Michael R. Freedman | University of Haifa

Research

Religion & Politics

How do religious leaders relate to nationalism and the state? I develop new approaches to examine ideological choices of religious leaders and their effects on the public, with a focus on Israel and the Muslim world. My work reveals the interplay of religion and material factors on the political choices of religious leaders.

Conflict Processes

I study the impact of conflict on political radicalization, drawing on comparative politics, international relations, sociology, and economics. My research demonstrates how conflict radicalizes different actors, with a focus on Israel and the Muslim world.

Computational Text Analysis

I contribute to computational social science methodology, focusing on texts and images in Hebrew, Arabic, and Turkish. I apply these tools in the framework of causal inference, spatial analysis, and network analysis.

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Freedman, M. & Ben-Nun Bloom, P.
Religious Authority and Political Solutions to Conflict: Experimental Evidence from Religious Leaders in Israel
Politics and Religion, forthcoming Q2
Sanchenko, E. & Freedman, M.
Gender-based Dynamics in Russian Online Political Discourse
Information, Communication and Society, 2025 Q1
Arad, Y. & Freedman, M.
The Crises of Israeli Democracy: Political-Ideological Framings by Members of Israel's 24th Knesset
Frontiers in Political Science, 2025, 7:1–10 Q2
Gilad, S., Freedman, M., & Ben-Nun Bloom, P.
Citizens' Communication Styles in Written Public Encounters
Perspectives on Public Management and Governance, 2024, 7(3): 75–88 Q1
Overbeck, M., Aharoni, T., Baden, C., Freedman, M., & Tenenboim-Weinblatt, K.
Divining Elections: Religious Citizens' Political Projections and Electoral Turnout in Israel and France
International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 2024, 36(2): 1–12 Q2
Freedman, M.
Earnings, Cohort Effects, and Inter-Generational Inequality: Evidence from the Luxembourg Income Study
Review of Income and Wealth, 2024, 70(2): 278–290 Q2
Karell, D., Freedman, M., & Gidron, N.
Analyzing Text and Images in Digital Communication: The Case of Securitization in American White Supremacist Online Discourse
Socius, 2023, 9: 1–16 Q1
Dekeyser, E. & Freedman, M.
Elections, Party Rhetoric, and Public Attitudes toward Immigration in Europe
Political Behavior, 2023, 45: 197–209 Q1
Freedman, M. & Klor, E.
When Deterrence Backfires: House Demolitions, Political Radicalization, and Israeli Fatalities
Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2023, 67(7–8): 1592–1617 Q1
Christia, F., Zoumpoulis, S.I., Freedman, M., Yao, L., & Jadbabaie, A.
The Effects of Drone Strikes on Cellphone Communication in Yemen
Political Science Research and Methods, 2022, 10(2): 419–427 Q1
Freedman, M.
Vote with Your Rabbi: The Electoral Effects of Religious Institutions in Israel
Electoral Studies, 2020, 68: 1–9 Q3
Karell, D. & Freedman, M.
Sociocultural Mechanisms of Conflict: Combining Topic and Stochastic Actor-Oriented Models in an Analysis of Afghanistan, 1979–2001
Poetics, 2020, 78: 1–17 Q3
Karell, D. & Freedman, M.
Rhetorics of Radicalism
American Sociological Review, 2019, 84(4): 726–753 Q1
Freedman, M.
Fighting from the Pulpit: Religious Leaders and Violent Conflict in Israel
Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2019, 63(10): 2262–2288 Q1
Ben-Nun Bloom, P., Gilad, S., & Freedman, M.
Does Exposure to Other Cultures Affect the Impact of Economic Globalization on Gender Equality?
International Political Science Review, 2017, 38(3): 378–395 Q2
Freedman, M., Kaner, O., & Kaplan, I.
Voting for Extreme Right Parties in Israel: Evidence from the 2009 Elections
Electoral Studies, 2014, 34: 68–77 Q2

Book Chapters

Freedman, M. & Shelef, N.
From Bennett to Ben-Gvir: Religious Zionist Political Behavior in the 2019–2022 Elections
In G. Rahat, N. Gidron, & M. Shamir (Eds.), The Elections in Israel, 2022. Routledge Press, 2025, pp. 203–221

Selected Policy Writing & Op-Eds

If this is the Israeli 9/11, US mistakes must be avoided
Reset Dialogues, October 2023
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is Becoming More Religious
Religion in Public Blog, 2022
No Longer Sacred: Religious Post-Zionist Beliefs about the State of Israel
POMEPS Studies 41, 2020
Religious Authority and Political Instability in Israel
MENA Politics Newsletter, 2020
Repeat elections in Israel may not be enough to overcome religious divisions
The Washington Post — Monkey Cage, June 2019
What 500 elections in 28 European countries can tell us about the effects of anti-immigrant rhetoric
The Washington Post — Monkey Cage, October 2018 (with E. Dekeyser)
Why are Israel's religious parties suddenly so influential?
The Washington Post — Monkey Cage, January 2018

Teaching

I teach courses in political science at the University of Haifa, covering topics in religion and politics, conflict processes, and quantitative methods. I also supervise graduate students working on related topics. For a full list of courses and supervised students, please see my CV.

Education & Positions

Current
Assistant Professor (Lecturer), School of Political Sciences, University of Haifa
Post-Doc
Postdoctoral Fellow, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
2019
PhD in Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Contact

Email

mrfreed@poli.haifa.ac.il

Office

School of Political Sciences
University of Haifa, Israel

Google Scholar

Michael R. Freedman