Scienceיעקב זוסמן

Yaacov Sussman

Yaakov Sussmann was an Israeli philologist and Talmud scholar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who received the Israel Prize for Talmudic Studies in 1997.

1931 to 2026Talmud researchManuscripts of the Sefer YerushalmiIsrael Prize for Talmudic Studies

Born: 31 August 1931, Budapest
Died: 25 October 2026
Occupation: talmudist, historian, philologist, university teacher
Education: Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Yaacov Sussman was born in 1931 in Budapest

Sussmann was born in Budapest in 1931 to families of rabbis. His paternal grandfather was Chief Rabbi of Budapest, and on his mother's side he descended from the Chatam Sofer. After the Nazi occupation of Hungary, his family escaped on the Kastner train through Bergen-Belsen to Switzerland, where he studied in yeshivas.

He immigrated to Israel in 1949 and studied at Hebron Yeshiva. In 1954 he began studying Talmud and Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He completed a doctorate under Ephraim Urbach on Babylonian sugiyot to the orders Zeraim and Tohorot.

He became an associate professor in 1975 and a full professor in 1980. He headed the Department of Talmud and the Institute of Jewish Studies, and joined the Academy of the Hebrew Language in 1997. His research covered the Babylonian Talmud, the Jerusalem Talmud and Midrash, and in libraries in Austria, Germany and Italy he found manuscripts of the Sefer Yerushalmi.

He lived in the Ramat Denya neighborhood of Jerusalem. He died on October 25, 2026, and was buried at Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem.