Amnon Netzer

Amnon Netzer was born in 1934 in Rasht

Netzer was born as Naser Soluki in Rasht, Iran, in 1934. His family faced hardship after a fire destroyed his father's shop. He studied at the Jewish school Koresh and published articles in the Jewish newspaper Nissan in Tehran.

He immigrated to Israel alone in 1950 and later volunteered for the IDF, serving in the Air Force. He then studied Middle East studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, graduating in 1963. At Columbia University in New York he earned a master's degree and, in 1969, a doctorate in Iranian studies.

From 1955 to 1958 he produced Persian radio programs at Kol Israel, and in 1958 he helped found its Persian service. In 1970 he returned to Jerusalem and, with Shaul Shaked, co-founded the Iranian studies program at the Hebrew University. He collected rare manuscripts in Iran for the Ben-Zvi Institute and published a catalog of them in 1985.

He edited the book series Padyavand and co-edited Irano-Judaica. He retired in 2002 but kept teaching as professor emeritus. He died in a hospital in California in 2008 and was buried in Rishon LeZion.