She has been described by S. Ilan Troen and Noah Lucas as "one of the new generation of Israeli historians who have begun to systematically explore the immigration experience" during and after the establishment of Israel.
In 2002, Yad Vashem awarded Yablonka the Buchman Foundation Memorial Prize for her book on Eichmann.
In 2010, she was removed as chair of the Ministry of Education committee on history because she had criticised the teaching of history in schools.