Previously Prof. Ben-Sasson had served as Rector of the Hebrew University, as Vice Dean of the Faculty of the Faculty of Humanities and as the President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In the years 2012 to 2015 Prof. Ben-Sasson served as Chairman of the Council of Presidents of the Universities in Israel (VERA).
Before appointment as President of the University in 2009, Prof. Ben-Sasson served as a Member of the Knesset and as Chairman of its Constitution, Law and Justice Committee.
Prof. Ben-Sasson is a researcher in the Department of History of the Jewish People in the Faculty of Humanities. As a historian of Jewish heritage in the Islamic world, he wrote books and articles on a variety of topics, including the Jewish communities in Muslim countries, relations between religion and economy, as well as law and spirituality as authoritative sources in the Eastern society of the Middle-Ages. He also specializes in research on the Maimonides, social and intellectual history, the literature of the Responsa and the works of the period of the Gaonim, research of the Genizah, as well as the works and leadership of R’ Saadia Gaon.
While in the past he served as editor and a member of the editorial board in a broad range of research publications, Prof. Ben-Sasson served as President of the World Union for Jewish Studies, as Vice President of the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture and as Chairman of the Ben-Zvi Institute for the study of Jewish Communities in the East, as also as a member of the Council of Yad-Vashem. In 2016 he was elected as a member of the European Academy of Science and Arts.
A list of Prizes:
1978-1979 Research Grant of the Ministry for Education and Culture;
Center for Integration of the Heritage of Oriental Jewry
1980 The Hebrew Univ., Research Fellows' Prize
1980-1981 Moritz and Scharlota Warburg Prize
1982-1983 Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture (Doctoral Scholarship)
1983-1984 Rothschild Fellowship
1985-1988 Alon Fund of the Israeli Council for Higher Education
1996/7 Feher Prize for Jewish History, and
1996/7 The Ben-Zvi Prize for the Study of Jewish Heritage.
2010 Honorary doctoral degree from The Jewish Theological Seminary
Link to YouTube:
The YouTube channel of the University has an abundance of speeches by Prof. Ben-Sasson from a profusion of events: Board of Governors, scholarship award ceremonies and conferences
https://www.youtube.com/user/HebrewUniversity
“The Jewish Intellectual Revolution of the Tenth Century”, a lecture by Prof. Ben-Sasson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW6j-86ipTw
Contact details: The Office of the President is located in the Administration Building on the Mount Scopus Campus, second floor, room 07. Reception, by appointment.