RACHEL BENAIM, PH.D. CANDIDATE

Picture of Rachel Benaim

Email:  rbenaim@fau.edu
Website: https://www.racheldeliabenaim.com/
Education: B.A., Yeshiva University; M.S., Columbia University
Research Interests: Collective memory + cultural trauma, diaspora studies (Sefardic + Moroccan Jewry), sociology of the body and embodiment

          

Biography

Rachel Benaim Abudarham is an award-winning journalist, educator, and healing facilitator. She is currently working on her Ph.D. (in FAU's CSP track). Her research focuses on intergenerational Jewish trauma, and investigates how collective memory and inherited wounds shape identity and expression within Moroccan and Sefardic Jewish communities. Rachel’s dissertation contextualizes trauma beyond the Holocaust, examining its evolving impacts on both personal and communal levels. Rachel holds an M.S. from Columbia University and a B.A. from Yeshiva University, with additional coursework through Oxford University, the Paideia Institute in Stockholm and New York University’s Spiritual Resilience in a Fractured World program. Passionate about bridging knowledge and healing, Rachel integrates her expertise to create pathways of understanding and transformation across her professional work. 

A Boca Raton native, she returned to Florida with her husband and two bonus children shortly before beginning the program.

Thesis committee: Matty Lichtenstein (chair), Brendan Goldman, Yangsook Kim, Patrick Doug Sellers III

Publications and presentations:

  • Antisemitism and the Unclaimed Past: A Trauma Informed Critique of Jewish Political Discourse : Journal for Contemporary Antisemitism (forthcoming, 2026)
  • Moses Elias Levy and the Sefardic Legacy of Florida's First Senator, David Yulee: Florida Jewish Experience (book chapter, forthcoming, 2026)
  • Orthodox Women, Sefardic Erasure and Religious Embodiment in Esty Bitton-Shushan’s The Book of Ruth: Miami Jewish Film Festival (2026)
  • The Secret Sefardic History of Florida’s First Senator: Florida International University (2026)
  • The Life and Writing of Elie Wiesel as a Blueprint for Trauma Healing: Comparative Studies Conference, Florida Atlantic University (2025)
  • Moses Elias Levy and the Sefardic Legacy of Florida's First Senator, David Yulee: Florida Jewish Experience Conference, Florida Atlantic University (2025)
  • Morocco: A Modern-Day Model for Convivencia in the Arab World : Distinctions Journal (2023)
  • Peace and Conflict in the Holy Land, How Language Can Help Fuel or Heal the Israeli Palestinian Conflict: University of Maastricht (remote seminars, 2020–2022)