Public lifeיאיר זקוביץ

Yair Zakovitch

Yair Zakovitch is an Israeli biblical scholar and professor emeritus of Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who received the Israel Prize in 2021.

born 1945Inner-biblical interpretationLiterary reading of the BibleCo-founding the Revivim program

Occupation: biblical scholar
Education: Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of Haifa

Yair Zakovitch was born in 1945 in Haifa

Yair Zakovitch was born in 1945 and grew up in Haifa. His father worked at the Haifa port.

He finished his first degree in Haifa and earned a master's degree at the Hebrew University in 1972. In 1978 he completed his doctorate there, on the three-four literary pattern in the Bible.

His research covers literary reading of the Bible, inner-biblical interpretation, and the link between later Jewish and early Christian writing and the Bible. He looks for hidden debates in biblical stories and for traces of old traditions left out of the canon. He described methods he called the Law of Center and Periphery and the Safety Valve.

At the Hebrew University he headed the Bible Department, the Mandel Institute for Jewish Studies, and served as Dean of Humanities from 1997 to 2001. He chaired the Bible Studies Committee of the Ministry of Education twice and co-founded the Revivim teacher training program. He was a visiting lecturer at Harvard, Berkeley, Pennsylvania and the Jewish Theological Seminary.

He received the Israel Prize for Biblical Studies in 2021. He lives in Givat Yeshayahu.