One-Hundred-Sixteenth Commencement Exercises May 17, 2010

honorary DEGREES
Professor Menahem Ben-Sasson
Doctor of Hebrew Letters, honoris causa
Sponsored by
Mr. Yale Asbell
Dr. Benjamin R. Gampel
Beloved leader in the State of Israel and luminary in the Jewish community, your personal and
professional integrity have helped you soar from student, lecturer, and professor to respected
member of the Knesset and distinguished thirteenth president of your alma mater, the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem.
Professor of History at the Hebrew University—and chair of the Ben-Zvi Institute from 2002 to
2006—you have contributed mightily to the academic study of medieval Jewry in Muslim lands.
You have shared your deep understanding of the characteristics distinguishing that society
from other Jewish societies by building a historical picture upon a variety of literary, legal,
and medieval sources, and have worked at length on collecting and deciphering fragments of
manuscripts found in the Cairo Genizah. You have also specialized in the study of Maimonides,
social and intellectual history, Geonic responsa and texts, and Saadya Gaon’s Book of Decrees
and Deeds.
You taught culturally deprived children on kibbutz and were the educational director of a school
for gifted children during your undergraduate years. You earned a PhD in Jewish History and
Philosophy, studied at Cambridge, and then began your career in academia, eventually becoming
deputy dean, Faculty of the Humanities, and rector of the Hebrew University. You also taught
at Bar-Ilan University and lectured at The Jewish Theological Seminary. Author of numerous
books, scholarly chapters, and articles, you became an editor or member of the editorial boards
of many important publications. Along the way, your research and formidable contributions were
acknowledged with awards and scholarships, including a Rothschild Fellowship and the Ben-Zvi
Prize for the Study of Jewish Heritage. In 2005, you were elected president of the World Union
for Jewish Studies and to the Knesset, where you were appointed chairman of the Constitution,
Law, and Justice Committee.
You have led a life dedicated to Medinat Yisra’el and ‘Am Yisra’el, and become one of the great
contemporary figures of the Jewish world.
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