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.