Born on August 14, 1950 in Vilnius, Lithuania, USSR.

Emigrated to Israel in October l973.

Married, two children, three grandchildren.

Education 

             l968–l973, Department of English, Vilnius State  University. Diploma (equivalent to M. A.) of Philologist and Teacher of English, l973.

             1974–1980 — doctoral studies in the English Department of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Thesis, "Techniques of Withholding Information in Omniscient Narrative," under the supervision of Professor H. M. Daleski. Ph. D. degree — 1981.

             1980–1982 — post‑doctoral studies in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

             August–November — 1984 post‑doctoral research at Yale University.

 Work         

              1974–1978 — high‑school teacher of English, Jerusalem.

              1978–1980 and 1982–present — the English Department of the Hebrew University.

                                              1978–1980 — Instructor

                                               1982–1988 — Lecturer

                                               1988–1994 — Senior Lecturer

                                                1994–2000 — Associate Professor

                                                 Since summer 2000, Full Professor

                (Feb. 1994–Oct. 1996 and Oct.2011–Sept. 2013 — Department Chair)

Grants and Awards           

                  August–November 1984 — a grant from the US–Israel Educational Foundation (partly supported by Fulbright) for the completion of a research project in U. S. A.

                  Fall 1984 — The Golda Meir Fellowship, the Hebrew University.

                  Spring 1985 — Fellowship for the Summer School of Criticism and Theory at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

                  1990 — The Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship (for six months of research, March‑August 1991, at the University of Konstanz, West Germany).

                  1998 — grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, for residency in Bellagio.

                  2007 — Vigevani-Foundation Grant (for research in Italy).

                  2008 — The Rector’s Prize for excellence in teaching and research

                  2011 — The Rector’s Prize for continued excellence in teaching

                  Three research grants from the Israel Science Foundation.

Member of the Advisory Boards of  Connotations, Nabokov Studies, Gulag Studies, Respectus Philologicus 

March 2002– February 2007 — member of Council for Higher Education

Founder and editor of Partial Answers: Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas, sponsored by the School of Literatures, The Hebrew University, published by the Johns Hopkins University Press.