Tradition and Crisis: Jewish Society at the End of the Middle Ages

Historian Jacob Katz was born in Magyargencs, Hungary; he studied both at religious schools and at the University of Frankfurt, receiving a doctorate in 1934. After his move to Palestine, he taught from 1936 to 1950 in Jerusalem at religious schools and at the Mizrachi Teachers Seminary. Specializing in analyses of Reform and Orthodox Judaism, the Enlightenment, and Jewish–Christian relations, he later taught at the Hebrew University, becoming professor of Jewish social and educational history in 1962. In 1969, he was appointed rector of the Hebrew University.