Scienceחיים רבין

Chaim Menachem Rabin

Chaim Menachem Rabin was a linguist and professor of Hebrew and Semitic languages who taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1956 to 1985.

1915 to 1996Research on the Dead Sea ScrollsStudy of Semitic languagesHebrew University Bible ProjectTraining Israeli translators

Born: 22 November 1915, Giessen
Died: 13 May 1996, Jerusalem
Occupation: linguist, university teacher, Hebraist
Education: Christ Church, SOAS, University of London, University of Oxford

Chaim Menachem Rabin was born in 1915 in Giessen

Chaim Rabin was born in Giessen, Germany, on 22 November 1915, to Israel and Martel Rabin. He was the half brother of education scholar Miriam Ben-Peretz and computer scientist Michael Rabin.

After finishing school in 1933, he spent a year studying at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He then moved to England and earned a BA in 1937 and a PhD in 1939 at the University of London. At Oxford he received a D.Phil. in 1942 for work on the syntax of post-biblical Hebrew.

He lectured in London from 1938 and was briefly interned on the Isle of Man when the war began. In 1943 he became a lecturer in post-biblical Hebrew at Oxford. He published works on Arabic dialects, the Dead Sea Scrolls and Hebrew grammar.

In 1956 he moved to Israel with his wife Batya and became a professor of Hebrew at the Hebrew University. He joined the Academy of the Hebrew Language, led the Hebrew University Bible Project and helped found a department of scientific translation. He argued that the Dead Sea Scrolls came from a sect close to the Pharisees.

He retired in 1985. He died in Jerusalem on 13 May 1996.