Benjamín Mendelsohn

Benjamín Mendelsohn was born in 1900 in Bucharest

Mendelsohn was born in Bucharest, Romania, in 1900. His father, Shimon Arie Mendel, was a Torah scholar and merchant who moved to Israel in old age, and his mother was Tauba Mendel. His family was well established in the Jewish community of Bucharest.

As a young man he was active in Bnei Ezra, a Jewish group in Romania led by Rabbi Chaim Brazis that opposed Christian missionary work. He later said he developed victimology after helping a poor young Jew leave the missionaries.

After arriving in the country he worked as a guard at the Ministry of Justice in Jerusalem. When David Ben-Gurion learned of his profession, he ordered that Mendelsohn be employed there as a lawyer. A French journal recognized him as the father of victimology in 1938.

In 1973 he was guest of honor at the first conference on victimology, held in Jerusalem. Tel Aviv University recognized his contribution to the field in 1980. He was married to Ella, lived in Jerusalem, and died in 1998. He is buried at Har HaMenuchot.