Dr. Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, one of the world’s leading historians, whose scholarly pursuits range from medieval through modern times with on emphasis on Spanish and Portuguese Jewry, will join Columbia University faculty effective July 1, 1980 and serve as director of its Center for Israel and Jewish Studies.
Dr. William McGill, president of Columbia, who made the announcement, said the appointment means that the university “Will continue to maintain its reputation as one of the outstanding centers of Jewish historical studies in the world.” Yerushalmi, 47, will leave Harvard University where he is Jacob Safra Professor of Jewish History and Sephardic Civilization and chairman of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization.
At Columbia he will become the first Salo Wittmayer Baron Professor of Jewish History Culture and Society. The Chair was established last April to honor Baron, a professor emeritus of Jewish history, literature and institutions who taught at Columbia for 33 years before retiring in 1963.
Yerushalmi studied Jewish history under Baron, earning his master’s degree in 1961 and his doctorate in 1966. Shortly afterward he was named assistant professor of Hebrew and Jewish history at Harvard, rose to full professor in 1970, became department chairman in 1978 and was appointed Safra Professor last February.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
