Benjamin Mazar

Benjamin Mazar was born in 1906 in Ciechanowiec

Mazar was born Binyamin Zeev Maisler in 1906 in Ciechanowiec, to Haim Maisler, a tobacco merchant, and his wife Rivka. During World War I his family fled to Kursk and then to Feodosia in Crimea.

In the 1920s he studied geography, history and archaeology at the universities of Berlin and Giessen in Germany. He earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1928 and moved to the Land of Israel in 1929.

In 1931 he led digs at Ramat Rachel and Givat Eliyahu, and from 1936 he directed the first seasons at Beit She'arim, where he found large Jewish catacombs. In 1948 he became the first archaeologist to receive a digging permit from the new state, exploring Tell Qasile. From 1968 he directed excavations south of the Temple Mount.

Mazar joined the Hebrew University in 1943 and became a professor in 1951. He was rector in 1952 and president from 1953 to 1961. He also headed the Israel Exploration Society and founded the Archaeological Council of Israel.

In 1932 he married Dina, the younger sister of Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, and their son Ory was born in 1933. He died in 1995 and was buried at Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem.