Menahem Stern
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Menahem Stern (March 5, 1925 - June 22, 1989), Israeli historian, one of the greatest researchers of the period of the Second Temple. He received the Israel Prize for History of the Jewish people in 1977.
Menahem Stern was born in 1925 in Białystok, Poland. His father was a Lithuanian Jew of the "opposition" (to the Hasidic movement), while his mother came from the south from a Hasidic family. In his childhood he studied Hebrew and theology, while at school he acquired a general education including Latin. In 1938 he immigrated to Israel with his parents via Vienna. At first he settled in Haifa where he studied at the "Ha-Re'ali" School, but after a time he moved to Tel Aviv where he graduated in 1942 from the mercantile high school "Ge'ulah". Most of his education he acquired through self-teaching, particularly at the Tel Aviv city library "Sha'ar Zion".
After a year of public service at a kibbutz, in 1943 he began his studies at the Hebrew University in the fields of History of the Jewish people, General History and Classical Studies. In 1950 he received his M.A. After marrying Hava Brenner, he left in 1952 to study at Oxford for two and a half years. Adjacent to Stern's return to Jerusalem in 1954 he received the highest research award in Jewish Studies of the Warburg Foundation. After a year he began teaching at the University. In 1960 he received his Ph.D. and in the same year was appointed Lecturer of the History of the Jewish people in the days of the Second Temple. In 1964 he was promoted to Senior Lecturer, in 1966 to Associate Professor and in 1971 to Full Professor. In 1977 he was awarded the Prize of Israel for the History of the Jewish people. In 1979 he was appointed to the Israeli National Academy of Science and became one of its most active members. He was also active in many other academic bodies. He was president of the Israeli Historic Company, was one of the founders of the Zalman Shazar Center and was one of the editors of "Zion". He was in the Executive Committee of the World Union of Jewish Sciences and was very active in "Yad Yithak Ben Zvi".
As was his daily custom he set out by foot from his home on Thursday, June 22, 1989, at 8 o'clock, to the National University Library at Giv'at Ram. Fifteen minutes later, as he was walking out of the Valley of the Cross, he was murdered by terrorists. He left behind a wife, a son and three daughters.
[edit] Some of his books
- The Great Families of the Period of the Second Temple (1959)
- The Documentation of the Maccabee Rebellion (1965)
- Studies in the History of the People of Israel in the Period of the Second Temple (1991, published posthumously)
- The Reign of Herod (1992, published posthumously)
- Hasmonean Judea in the Hellenistic World: Chapters in Political History (1995, published posthumously)
