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Michael Harsegor

Michael Harsgor was an Israeli historian and Tel Aviv University professor of late medieval European history, known for the radio program "History Hour" on Galatz.

1924 to 2011The radio program "History Hour"Late medieval European historyNaming Kibbutz Zikim

Born: 15 March 1924, Bucharest
Died: 10 February 2011, Kfar Saba
Occupation: historian, Zionist, university teacher
Education: Tel Aviv University

Michael Harsegor was born in 1924 in Bucharest

Harsgor was born Michael Goldberg in Bucharest in 1924, to a Jewish family of refugees from the October Revolution. The family moved to France, then returned to Romania in 1933 after the 1929 crisis hurt his father's business. His whole family was killed in the Holocaust.

As a member of Hashomer Hatzair, he was sentenced by Romania's fascist authorities to 20 years of hard labor and worked in the prison printing press. He was released in 1944. In 1946 he sailed for Palestine, but the British held him in camps in Cyprus until 1949, where he changed his name to Harsgor.

In Israel he helped found Kibbutz Zikim and gave it its name. He was a member of Maki and wrote for its paper Kol HaAm, leaving the party around 1962. He married Tamar, and they had a daughter, Niva.

He taught history at Ironi Dalet High School in Tel Aviv from 1962 to 1966. After a bachelor's degree at Tel Aviv University he studied in France and earned a Docteur d'État, then became a professor at Tel Aviv University. A 1974 visit to Lisbon during the Carnation Revolution made Portugal one of his main subjects.

For more than 20 years he hosted the weekly program "History Hour" on Galatz with Alex Ansky. He died in Kfar Saba in 2011.