Yair Wallach

Yair Wallach is an Israeli-born, UK-based historian. He specialises in the urban history of the Middle East and is based at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where he directs the Centre for Jewish Studies. He is also a commentator on Israel/Palestine and on antisemitism.

Family and early life Wallach's parents are Maya and Efi Wallach.

He received a PhD from Birkbeck, University of London in 2008, then a Reader at SOAS. According to a review in the Jerusalem Quarterly, the book is groundbreaking in how it gives agency to items that in general have been considered accessories rather than agents of power, control, and conflict. He notes, however, that reading the texts from different perspectives can lead to disagreements with the author's interpretations. The book is an important addition to a wealth of literature on Jerusalem, but one that stands out among them by offering the possibility to look at Jerusalem from a material perspective.

In 2020–22, Wallach was a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellow, working on Ashkenazi Jewish migrants in Egypt, Palestine and Lebanon in the 19th and 20th century. He has written on Zionism for Ethnic and Racial Studies, Jewish Social Studies and other journals.

In 2020, he was falsely accused by Israel Academia Monitor, the Pinsker Center and the Simon Wiesenthal Center of boycotting Israel when SOAS moved their Hebrew language study abroad programme from Hebrew University to Haifa University.

Commentary Wallach has written for The Guardian, Ha'aretz, the New Statesman, +972 Magazine, World Politics Review, Jadaliyya, and Jewish News. He has appeared on the podcasts of New Lines Magazine and Jewish Currents.