Joseph Yahalom is a professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 of Hebrew literature

Hebrew literature

Hebrew literature consists of ancient, medieval, and modern writings in the Hebrew language. It is one of the primary forms of Jewish literature, though there have been cases of literature written in Hebrew by non-Jews...

 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...

 Since 1983, he has been a member of the Academy of the Hebrew Language

Academy of the Hebrew Language

The Academy of the Hebrew Language was established by the Israeli government in 1953 as the "supreme institution for scholarship on the Hebrew language."-History:...

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Biography

Joseph Yahalom was born in Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 on April 11, 1941. In 1960, he graduated from Lifshitz College of Education

Lifshitz College of Education

The Lifshitz College of Education is a religious institute for teacher training in Israel. It is "committed to excellence in teaching and the integration of modernity and Jewish life"....

 in Jerusalem. In 1962, he completed his B.A. in Hebrew Language and Literature at the Hebrew University. In 1967, he was awarded an M.A. in Hebrew Language from the Hebrew University. In 1973, he completed his Ph.D. at the Hebrew University.

Yahalom is married to Shlomit and has five children. They live in the Nayot

Nayot

Nayot is a neighborhood in south-central Jerusalem, Israel established in 1960 by a group of English-speaking immigrants.-Etymology:The name Nayot appears mentioned six times in the Bible, in I Samuel .-History:...

 neighborhood of Jerusalem.

Academic career

Yahalom has taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem since 1974. He also taught at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 in Boston, the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

 and Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

. In 1978, he was a research Fellow at the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Unit at Cambridge

Cambridge

The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

. In 1986, he was the editor of Tarbitz Quarterly published by Hebrew University's Institute of Jewish Studies. In 1991, he served as chair of the Hebrew University Department of Hebrew Literature.

Yahalom is the author of numerous books and articles on Hebrew poetry, from Byzantine Palestine (5th century CE) to the early modern period. Much of his work explores the connections between Hebrew poetry and the literature of the other groups living in the same time and place, for example, the link between piyyut

Piyyut

A piyyut or piyut is a Jewish liturgical poem, usually designated to be sung, chanted, or recited during religious services. Piyyutim have been written since Temple times...

 and Syriac and Greek Christian hymns; between Hebrew poetry from Spain and the emerging romances in European languages; and between early modern mystical Hebrew poetry in the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 and Turkish songs. He also has written extensively about the bilingual (Hebrew and Arabic) culture of Judah Al-Harizi

Yehuda Alharizi

Yehuda Alharizi, also Judah ben Solomon Harizi or al-Harizi was a rabbi, translator, poet and traveller active in Spain in the Middle Ages . He was supported by wealthy patrons, to whom he wrote poems and dedicated compositions.He was a rationalist, conveying the works of Maimonides and his...

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Awards

• 1970 - Warburg Prize
• 2003 - Ben-Zvi Prize for Life Achievement in the Study of Palestinian Jewry

Books

• Yehuda Halevi: Poetry and Pilgrimage
• Avodah: Ancient Poems for Yom Kippur, co-authored with Michael D. Swartz
• Poetry and Society in Jewish Galilee of Late Antiquity

Articles

• Andalusian poetics and the work of El'azar ben Ya'aqov of Baghdad.. In: Hispania Judaica Bulletin, 4 (2004) 5-21
• Angels do not understand Aramaic: On the literary use of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic in late antiquity.. In: Journal of Jewish Studies, 47,1 (1996) 33-44
• The Aramaic "Alfabetin": From Eretz-Israel to Italy. In: Materia Giudaica, 3 (1997) 56-60
• The context of Hebrew imitations of "muwassahat" in Egypt.. In: Poesía estrófica, (1991) 357-366
• Diwan and odyssey: Judah Halevi and the secular poetry of medieval Spain in the light of new discoveries from Petersburg.. In: Miscelánea de Estudios Árabes y Hebraicos, 44, Sección de Hebreo (1995) 23-45
• The drama of Joseph and his brothers in piyyut literature.. In: Studies in Arabic and Hebrew Letters, (2007) 249-260
• From the material to the spiritual: Scriptual allusions and their development in Judeo-Arabic liturgical poetry.. In: Prayers That Cite Scripture', (2006) 101-119
• The journey inward : Judah Halevi between Christians and Muslims in Spain, Egypt, and Palestine.. In: Hebrew Scholarship and the Medieval World, (2001) 138-148
• Judah Halevi: Records of a visitor from Spain. In: The Cambridge Genizah Collections, (2002) 123-135
• Love's labours won: The materialization of love in Hebrew girdle poems. In: Circa 1492, (1992) 189-204
• Lyric and liturgy in the Gabirolian tradition.. In: Zutot, 2 (2002) 41-55
• New clues from an encounter with Old Spanish. In: Jewish Studies at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, I (1999) 561-567
• Paradox in late antique Jewish poetry. In: Jewish Studies in a New Europe, (1998) 886-905
• "Piyyut" as poetry. In: The Synagogue in Late Antiquity, (1987) 111-126
• The poetics of Spanish piyyut in light of Abraham Ibn Ezra's critique of its pre-Spanish precedents. In: Abraham Ibn Ezra y su tiempo, (1990) 387-392
• The Sepphoris synagogue mosaic and its story. In: From Dura to Sepphoris, (2000) 83-91
• Synagogue inscriptions in Palestine - a stylistic classification.. In: Immanuel, 10 (1980) 47-56
• Syriac for dirges, Hebrew for speech: Ancient Jewish poetry in Aramaic and Hebrew.. In: The Literature of the Sages, II (2006) 375-391
• The Temple and the city in liturgical Hebrew poetry. In: The History of Jerusalem, (1996) 270-294
• Tensions between Sephardic traditions and Ottoman influences in Jewish literary activity. In: Between History and Literature, (1997) 207-216