Public lifeארתור בירם

Arthur Biram

Arthur Biram was a German-born Israeli philosopher and educator who founded the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa and served as its first principal.

1878 to 1967Founding the Reali School in HaifaPre-military training for youthIsrael Prize for education

Born: 13 August 1878, Bischofswerda
Died: 5 June 1967, Haifa
Occupation: educator, philosopher, philologist, rabbi
Education: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Leipzig University, Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums

Arthur Biram was born in 1878 in Bischofswerda

Arthur Yitzhak Biram was born in 1878 in Bischofswerda, Saxony. His parents ran a family wholesale business in textiles and clothing. He finished high school in Hirschberg in 1897.

He studied Semitic and classical languages, Islamic culture and philosophy in Berlin and Leipzig, and earned a doctorate in 1902 on Islamic philosophy of religion. In 1904 he was ordained as a liberal rabbi at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin. He joined the Zionist movement in 1897 and later taught classical languages in Berlin schools.

In 1913 he moved to the Land of Israel and became the first principal of the Reali School in Haifa. During World War I he served in the German army in Afula, and he returned to the school in 1919. He added upper grades, built a program of physical and pre-military training, and founded an institute for physical education with Yaakov Dori.

He retired as principal in 1948 but kept leading the teachers college and the school board. He received the Israel Prize for education in 1954 and honorary citizenship of Haifa in 1958. He was married to Hannah Tomeshevsky and had two sons, Aharon and Binyamin, and he died in Haifa in 1967.