Scienceאברהם גרוסמן

Avraham Grossman

Avraham Grossman was an Israeli historian of medieval Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a recipient of the 2003 Israel Prize.

1936 to 2024Research on medieval Jewish historyStudies of Jewish womenThe Early Sages of FranceThe 2003 Israel Prize

Born: 10 March 1936, Tiberias
Died: 27 March 2024
Occupation: historian, Judaic scholar, university teacher
Education: Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Yavne Religious High School

Avraham Grossman was born in 1936 in Tiberias

Avraham Grossman was born in Tiberias in 1936 and grew up in the moshava of Mishmar HaYarden, which his family had helped found. His father worked the land. In 1948 the family moved to Haifa, where he attended the Yavne school.

After army service he studied Jewish history and Talmud at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, earning a bachelor's degree in 1964 and a master's degree in 1967. His master's thesis on Rabbenu Gershom and his doctorate, completed in 1974, were both supervised by Ephraim Urbach. He then did postdoctoral work at SOAS in London and researched manuscripts at the Bodleian Library.

He became a lecturer at the Hebrew University in 1976 and a full professor in 1986, and headed its Jewish history department. He was a visiting professor at Harvard, Ohio State and Yale, and retired as professor emeritus in 2007. His research covered Jewish women in the Middle Ages, medieval Jewish sages, social layers in Jewish society, and the Babylonian exilarchate.

He was a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and headed the Ben-Zvi Institute. He married Rachel in 1961 and they had 4 children. He died in 2024.