Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204),commonly known as Maimonides and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam,was a Sephardic rabbi and philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages. In his time,he was also a preeminent astronomer and physician,serving as the personal physician of Saladin. He was born and lived in Córdoba in al-Andalus within the Almoravid Empire on Passover eve 1138 or 1135,until his family was expelled for refusing to convert to Islam. Later,he lived in Morocco and Egypt and worked as a rabbi,physician and philosopher.
Abraham Fraenkel was a German-born Israeli mathematician. He was an early Zionist and the first Dean of Mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is known for his contributions to axiomatic set theory,especially his additions to Ernst Zermelo's axioms,which resulted in the Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory.
The Aleppo Codex is a medieval bound manuscript of the Hebrew Bible. The codex was written in the city of Tiberias in the tenth century CE under the rule of the Abbasid Caliphate,and was endorsed for its accuracy by Maimonides. Together with the Leningrad Codex,it contains the Aaron ben Moses ben Asher Masoretic Text tradition.
Dunash ha-Levi ben Labrat was a medieval Jewish commentator,poet,and grammarian of the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain. He is known for his philological commentary,Teshuvot Dunash,and for his liturgical poems D'ror Yiqra and D'vai Haser.
Benjamin Mazar was a pioneering Israeli historian,recognized as the "dean" of biblical archaeologists. He shared the national passion for the archaeology of Israel that also attracts considerable international interest due to the region's biblical links. He is known for his excavations at the most significant biblical site in Israel:south and south west of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. In 1932 he conducted the first archaeological excavation under Jewish auspices in Israel at Beit She'arim and in 1948 was the first archaeologist to receive a permit granted by the new State of Israel. Mazar was trained as an Assyriologist and was an expert on biblical history,authoring more than 100 publications on the subject. He developed the field of historical geography of Israel. For decades he served as the chairman of the Israel Exploration Society and of the Archaeological Council of Israel. Between 1951 and 1977,Mazar served as Professor of Biblical History and Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1952 he became Rector of the university and later its president for eight years commencing in 1953.
Shlomo Pines was an Israeli scholar of Jewish and Islamic philosophy,best known for his English translation of Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed.
Rachel Elior is an Israeli professor of Jewish philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Jerusalem,Israel. Her principal subjects of research has been Hasidism and the history of early Jewish mysticism.
Jewish Kalam was an early medieval style of Jewish philosophy that evolved in response to Kalam in Islam,which in turn was a reaction against Aristotelianism.
Menahem Ben-Sasson is an Israeli politician and a former member of the Knesset for Kadima. Between 2009 and 2017 he was the president of Hebrew University of Jerusalem,succeeding Menachem Magidor.
Salman Masalha is an Israeli poet,writer,essayist and translator. Masalha is a bilingual writer who writes in Arabic and Hebrew,and publishes in both languages. His poetry has also appeared in other languages. Masalha is a frequent contributor to left-leaning Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Tuvia Friling is an Emeritus professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev,Israel. Previously he served as a senior researcher at the Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism and a lecturer at the Israel Studies Program both at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Guy Gedalyah Stroumsa is an Israeli scholar of religion. He is Martin Buber Professor Emeritus of Comparative Religion at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Emeritus Professor of the Study of the Abrahamic Religions at the University of Oxford,where he is an Emeritus Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall. He is a Member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
The Tunisian city of Kairouan,also known as Kirwan or al-Qayrawan was a world center of Talmudic and Halakhic scholarship for at least three generations.
Asher Cohen is an Israeli psychologist. He has been the 14th President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem since September 1,2017,and holds the university's Samuel Sturman Chair in Psychology.
Yosef Yoel Rivlin was an Israeli Oriental studies scholar,a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a member of the Academy of the Hebrew Language.
Hanoch Gutfreund is the Andre Aisenstadt Chair in theoretical physics and was the president at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Prior to his presidency,he was a professor at the university.
Yoram Ben-Porat was an Israeli academic and economist. He served as president of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1990 until his death in 1992 in an automobile accident at the age of 55.
Shmuel ben Ali ha-Levi was the most noteworthy of the twelfth-century Babylonian scholars and the only one of his era whose written works have survived in any significant number.
Hava Lazarus–Yafeh was a German-born Israeli Orientalist,scholar,editor,and educator. She known for her work in medieval and modern Islamic Studies and interfaith relations. Lazarus–Yafeh was a professor and a head of the Department for Islamic Civilization at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She won the Israel Prize in history in 1993.
Uriel Rappaport was an Israeli historian. His area of research focus was the Second Temple period,including Hellenistic Judaism,the Maccabean Revolt,the Hasmonean kingdom,and the First Jewish–Roman War. He became a professor of Jewish History at the University of Haifa and served as a rector of the university from 1983 to 1985. He was a member of the Council for Higher Education in Israel in 1987–1989 and 1998–2001,and served as a chairman of the Humanities Committee at the Israel Science Foundation. Rappaport took emeritus status at Haifa in 2003,and served as president of Kinneret College in 2002–2006.
