Ephraim Urbach


Ephraim Urbach was a distinguished scholar of Judaism. He is best known for his landmark works on rabbinic thought, The Sages, and for research on the Tosafot. He was a candidate to presidency in Israel in 1973, but wasn't elected.
A professor of Talmud at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Urbach was a member and president of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

Biography

Ephraim Elimelech Urbach was born in Białystok, Poland, to a hasidic family. He studied in Rome and Breslau, where he received rabbinic ordination. He immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1937. He served as a rabbi in the British army during World War II. He also took part in Israel's 1947–1949 Palestine war and thereafter worked for several educational institutions before joining the Hebrew University faculty in 1953.
Urbach died on 3 July 1991 at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem after a long illness. He is buried at the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, near Menachem Begin.

Published works