Visiting Scholars
Yair Zakovitc
Father Takeji Otsuki Professor of Bible
Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Yair Zakovitch is the Father Takeji Otsuki Professor of Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He received his education at the University of Haifa (B.A., Hebrew Literature, Hebrew Language, and Biblical Studies) and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.A., Ph.D., Bible), where he then remained on the faculty. Prof. Zakovitch served as Head of the Institute of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University from 1995–1997 and Dean of Humanities from 1997–2001.
Prof. Zakovitch’s primary interests are the literary analysis of the Bible, the history of beliefs and ideas in the Bible, biblical historiography, and early Jewish and Christian interpretation of the Bible. He has written numerous book and articles, including The Life of Samson (Judges 13–16). A Critical-Literary Analysis (Hebrew), commentaries on the books of Ruth and Song of Songs (Hebrew; German); Introduction to Inner-biblical Interpretation (Hebrew); Through the Looking Glass: Reflection Stories in the Bible (Hebrew), David: From Shepherd to Messiah (Hebrew). His two most recent books are ‘Who Proclaims Peace, Who Brings Good Tidings’: Seven Visions of Jerusalem’s Peace (Hebrew) and the Israeli best-seller, That’s Not What the Good Book Says! (Hebrew; with Avigdor Shinan), and Between Inner- and Extra-biblical Interpretation (in press), which demonstrates the continuity of interpretative techniques from the biblical period through the Second Temple and early rabbinic periods. Prof. Zakovitch is currently at work on a literary-ideological commentary of Psalms, which will include a close reading of each psalm and a comprehensive introduction that serves, also, as an introduction to biblical poetry.
Prof. Zakovitch has taught at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley. He has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University, and has taught at the summer schools of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. In Israel Professor Zakovitch is a well-known lecturer, teaching regularly at teachers’ seminars and continuing education programs throughout Israel, as well as on radio and television. He has taught at the Institute for Holy Land Studies on Mt. Zion, as well as at the rabbinic seminary of the conservative movement in Israel.
Professor Zakovitch is the chairman of the Committee for Biblical Studies at the Ministry of Education. He continues to be active in the promotion of strong programs for Jewish education in the Israeli non-religious school system, and was central to the founding of the Revivim Program at the Hebrew University, an intensive and extremely rigorous 4-year teacher-training program for teachers of Jewish studies in the Israeli high school system.