User:Elizabeth Tsurkov

I'm 20 years old (born 11/11/1986) and I live in a small settlement in Israel, near Bethlehem. I was born in the USSR, and fled the country with my mother and my sister when I was four. My parents were political dissidents in the USSR, and even did time in jail (my father total of almost nine years, my mother did three). I have some informal knowledge about the USSR, Communism and the Cold War. I speak, read and write fluently in Russian.

I attended school in Israel, my majors were biochemistry and English. I speak basic Arabic and have knowledge in politics, Middle-East studies and international relations. I'm interested in religions, especially Islam. I wrote many of the articles about Islam in the Hebrew Wikipedia.

Topics I have knowledge in:

• Islam, especially Shia Islam, early history of the religion and the Quran.
• Israeli history especially the period of the British mandate
• Lebanese history after independence.
• Iran in the 20th century
• The Arab-Israeli conflict