David Assaf

David Assaf was born in 1956 in Tel Aviv

David Assaf was born David Israel Krone in Tel Aviv in 1956. His parents, Rachel and Moshe Krone, were born in Warsaw and were among the founders of the group that became Kvutzat Yavne. His father was a leader of the National Religious Party and sat on the Jewish Agency executive.

He grew up in a religious Zionist home and attended school in Tel Aviv and at Kvutzat Yavne. During his first degree at the Hebrew University he left religious life, and in 1983 he changed his surname to Assaf. He earned all his degrees there, with a doctorate on the Hasidic leader Rabbi Israel Friedman of Ruzhin approved in 1992.

In 1994 he became a lecturer in Jewish history at Tel Aviv University, where he taught until he retired at the end of 2024. He became a full professor in 2005 and twice headed his department. From 2004 to 2017 he led the university's institute for the history of Polish Jewry.

His research focuses on Hasidism of the 19th and 20th centuries, a field that earlier scholars had largely neglected. He edited journals and books and has written a blog since 2011. He is married to Sharon, has 4 children and lives in Jerusalem.