Moshe Koppel

Last updated
Moshe Koppel
mSHh qvpl.jpeg
Born1956 (age 6768)
New York, United States
Alma mater New York University
Scientific career
FieldsComputer science
Institutions Bar-Ilan University
Doctoral advisor Martin Davis

Moshe Koppel (born 1956) [1] is an American-Israeli computer scientist, Talmud scholar, and political activist best known for his research on authorship attribution. Together with Shlomo Argamon and Jonathan Schler, he has shown that statistical analysis of word usage in a document can be used to determine an author's gender, age, native language, and personality type.

Contents

Biography

Koppel was born and raised in New York, where he received a traditional Jewish education. He studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion in Israel, received a B.A. from Yeshiva University [ when? ], and, in 1979, completed his doctorate in mathematics under the supervision of Martin Davis at the Courant Institute of New York University. [2] He spent a post-doctoral year at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton before moving to Israel in 1980. He has been a member of the Bar-Ilan University Department of Computer Science since then. [3] [4]

Research

Computer science

Koppel is best known for his research on authorship attribution. Together with Shlomo Engelson Argamon and Jonathan Schler, he has shown that statistical analysis of word usage in a document can be used to determine an author's gender, age, native language and personality type. [5] The findings regarding gender generated considerable controversy. [6] [7]

In a string of papers, Koppel and colleagues solved many of the main problems in authorship, including authorship verification and authorship attribution with huge open candidate sets. [8]

In recent years, Koppel has published several papers in social choice theory, offering (in joint work with Avraham Diskin) formal definitions of a number of concepts, including disproportionality, [9] and voting power [10] the definitions of which had been the subject of controversy. In related work, Koppel and colleagues have shown how the wisdom of crowds could be optimally exploited. [11]

Along with Nathan Netanyahu and Omid David, Koppel showed that, using only records of games played by grandmasters, a chess program could be trained essentially from scratch to play at grandmaster level. A program designed by Omid David based on these ideas placed second in the speed chess competition in the 2008 World Computer Chess Championship. [12]

Talmud

Koppel has written two books on the Talmud. Meta-Halakhah showed how ideas formalized in mathematical logic could be used to explicate how the ancient Rabbis understood the unfolding of Jewish law. [13] Seder Kinnim is a mathematical commentary on Tractate Kinnim, generally regarded as the most difficult tractate in the Mishna.

Koppel wrote a monograph on the uses of concepts in probability theory for understanding Rabbinic decision methods. [14] Together with Ely Merzbach, he founded and edited the journal Higayon that is devoted to related topics.

Koppel's interest in the Talmud is occasionally reflected in his computer science research. He has applied his authorship attribution methods to proving that the 19th century Baghdadi rabbi known as Ben Ish Chai was the actual author of a book for which he did not take credit. [15] Koppel also showed that the Harson collection (Hebrew : הגניזה החרסונית), a trove of letters attributed to early Hassidic masters were in fact all forgeries. [16]

Koppel has also developed methods for automated authorship analysis of biblical texts. [17]

Political activism

Koppel has been active in efforts to draft a formal constitution for the State of Israel, intended to replace the quasi-constitutional system of Basic Laws from which the government derives its powers. He participated in meetings of the Knesset's Constitution Committee under the chairmanship of Member of Knesset Michael Eitan during the 16th Knesset and prepared the drafts for the committee's work on religion and state. [18] [19] Subsequently, he co-authored a draft of a complete constitution proposed by the Institute for Zionist Strategies. [20] Later, he and Eitan co-authored another complete draft of a constitution. He also wrote legislation passed by the Knesset in February 2011 that required full disclosure by NGOs regarding funding received from foreign governments. [21] In February 2012, Koppel founded the Kohelet Policy Forum, a Jerusalem-based conservative-libertarian think tank. [22] [23]

Related Research Articles

Halakha, also transliterated as halacha, halakhah, and halocho, is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical commandments (mitzvot), subsequent Talmudic and rabbinic laws, and the customs and traditions which were compiled in the many books such as the Shulchan Aruch. Halakha is often translated as "Jewish law", although a more literal translation might be "the way to behave" or "the way of walking". The word is derived from the root which means "to behave". Halakha not only guides religious practices and beliefs; it also guides numerous aspects of day-to-day life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seven Laws of Noah</span> Universal moral laws in Judaism

In Judaism, the Seven Laws of Noah, otherwise referred to as the Noahide Laws or the Noachian Laws, are a set of universal moral laws which, according to the Talmud, were given by God as a covenant with Noah and with the "sons of Noah"—that is, all of humanity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bar-Ilan University</span> Public research university in Ramat Gan, Israel

Bar-Ilan University is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic university institution. It has 20,000 students and 1,350 faculty members.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brisk tradition and Soloveitchik dynasty</span> School of Jewish thought and tradition

The Soloveitchik dynasty of rabbinic scholars and their students originated the Brisker method of Talmudic study, which is embraced by their followers in the Brisk yeshivas. It is so called because of the Soloveitchiks' origin in the town of Brisk, or Brest-Litovsk, located in what is now Belarus. Many of the first Soloveitchik rabbis were the official rabbis of Brisk, and each in turn was known as "the Brisker Rov". Today, Brisk refers to several yeshivas in Israel and the United States founded by members of the Soloveitchik family, including the yeshivas of R’ Avraham Yehousua Soloveitchik and the late R’ Dovid Soloveitchik, among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moses Sofer</span> Orthodox rabbi

Moses Schreiber (1762–1839), known to his own community and Jewish posterity in the Hebrew translation as Moshe Sofer, also known by his main work Chatam Sofer, Chasam Sofer, or Hatam Sofer, was one of the leading Orthodox rabbis of European Jewry in the first half of the nineteenth century.

Stylometry is the application of the study of linguistic style, usually to written language. It has also been applied successfully to music, paintings, and chess.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mercaz HaRav</span> Yeshiva in Jerusalem

Mercaz HaRav is a national-religious yeshiva in Jerusalem, founded in 1924 by Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. Located in the city's Kiryat Moshe neighborhood, it has become the most prominent religious-Zionist yeshiva in the world and synonymous with Rabbi Kook's teachings. Many Religious Zionist educators and leaders have studied at Mercaz HaRav.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nahum Rabinovitch</span> Israeli rabbi

Nachum Eliezer Rabinovitch, born Norman Louis Rabinovitch, was a Canadian-Israeli Religious Zionist rabbi and posek. He headed the London School of Jewish Studies from 1971 to 1982, and the hesder yeshiva Birkat Moshe in Ma'ale Adumim from 1982 until his death.

The United Religious Front was a political alliance of the four major religious parties in Israel, as well as the Union of Religious Independents, formed to contest the 1949 elections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ecclesiastes Rabbah</span> Aggadic commentary on Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes Rabbah or Kohelet Rabbah is an aggadic commentary on Ecclesiastes, included in the collection of the Midrash Rabbot. It follows the biblical book verse by verse, only a few verses remaining without commentary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baraita on the Thirty-two Rules</span> Hermeneutical tool for biblical interpretation

The Baraita on the Thirty-two Rules or Baraita of R. Eliezer ben Jose ha-Gelili is a baraita giving 32 hermeneutic rules, or middot, for interpreting the Bible. As of when the Jewish Encyclopedia was published in 1901–1906, it was thought to no longer exist except in references by later authorities. However, it was discovered in 1933 by H. G. Enelow, who published it in his "Mishnat Rabbi Eliezer," and in 1947 it was published again in Margaliot's edition of Midrash Hagadol to Genesis.

Plagiarism detection or content similarity detection is the process of locating instances of plagiarism or copyright infringement within a work or document. The widespread use of computers and the advent of the Internet have made it easier to plagiarize the work of others.

Moshe Meiselman is an American-born Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva (dean) of Yeshiva Toras Moshe in Jerusalem, which he established in 1982. He also founded and served as principal of Yeshiva University of Los Angeles (YULA) from 1977 to 1982. He is a descendant of the Lithuanian Jewish Soloveitchik rabbinic dynasty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Avraham Ravitz</span> Israeli politician (1934–2009)

Avraham Ravitz was an Israeli politician and member of the Knesset for Degel HaTorah, which forms part of the United Torah Judaism alliance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Avraham Diskin</span> Israeli political scientist

Abraham Diskin is an Israeli political scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a professor at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya.

The Kohelet Policy Forum is a conservative, libertarian, right-wing Israeli nonprofit think tank established in 2012 and run by founder and chair Moshe Koppel alongside Avraham Diskin, Avi Bell and Eugene Kontorovich. Its goal is to influence government policies within Israel.

Shlomo Argamon is an American/Israeli computer scientist and forensic linguist. He is the associate provost for artificial intelligence and professor of computer science at Touro University.

Yedidia Stern is an Israeli jurist and legal scholar. He is an emeritus professor of law at Bar Ilan University and the president and CEO of the Jewish People Policy Institute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Israel Ta-Shma</span> Scholar of rabbinic literature (1936-2004

Israel Ta-Shma (1936–2004) was a scholar of Talmud, broadly construed, who served as a professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

References

  1. Slyomovics, Nattanel (2021-03-11). "The U.S. Billionaires Secretly Funding the Right-wing Effort to Reshape Israel" . Haaretz. Archived from the original on 2022-06-28.
  2. "Prof. Moshe Koppel: The judicial branch must be subject to checks and balances | The Times of Israel". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
  3. "Prof. Moshe Koppel, Author at Kohelet Forum". Kohelet Forum. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
  4. YakovT (2022-04-03). "Professor Moshe Koppel". שמרנות ישראלית | Israeli Conservatism. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
  5. S. Argamon; M. Koppel; J. Pennebaker; J. Schler (2009), "Automatically Profiling the Author of an Anonymous Text" (PDF), Communications of the ACM, 52 (2): 119–123 (virtual extension), CiteSeerX   10.1.1.136.9952 , doi:10.1145/1461928.1461959, S2CID   5413411
  6. Clive Thompson, He and She: What's the Real Difference?, Boston Globe. July 6, 2003
  7. Charles McGrath (August 10, 2003), "The Way We Live Now: Sexed Texts", The New York Times August 10, 2003
  8. Koppel, M., Schler, J. and Argamon, S. (2009), "Computational Methods in Authorship Attribution" (PDF), Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 60 (1): 9–26, CiteSeerX   10.1.1.153.9654 , doi:10.1002/asi.20961 {{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. Koppel, M. & Diskin, A. (2009), "Measuring Disproportionality, Volatility and Malapportionment: Axiomatization and Solutions" (PDF), Social Choice and Welfare, 33 (2): 281–286, CiteSeerX   10.1.1.154.3582 , doi:10.1007/s00355-008-0357-1, S2CID   17706962
  10. Diskin, A. & Koppel, M (2010), power-scw-240309-revised-final.pdf "Voting Power: An Information Theory Approach" (PDF), Social Choice and Welfare, 34 (1): 105–119, doi:10.1007/s00355-009-0390-8, S2CID   11662577 {{citation}}: Check |url= value (help)[ permanent dead link ]
  11. Baharad, E., Goldberger, J., Koppel, M. and Nitzan, S. (2011), "Distilling the Wisdom of Crowds: Weighted Aggregation of Decisions on Multiple Issues" (PDF), Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 22 (1): 31–42, doi:10.1007/s10458-009-9120-y, S2CID   553265 {{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) (special issue on computational social choice)
  12. Koppel, Moshe (1996-12-01), Meta Halakhah, Jason Aronson, ISBN   978-1568219011
  13. Homepage | CS@BIU (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 2023-02-16, retrieved 2011-01-16
  14. M. Koppel, J. Schler & E. Bonchek-Dokow (2007), "Measuring Differentiability: Unmasking Pseudonymous Authors" (PDF), JMLR: 1261–1276 8, July 2007
  15. M. Koppel (2010), "Computational Methods in Authorship Attribution: The Harson Trove (in Hebrew)", Yeshurun (23): 559–566
  16. https://news.yahoo.com/israeli-algorithm-sheds-light-bible-163128454.html {{citation}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  17. פרוטוקול:464 - חוקה בהסכמה רחבה, archived from the original on 2011-08-18, retrieved 2011-01-16
  18. Archived copy (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-06-23, retrieved 2011-01-16{{citation}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  19. Homepage | CS@BIU (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-08-19, retrieved 2011-01-16
  20. "השר איתן: חשוב שהציבור ידע מי תורם לאירגונים פוליטיים - האתר של מיכאל איתן". www.miki.org.il. Archived from the original on 2018-10-08. Retrieved 2018-10-08.
  21. "About Kohelet". Archived from the original on 2014-05-15. Retrieved 2013-04-14.
  22. "Moshe Koppel". Archived from the original on 2013-04-17. Retrieved 2013-04-14.