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Raphael Patai

Raphael Patai was a Hungarian-born Jewish anthropologist, historian and rabbi who studied Jewish folklore and the cultures of the Middle East.

1910 to 1996Jewish folklore researchAnthropology of the Middle EastFirst Hebrew University doctorateThe Myth of the Jewish Race

Born: 22 November 1910, Budapest
Died: 20 July 1996, Tucson
Occupation: anthropologist, historian, university teacher, rabbi
Education: Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Eötvös Loránd University, University of Wrocław
Founded: Palestine Institute of Folklore and Ethnology (1944)

Raphael Patai was born in 1910 in Budapest

Patai was born Ervin György Patai in Budapest in 1910. His father, József Patai, was a Zionist writer who founded and edited the journal Mult és jövő. His mother, Edith, was also a writer, and his brother Saul Patai became a chemistry professor.

He studied at the University of Budapest and at rabbinical seminaries in Budapest and Breslau. He moved to Palestine in 1933. In 1936 he received the first doctorate awarded by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and he later completed his rabbinical ordination in Budapest.

Patai taught at the Hebrew University and served as secretary of the Technion. In 1944 he founded the Palestine Institute of Folklore and Ethnology and directed its research for 4 years. With Yosef Yoel Rivlin he edited the journal Edoth.

In 1947 he went to New York on a Viking Fund fellowship and settled in the United States, becoming a citizen in 1952. He was a professor of anthropology at Dropsie College from 1948 to 1957 and later at Fairleigh Dickinson University. He wrote dozens of books and hundreds of articles on Jewish history, folklore and the Middle East.

He married Naomi Tolkowsky, and they had 2 daughters, Jennifer and Daphne. He died in Tucson, Arizona, in 1996.