Born: Bratislava, Slovakia, 1935; Immigration to Israel, 1939.
Teacher at the Hebrew University since 1958; Full Professor – 1978;
Ph.D., The Hebrew University, 1964 (Directors: I. Tishby, G. Scholem, E.E. Urbach)

Academic Positions:

Chairman, Department of Jewish Thought (1986-1989; 1978-79)
Director, National and University Library (1984-1985)
Director of Admissions, The Hebrew University, 1990
Chairman, Institute of Jewish Studies (1979-1983)
Chairman, Accreditation Committee of the Council of Higher Education of the State of Israel (1979-1986)
Member of the Council for Higher Education, State of Israel (1979-1985)
Member, Board of Directors of the World Union of Jewish Studies (1979-1989)
Editor, Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought, (1981-2003)
Editor (with P. Schaefer), Jewish Studies Quarterly, (1991-2003)
Editor, Binah Series of Studies in Judaism, Praeger, New York
Member of the Editorial Boards of Tarbiz (1980-1985)
Editor, Jewish Mysticism and Ethics, Oxford Lexicon of Jewish Religion
Editor, Judaism in the Middle Ages and Modern Times, RGG 4, Tubingen, vols. 1-3

Winner of the Israel Prize, 1997
Ph.D. Honoris Causa, The Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati-Jerusalem, 1999
Ph.D. Honoris Causa, The Jewish Theological Seminary, New York, 2003

Visiting Professor, Harvard University, The Divinity School, 2004-2005
Permanent Visiting Professor of Jewish Studies, Free University of Berlin, 1991-2002
Senior Fellow, The Shalem Institute, Jerusalem, 2001-2005
Fellow, The Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio, Summer 2000
Visting Fellow, Netherlands Institute of Advanced Stdudies, Wassenaar 1997
Visiting Professor, NELC and the Divinity School, Harvard University 1996
Mellon Fellow, Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton, Fall 1995
Visiting Scholar, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris, Fall 1994
Visiting Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Columbia University, New York, Winter 1993, Spring 1996
Visiting Professor of Judaic Studies, University College, London, 1992
Visiting Professor of Judaic Studies, Brown University, 1990, 1991, 1995
Visiting Professor of Judaic Studies, Jewish Theological Seminary, New York, 1991
Scholar in Residence, Foundation for Jewish Studies, Washington DC, 1989
Taubman Visiting Professor of Judaic Studies, The University of California, Berkeley, 1977-1978
Visiting Associate Professor of Judaic Studies, The University of California, Los Angeles, 1966-1967

Lectures and Series of Lectures in European and American Universities (selected list):

UC Berkeley (1966; 1980); University of Texas, Austin (1967); UC Santa Barbara (1977); New York University (1978, 1990); Harvard University (1978, 1980, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1993, 1994, 2004); Houghton Library, Harvard (1996), Yale University (1988. 1991); Columbia University (1981, 1991, 1992); Cornell University (1988); Stanford University (1979); University of Minnesota (1988, 1990), University of Toronto (1980); McGill University (1978, 1992); UCLA (1978, 1988); Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley (1988); Catholic University of America (1989); Free University of Berlin (1984, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1994); University of Washington, Seattle (1983, 1985); Goethe University, Frankfurt (1984, 1989, 1991); University of Utah (1984); Trinity College, Stanford (1986); Oberlin College, Ohio (1988); University of Denver (1984); University of Cincinnati (1984); Free University of Amsterdam (1981); University of Leiden (1981); University of Gronigen (1981); Oxford University (1984); University College, London (1988); University of Glasgo (1987); Jewish Theological Seminary (1978, 1987); Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati (1985); Yeshiva University (1981, 1994); University of Tennesee, Memphis (1990); Washington University, St. Louis (1990); State University of New York, Albany (1990); Brown University (1990, 1991, 1992, 1995); University of Budapest (1991); Duke University (1991); University of Tubingen (1992), Cambridge University (1992), University College, London (1992, 1993, 1994), Boston University (1994); University of Barcelona, Girona (1994); Sorbonne, Paris (1994), University of Vienna (1995), Lund University, Sweden (1996); Aarhus University, Denmark (1996); University of Southern California (1996); Princeton University (1996);Leiden University (1997); The Netherlands Institute of Advanced Study, Wassenaar (1997); Wellesley College, Massachusetts (1998); Martin Luther Universitat, Halle (1999); The Rockfeller Foundation, Bellagio, Italy (2000); Trinity College, Conn., (2005)

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