Ruth Kark

Ruth Kark was born in 1941 in Petah Tikva

Ruth Kark, born Kleiner, was born in 1941 in Herzliya to Shoshana and Avraham Kleiner. Her parents had settled there as pioneers in 1925. At the end of 1947 the family moved to the Beit HaKerem neighborhood of Jerusalem.

She attended the Hebrew University Secondary School and was a member of the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement. In 1958 she joined the IDF through the Nahal.

She earned a B.A. in geography and Middle East history at the Hebrew University in 1964. Her master's thesis dealt with Jewish pioneer settlement in the Negev. In 1977 she completed a doctorate on Jerusalem and Jaffa in the late Ottoman period.

She joined the Hebrew University faculty and became a full professor in 1996. She wrote and edited about 30 books on settlement, land, cities and women in the Land of Israel. She also served as an expert in court hearings on land disputes.

She was married to Jeremy Kark, and they have 3 children. She was named Yakir Yerushalayim in 2013 and won the Herzl Award in 2014.