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Ben-Zion Dinur

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Template:Infobox member of the Knesset Ben-Zion Dinur (Template:Lang-he, born Ben-Zion Dinaburg; 2 January 1884 – 8 July 1973) was a Zionist activist, educator, historian and Israeli politician.

Biography

Dinaburg was born in 1884 in Khorol in the Russian Empire (now Poltava Oblast, Ukraine). He received his education in a Lithuanian yeshivot. He studied under Shimon Shkop in the Telz Yeshiva, and became interested in the Haskalah through Rosh Yeshiva Eliezer Gordon's polemics. In 1898 he moved to the Slabodka yeshiva and in 1900 he traveled to Vilnius and was certified a Rabbi. He then went to Lyubavichi to witness the Chabad-Lubavitch branch of Hasidic Judaism. Between 1902 and 1911 he was engaged in Zionist activism and teaching, which at some point resulted in a brief arrest. In 1910 he married Bilhah Feingold, a teacher who had worked with him in a girls' trade school in Poltava. In 1911 he left his wife and son for two years to attend the Berlin University, where he studied under Michael Rostovtzeff and Eugen Täubler. He then spent two more years at the University of Bern, where he began his dissertation under Rostovzev, on the Jews in the Land of Israel under the Roman Empire. The break of World War I forced him to move to the University of Petrograd. However, due to the October Revolution, he did not receive his PhD. He was a lecturer at the University of Odessa from 1920 to 1921.[1]

In 1921 he immigrated to Palestine and from 1923 to 1948 served as a teacher and later as head of the Jewish Teachers' Training College, Jerusalem. In 1936 he was appointed lecturer in modern Jewish history at the Hebrew University and became professor in 1948 and professor emeritus in 1952. As a historian he described Zionism in the diaspora as "a huge river into which flowed all the smaller streams and tributaries of the Jewish struggle down the ages",[2] and tracing its origins to 1700, when history records a first wave of Polish Jews emigrating to Jerusalem.[3] He believed "messianic ferment" played a crucial role in Jewish history,[4] and introduced the idea of mered hagalut ("Revolt of the Diaspora").[5]

He was elected to the first Knesset on the Mapai list and served as Minister of Education and Culture in the third to sixth governments (1951 to 1955), when he was responsible for the 1953 State Education Law, which put an end to the prevailing party "trend" education system. From 1953 to 1959 he was president of Yad Vashem.[6]

He died in 1973.

Awards

  • Dinur was twice a recipient of the Israel Prize, which was established at his initiative[5] when he was Minister of Education:
    • in 1958 for Jewish studies;[7] and
    • in 1973 for education.[1][8]
  • He was a recipient of the Yakir Yerushalayim (Worthy Citizen of Jerusalem) award in 1967, the year of the award's inauguration.[9]

Published works

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Ben-Zion Dinur: Knesset website
  2. ^ Wisse, Ruth R. (2 August 2007). "The Brilliant Failure of Jewish Foreign Policy". Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 2008-02-19. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ Iancu, Carol. "From the "Science of Judaism"to the New Israeli historians: landmarks for a history of Jewish historiography". Studia Hebraica. Archived from the original (– Scholar search) on 8 June 2007. Retrieved 17 February 2008. {{cite journal}}: External link in |format= (help) [dead link‍]
  4. ^ Morgenstern, Arie. "Dispersion and the Longing for Zion, 1240–1840". Jewish Agency for Israel. Retrieved 17 February 2008.
  5. ^ a b Marom, Daniel. "The Role of Jewish Studies Scholars in Early Zionist Education". Mandel Foundation. Retrieved 17 February 2008.
  6. ^ "Dinur (Dinaburg), Benzion". Encyclopaedia Judaica. Retrieved 18 February 2008.
  7. ^ "Israel Prize recipients in 1958 (in Hebrew)". Israel Prize Official Site. Archived from the original on 17 January 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ "Israel Prize recipients in 1973 (in Hebrew)". Israel Prize Official Site. Archived from the original on 18 January 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ "Recipients of Yakir Yerushalayim award (in Hebrew)". Archived from the original on 17 June 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help) City of Jerusalem official web site
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