Hava Lazarus-Yafeh

Hava Lazarus–Yafeh
Hava Lazarus–Yafeh
Born	Hava Lazarus; May 6, 1930; Wiesbaden, Province of Hesse-Nassau, Weimar Republic
Died	September 6, 1998 (aged 68); Jerusalem, Israel
Burial place	Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery
Alma mater	Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Occupation(s)	Orientalist, scholar, editor, educator
Spouse	Immanuel Yafeh [he]
Parent	Paul Lazarus (Rabbi) [de] (father);
Awards	Israel Prize (1993)

Hava Lazarus–Yafeh (1930–1998; Hebrew: חוה לצרוס-יפה) was a German-born Israeli Orientalist, scholar, editor, and educator.^[1] She known for her work in medieval and modern Islamic Studies and interfaith relations.^[2] Lazarus–Yafeh was a professor and a head of the Department for Islamic Civilization at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She won the Israel Prize in history in 1993.^[3]

Biography

Hava Lazarus was born on May 6, 1930, in Wiesbaden, Province of Hesse-Nassau, Weimar Republic (present-day Germany) to a Jewish family.^[4] Her mother was Jadwiga Walfisz, a teacher; and her father was a noted German Rabbi Paul Lazarus (Rabbi) [de].^[5] In November 1938, the Wiesbaden Synagogue, where her father had recently retired from, was destroyed on Kristallnacht.^[5] In February 1939, the Lazarus family emigrated to Mandatory Palestine.^[4] She attended Hebrew Reali School in Haifa.^[4] In 1954 she married teacher Immanuel Yafeh.^[4]

Lazarus–Yafeh graduated in 1950 from Gordon College of Education (formerly Haifa Teachers' College).^[4] She completed her BA degree in 1953, and MA degree in 1958 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.^[4] Her Ph.D. was completed in 1966 under the supervision of David Hartwig Baneth [he],^[6] the title of her Ph.D. dissertation was "The Literary Character of Al-Ghazzali's Writings: Studies in the Language of Al-Ghazzali".

She started teaching at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1962, while she was a student.^[4] She was a post-doctoral fellow and visiting researcher at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts from 1965 to 1966.^[7] She served as the head of the Department for Islamic Civilization at Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1968 to 1971.^[4]

She died on September 6, 1998, in Jerusalem.

Publications

Books

Lazarus-Yafeh, Hava (1965). The Literary Character of Al-Ghazzali's Writings: Studies in the Language of Al-Ghazzali (dissertation). Hebrew University of Jerusalem. OCLC 19137767.
Lazarus-Yafeh, Hava (1981). Some Religious Aspects of Islam. Numen Book Series. Vol. 42. Brill. doi:10.1163/9789004378605. ISBN 978-90-04-06329-7.
Lazarus-Yafeh, Hava (1992). Intertwined Worlds: Medieval Islam and Bible Criticism. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691073989.^[8]^[9]

Articles and chapters

Lazarus-Yafeh, Hava (January 1966). "Some Neglected Aspects of Medieval Muslim Polemics against Christianity". The Harvard Theological Review. 89 (1). Cambridge University Press: 61–84. doi:10.1017/S0017816000031813. JSTOR 1509996. S2CID 162692324.
Lazarus-Yafeh, Hava (January 1988). "Reviewed Work: Between Muslim and Jew: The Problem of Symbiosis under Early Islam by Steven M. Wasserstrom". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 118 (1): 97–98. doi:10.2307/606318. JSTOR 606318.

As editor

Lazarus-Yafeh, Hava; Cohen, Mark R.; Somekh, Sasson; Griffth, Sidney H., eds. (1999). The Majlis: Interreligious Encounters in Medieval Islam. Wiesbaden, Germany: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 9783447040419.^[10]