Ms. Yael Paulina Robinson Gottfeld

Professional Background

Yael Paulina Robinson Gottfeld is a PhD candidate in the Department of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University. Her doctoral research explores the experiences of “mixed” families—those formed between Jewish Holocaust survivors and non-Jewish Poles— between 1944 and 1950. She holds a master’s degree in Jewish education in the Diaspora from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and another master’s degree in Hebrew studies from the University of Warsaw, where she graduated summa cum laude. She has also studied at Université Paris 8 and holds a Certificate in Archival Studies from the Israeli Archives Association.

Ms. Robinson Gottfeld currently heads the research division of the Reference and Information Department in the archives at Yad Vashem, where she leads a team of archival advisors and conducts workshops for researchers. Since 2010, she has held various roles at Yad Vashem, including reference advisor and archivist, contributing extensively to the accessibility and understanding of Holocaust documentation. 

Her research brings together themes of identity and postwar community and belonging, often focusing on underexplored narratives of “mixed” families in post-Holocaust Poland. She recently presented papers at the Lessons & Legacies XVII conference, a European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI) academic conference, and the Polish-Israeli Forum for Young Scholars. She has been awarded fellowships from EHRI, the Rothberg School at Hebrew University, and the European Commission. She works with archival materials in Polish, Hebrew, Yiddish, French, German, and English.

Fellowship Research

While at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as a Phyllis Greenberg and Richard D. Heideman Fellow, Yael Paulina Robinson Gottfeld will conduct research on the experiences of “mixed” families in immediate postwar Poland. Her work explores how family can serve as both a social and analytical framework to better understand questions of identity, belonging, gender, and reintegration in Polish-Jewish relations. The project pays particular attention to the lived experiences of these families: their negotiations with Jewish communal bodies and Polish state institutions, their encounters with local and international aid organizations, and their navigation of frequently ambivalent or hostile social environments.

Ms. Robinson Gottfeld plans to utilize the Museum’s oral history interviews, personal papers, testimonies, diaries, and correspondence. Additionally, she will incorporate documentation of the postwar Jewish community in Poland, Polish administrative records, and displaced persons camp archival materials. By combining microhistorical case studies with institutional records, her project aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of interfaith family life in postwar Europe.

Residency Period: June 1, 2026–July 31, 2026