Scienceיוסף יהלום

Joseph Yahalom

Joseph Yahalom is an Israeli scholar of Hebrew literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, known for his research on piyyut and medieval Hebrew poetry.

born 1941Research on early piyyutMedieval Hebrew poetry scholarshipStudies of Judah Halevi

Born: 11 April 1941, Haifa
Occupation: linguist, literary theorist, Judaic scholar, scholar of Piyyut
Education: Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Yavne Religious High School

Joseph Yahalom was born in 1941 in Haifa

Joseph Yahalom was born in Haifa in 1941. His parents had come to the Land of Israel before World War II from a town on the Polish-German border. He attended the Yavne religious high school.

He studied at the Lifshitz teachers' seminary in Jerusalem and earned a B.A. in Hebrew language and literature at the Hebrew University in 1962. He completed an M.A. in 1967 and a Ph.D. in 1973, writing on the syntax of early piyyut under Haim Schirmann and Zeev Ben-Haim.

After his M.A., he worked on the Historical Dictionary of the Hebrew Language. He has taught at the Hebrew University since 1974 and became a full professor there in 1985. He also taught or held fellowships at Harvard, Yale, Cambridge, the Jewish Theological Seminary and the University of Pennsylvania.

His research covers Hebrew poetry from the 5th to the 16th century and its links to neighboring literatures, such as Syriac and Greek hymns, Spanish romances and Turkish songs. He headed the Hebrew University department of Hebrew literature and edited the journal Tarbiz. He won the Bialik Prize in 2012.

He is married to the historian Shlomit Yahalom and they have 5 children. They live in the Nayot neighborhood of Jerusalem.