Dr. Adi Portughies is a resident of Midreshet Ben-Gurion in the Negev. Over the past decade, he served as Director of the Ben-Gurion Heritage Institute at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. During this period, he significantly advanced the archive’s public visibility and accessibility, including his involvement in the establishment of the archive’s new facilities, the planning of its exhibition hall, and the curation of its exhibitions. For his curatorial work on the exhibition hall, he received the Prime Minister’s Prize for Commemorating the Legacy of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, together with Prof. Paula Kabalo and Dr. Adi Sherzer.
Dr. Portugese has led prominent archival initiatives, including the development of community archives and the creation of information infrastructures for computational research in the humanities.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Law and completed his Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Jewish History. His Master’s research focused on Holocaust commemoration in the Hashomer Hatzair movement, while his doctoral dissertation examined social and political transformations within Israel’s ideological left during the 1970s. He conducted postdoctoral research at New York University and has since taught at universities in Israel and the United States. He publishes occasionally in the field of archival studies.
