Yemima Ben-Menahem

Yemima Ben-Menahem was born in 1946 in Jerusalem

Yemima Ben-Menahem, born Yemima Goldschmidt, was born in Jerusalem on 23 December 1946. Her father, Yosef Goldschmidt, was a Knesset member and deputy minister for the National Religious Party. Her mother, Elisabeth Goldschmidt, was a pioneer of genetic research in Israel.

She studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She earned a BSc in physics and mathematics in 1969 and an MSc in philosophy of science in 1972. In 1983 she completed her PhD with a thesis titled Paradoxes and Intuitions.

Her main field is philosophy of science, mainly philosophy of modern physics. In 2001 she founded the journal Aleph: Historical Studies in Science and Judaism, and she directed the Edelstein Center for the History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine. She joined the academic board of the Einstein Papers Project in 2006 and curated the exhibition Newton's Secrets at the National Library in 2007.

Her work deals with conventionalism, causation and the interpretation of quantum mechanics. She published Conventionalism in 2006 and Causation in Science in 2018. She retired from the Hebrew University in 2013 and won the Israel Prize in 2022.

She is married to Hanina Ben-Menahem, a law professor at the Hebrew University, and they have 4 children.