!Welcome to my website

This website contains texts I have written for various forums and information about lectures and courses under my guidance, mostly in Hebrew. This is a private archive that I set up to organize the extensive theoretical material I have written and to preserve it in electronic format. The archive is open to visitors and you are welcome to make fair use of it, subject to the site's terms of use.

About me

I am a theorist of animal-human relations and an animal rights activist, currently working at Oranim Academic College, teaching animal-human relations to animal-assisted therapy students. The little leisure I have left is devoted to occupations previously occupying a more central place in my life: birding and painting. Most of my work over the last two decades has been an effort to think about animals in social terms, and most of the site is dedicated to that work. Here is a brief explanation of my approach:

According to the accepted conception, when we talk about "society" we refer only to human beings as members. Admittedly, sometimes some of the animals next to us, such as dogs, cats, and horses, gain the status of partial belonging to society. But for the vast majority of animals we are accustomed to treating them as if they are completely separate from society. They are considered a part of nature and are therefore referred to in terms of biology; or they are perceived as mere objects of agricultural, economic, and scientific activity. I propose an alternative view, according to which "society" is a multi-specific phenomenon that includes humans as well as animals of different species while limiting the discussion of animals to biology, agriculture, and economics is a clear social act of power and exclusion. What implications does this conception have for the various fields in the "humanities" and social sciences? What meanings does it give to concepts such as equality, emotions, body, environment, nature, control, culture, rights, or self-representation? And what are the implications of this perception for the areas in which animals are commonly thought of as biological, technological, and economic objects? In my work I try to answer these questions: as much as possible with the help of thinkers and researchers who have critically examined the dominant approaches in the various fields of knowledge, and when existing sources are not satisfactory I add an original contribution to them. Such a contribution is necessary in particular to the topic of animal industrialization, which has not received the critical attention it deserves.

Selected Publications

Tsovel, Ariel. How to Think about Animals? (Book, Hebrew, not yet published)

Tsovel, Ariel. "Concepts Denoting Absolute Social Weakness." Dvarim 17a (November 2024): 81-108. (Hebrew; English summary)

Tsovel, Ariel. "Respect at the School Zoo: Educational Implications of Students' Encounters with Confined Animals." Dvarim 12 (October 2019): 247-265. (Hebrew; English summary)

Tsovel, Ariel. "Meat: Real and Fake, Truth and Fiction." Maarav 24 (Autumn 2018). (Abstract)

Tsovel, Ariel. "Cats, Madmen and Workers: Telling the Story of Those who Left Behind No Historical Evidence." In The Post-Human Era: From Fantasy to Eternal Life of Existential Panic, edited by Yochai Ataria and Amichai Shalev. pp. 91-116. Haifa: Pardes, 2016. (Hebrew)

Tsovel, Ariel. "Animal Assisted Therapy: A Moral Assessment." Animals and Society 50 (May 2014): 55-65. (Hebrew; English summary)

Tsovel, Ariel. "Introduction to the Anthology: Flesh and Blood." In Flesh and Blood, scientific advisor Ariel Tsovel, edited by Einat Ofir, curator Raphie Etgar, pp. 293-282. Jerusalem: Museum on the Seam, February 2013.

Tsovel, Ariel. "Animals under Automatic Management: Past, Present and Future." Animals and Society 47 (December 2012): 55-68. (Hebrew; English summary)

Tsovel, Ariel. "Alienated Contact: Changes in the Relation to Animals in the UK and the USA from the Eighteenth to the Early Twentieth Centuries." In Human Beings and Other Animals in Historical Perspective, edited by Benjamin Arbel, Joseph Terkel, and Sophia Menache, pp. 333-387 (Jerusalem, Carmel, 2007). (Hebrew; English summary)

Tsovel, Ariel. "The Untold Story of a Chicken and the Missing Knowledge in Interspecific Ethics." Science in Context 19, no. 2 (June 2006): 237-267.

Tsovel, Ariel. "What Can a Farm Animal Biography Accomplish? The Case of Portrait of a Burger as a Young Calf." Society and Animals 13, no. 3 (August 2005): 245-262.

Other Publications

Tsovel, Ariel, in collaboration with others. Several education programs; dozens of information booklets, leaflets, web pages, and newspaper articles; about 50 scripts of educational videos, 2020-. The Human and Animal Institute.

Tsovel, Ariel. About 500 popular articles in Animal Rights This Week e-magazine, re-edited for Anonymous for Animal Rights website, July 2001-July 2013. Anonymous for Animal Rights (currently Animals).

Tsovel, Ariel, and Allon, Dan. "Soaring Bird Migration Survey in the Northern Valleys of Israel, Autumns 1988-90." In Raptors in Israel: Passage and Wintering Populations, edited by David Yekutiel, pp. 31-45. Eilat: International Birdwatching Center Eilat, Israel, 1991.

Tsovel, Ariel. "Soaring Bird Migration at the Northern Valleys – 1988-9 Autumn Surveys Report. Torgos 17 (1990): 47-53. The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI). (Hebrew)

Tsovel (Sobel), Ariel. "Passerine Migration over Tel-Aviv Coast." Tzufit 3 (1985): 66-79. The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI). (Hebrew)

Selected Work Experience

2020- Co-director of The Human and Animal Institute.

2018- Lecturer, Animal-Assisted Psychotherapy, Oranim Academic College. Courses: "Animal-Human Relations in the 21st Century: Implications on Therapeutic Situations that Include Animals"; "Improving a Captive Animal's Condition: A guided Project".

2014-2015 Visiting lecturer at the M.A. in Biological Thought program, The Open University of Israel.

1999-2014 Researcher, writer, and editor of Animal Rights This Week e-magazine, website editor, printed matter author and editor, author of lecture program, and lecturer. Anonymous for Animal Rights (currently Animals).

1993-1998 Art Teacher for art instructor diploma. HaMidrasha Art School, Ramat HaSharon (currently Faculty of the Arts – HaMidrasha, Beit Berl College).

1988-1991 Scientific editor of soaring bird migration surveys at the Northern Valleys, Israel. Israel Raptor Information Center (IRIC, currently BirdLife Israel), the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI).

Education

2012 PhD The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Humanities Faculty, Tel Aviv University. Dissertation: The Status of Empirical Knowledge in Interspecific Ethics. (English)

2002 MA The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Humanities Faculty, Tel Aviv University. Thesis: Discussing the Harm Without Discussing It: The Debate Between the Supporters of the Human Harming of Nonhuman Animals and its Critiques as a System of Diversions. (Hebrew, English summary)

1993 Art teacher certification, HaMidrasha Art School, Beit Berl College, Ramat HaSharon.