Joseph Ben-David

Joseph Ben-David was born in 1920 in Győr

Ben-David was born József Gross in Győr, Hungary, in 1920. As a young man he studied in a heder and a local Catholic school, finished high school in 1939, studied at a yeshiva and trained as a printer in his father's workshop.

He moved to Jerusalem in 1941 and began studying chemistry at the Hebrew University. After one semester he joined a British Army unit meant for service in Europe and served until 1945. He then studied history and worked with youth in distress in the Old City.

In 1947 he trained as a probation officer at the London School of Economics. Back in Israel in 1949, he worked at the Ministry of Welfare, earned an M.A. in 1950 and a Ph.D. in sociology in 1955 at the Hebrew University. In 1951 he helped found its sociology department.

He taught at the Hebrew University until his death and also joined the University of Chicago faculty. His research covered youth movements, the professions and the structure of academic science. He headed the Israeli Sociological Association from 1970 to 1973 and won the Rothschild Prize in 1981.

He died in Jerusalem in 1986 and was buried at Har HaMenuchot.