Rabbi Michael Bernstein, a Yeshiva University professor for 33 years and professor emeritus of Bible and Semitic languages at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Yeshiva University, died yesterday at Mt. Sinai Hospital. He was 65 years old. He had been hospitalized for pneumonia.
Bernstein was a recognized authority in Semitic languages and literature, achieving expertise in many different Semitic languages and dialects, specializing in Hebrew, Aramaic and Syrian.
Bernstein, who was ordained as a rabbi in 1938, began his teaching career at Yeshiva University in 1947 as an instructor of Talmud in the Rabbi Isooc Elchanan Theological Seminary. He became on associate professor in the department of Semitic languages and literature at the Bernard Revel Graduate School in 1949 shortly after receiving his Doctor of Hebrew Literature degree at the school, and was promoted to full professor at Bernard Revel in 1972.
Before coming to teach at Yeshiva University, he held rabbinic positions in Lynn, Mass., at the Linwood Jewish Center, Manhattan, and at Mercaz HaTorah Yeshiva in Montreal, Canada. He earned his B.A. degree in 1936 from Yeshiva College.
Bernstein will be flown to Israel and buried in Eretz HaChayim Cemetery in Jerusalem following funeral services here today.
His widow, Adino Bernstein of Manhattan, has announced plans to remember her late husband with a suitable memorial at his almo mater and school. Contributions may be mode to Dr. Michael Bernstein Memorial Fund, c/o Yeshiva University.
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