Bezalel Narkiss

Bezalel Narkiss was born in 1926 in Jerusalem

Bezalel Narkiss was born in Jerusalem in 1926. His father, Mordechai Narkiss, was director of the Bezalel National Museum.

He studied Jewish and general history and Hebrew literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He later studied art history at the University of London.

During the War of Independence he fought with the Palmach in the battle for Jerusalem and was wounded twice. He belonged to the Hebrew Communists, and in 1949 he took part in a bank robbery in Jerusalem on the group's behalf. He was sentenced to 1 year in prison, and President Chaim Weizmann cut the term to 4 months.

He taught art history at the Hebrew University from 1964 and specialized in illuminated medieval Latin and Hebrew manuscripts. In 1979 he founded the Center for Jewish Art to document endangered Jewish art and architecture, and he led it until 1990. He was art editor of the Masada Press and the Encyclopaedia Judaica, and editor of the Journal of Jewish Art from 1974 to 1986.

After 1989 he began a project to document synagogues in Europe. He received the Israel Prize in 1999 and died in Jerusalem in 2008.