Olga Kapeliuk

Olga Kapeliuk was born in 1932

Olga Kapeliuk was born in 1932 in Kraków, Poland, to two physicians. As a child she attended a Hebrew school. In 1942 the family was moved to a ghetto and escaped using false Christian identities.

In 1946 the family moved to Paris, where she went to high school. In 1948 they immigrated to Israel and settled in Yehud. She joined the IDF in 1950.

From 1952 she studied at the Hebrew University, taking Arabic, Ge'ez, Amharic, Tigrinya and Aramaic. She finished her first degree in 1956 and studied for her master's from 1956 to 1958, then studied in Paris on a French government grant. She received her doctorate in 1969 for a thesis on spoken language in modern Amharic literature.

She joined the Hebrew University faculty in 1970 and became a full professor in 1985, teaching in linguistics and African studies. She was a visiting professor at Addis Ababa University in 1985 and 1986. From 1980 to 1982 she advised the Ministry of Education on teaching Hebrew to immigrants from Ethiopia.

She retired early in 1994 to focus on research. She received the Israel Prize in 2005 and the Edward Ullendorff Medal in 2021. She was married to Amnon Kapeliuk and has two daughters.