The Arab Minorities in Israel; Jewish-Arab Relations in Israel; Political and Fundamentalist Islam; Israeli National Identity; Israel as a "Jewish and Democratic State."
Professor Rekhess (Ph.D. Tel-Aviv University) is a leading historian of the contemporary Middle East. His fields of expertise include the Israeli-Arab conflict, Palestinian politics, Islamic resurgence, the Arab Minority in Israel and Jewish-Arab relations.
He was born in Haifa (Mt. Carmel) and raised in Israel and Italy. Until his retirement in 2010, he was a member of Tel Aviv University faculty and served as the founder and the first Director (1995-2010) of its Program on Jewish-Arab Cooperation in Israel, sponsored by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
He is presently the Visiting Crown Chair in Middle East Studies at Northwestern University and co-chair of its Middle East Forum. He is heading the recently-established Program on Israel Studies at the Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Studies at Northwestern University. Concurrently, Professor Rekhess is a Senior Research Fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv University.
He authored and edited more than 13 books related to his fields of interest. His most recent book entitled: Muslim Minorities in Non-Muslim Majority States was published in 2011 (Hebrew).
Dr. Rekhess has held a variety of significant advisory posts, including Senior Consultant to the Abraham Fund for the Enhancement of Jewish-Arab Coexistence (1994-2010); Member of the Board of 'Sikkuy', the Association for the Advancement of Equal Opportunities (1993- 2006); a strategic advisor to Ehud Barak during his election campaign (1999) and as an advisor to Science Minister Matan Vilna'i, Chairman of the Ministerial Committee on the Arabs in Israel (1999-2000).
Rekhess is a regular public lecturer and television commentator on the current situation in the Middle East, focusing on the “Arab Spring” and the rise of the Islamic trend.