film (forthcoming 2026), a comprehensive survey featuring leading international scholars that examines how Judaism and cinema intersect across diverse cultural contexts. To learn more about her work, see her website.
