Shaul Zlevsky

Shaul Zlevsky was born in 1928 in Łódź

Shaul Zlevsky was born in Łódź, Poland, in 1928, the eldest of 3 children of Zvi Pinchas Zlevsky, a merchant, and Chava Dorfberger. His family was forced into the Łódź Ghetto, and in the summer of 1944 he was deported to Auschwitz. In January 1945 he was sent on a death march, and American forces freed him in April 1945.

His mother and sister survived, and he followed them to Sweden, where he became a Zionist. In January 1947 he sailed on the immigrant ship Haim Arlosoroff and was held in Cyprus. He reached Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu in February 1948.

During the War of Independence he guarded areas near the kibbutz. He later trained as a youth counselor in Jerusalem and served in the IDF Artillery Corps. He began Bible studies at the Hebrew University in 1955, earning a BA in 1961 and an MA in 1964.

From 1964 to 1967 he taught in Melbourne on an educational mission and completed a doctorate at the University of Melbourne. He then joined Bar-Ilan University, became a full professor, and retired in 1996. He studied biblical historiography and prophetic literature, mainly Kings, Chronicles and Jeremiah.

He was married to artist Yardena Schreiber, and they had 3 children. He died in 2006 and was buried at Har HaMenuchot.