Book on Israeli hiking trails wins the prestigious Shapiro Award

Binghamton University Associate Professor of Judaic Studies Shay Rabineau recently won the Shapiro Award for Best Book in Israel Studies for Walking the Land, his book on the history of Israel’s 6,000-mile hiking trail system.

The annual award is administered by the Association for Israel Studies, which is devoted to the academic and professional study of Israel. Nominees come from a wide range of disciplines, including anthropology and history to cinema, literature, political science and more, Rabineau said.

“It’s one of the biggest honors of my career so far. Previous recipients of the Shapiro Award include some of the most notable historians of modern Israel, and it’s a bit surreal to know that my book now stands alongside theirs,” Rabineau reflected.

He shares the award with Viola Arianov-Rautenberg, author of No Longer Ladies and Gentlemen, a social history of German-Jewish migration to Mandatory Palestine.

People might think that a book about hiking trails is centered on fun and recreation, but it’s a serious topic premised on questions of national identity and the environment. Until very recently, all the maps, guidebooks and almost all the websites about the national hiking system were solely in Hebrew, which deterred widespread international interest.

Jewish hikers marked the first trail in the future national system in 1947, literally one week before war broke out between Jews and Arabs, which culminated in the creation of the state of Israel. Scouting and hiking clubs have a longstanding connection to military leaders, and the Israeli military uses hiking as a prime training tool until this day, doing long treks on the trails toting full equipment.

“It’s really about politics, national identity and control over land, so the story speaks a lot to what’s at stake for Israelis and Palestinians during times of conflict like the one we’re in now,” Rabineau said.

Future plans include translating Walking the Land into Hebrew and publishing it in Israel. He’s also working internationally with colleagues from the World Trails Network to help build the Trailology Collective, a consortium of scholars from different fields who put hiking trails at the center of academic inquiry.

Currently, Rabineau is writing a book about the Dead Sea, its history and its ongoing environmental crisis. Just as with Walking the Land, the book was inspired by a trek he made, this one in 2022 when he circled the sea on foot through Jordan, Israel and the West Bank.

Rabineau points out that the Shapiro Award is emblematic of the degree to which Binghamton has become a world-class hub for Israeli studies.

“I believe our Center for Israel Studies is the best place in the world for the academic study of modern Israel on the undergraduate level,” he said. “Great work is happening here, and I think the best is yet to come.”