Moshe Zvi Segal

Moshe Zvi Segal was born in 1876 in Mosėdis

Segal was born in Mosėdis, Lithuania, to Esther and Eliezer Segal. As a child he studied in a heder and the local school, and later attended yeshivas in Lithuania. He emigrated with his parents to Scotland and then to London.

He was ordained as a rabbi in 1902 and that year began studying at Oxford University. He studied Oriental languages and classics, finished his bachelor's degree in 1906 and his master's in 1910. He also taught Bible and Semitic languages there between 1906 and 1909.

From late 1909 to 1918 he served as rabbi of the Jewish community of Newcastle and took part in Zionist work. In 1918 Chaim Weizmann asked him to join the Zionist Commission, and he ran its Jerusalem office for about a year. He then returned to England and served as rabbi in Swansea and Bristol.

In 1926 he moved to the Land of Israel and became a lecturer at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He became a full professor in 1939 and an honorary professor after retiring in 1949. His books include a grammar of Mishnaic Hebrew, an introduction to the Bible and an edition of Ben Sira.

He and his wife Hannah Leah had 5 children. He died in 1968 and was buried in Kfar Saba. A street in Jerusalem's Ramot neighborhood is named after him.