Haim Beinart

Haim Beinart was born on November 14, 1917, in Pskow, Russia.[1][2][3] In 1923, when he was six years old, his family settled in Riga.[1] Beinart's parents were Hasidic Jews, and he attended a Jewish school.[1] He graduated in 1934, and served in the Latvian Army until 1937.[1]

Beinart made aliyah to attend the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1937.[1] While he was at university, he served as an intelligence officer in the Irgun.[1] He also served in the 1948 War of Independence.[1] He subsequently went on a trip to Spain, where he researched the history of Iberian Jews.[1] He earned a PhD from the HUJ in 1955.[4]

With his wife Ruth, Beinart had four children: Yael, Yosef, Shelomo, and Hagit.[1] He died on February 16, 2010, in Jerusalem, Israel.[1][2]

Beinart became a lecturer at his alma mater, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in 1958.[4] He was promoted to senior lecturer in 1963, associate professor in 1966 and full professor in 1971.[3] Meanwhile, he was appointed as the dean of humanities at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in 1969.[5] He was also a visiting scholar at the Institute of Advanced Study from September 1986 to June 1987.[5] He retired from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1988 as the Bernard Cherrick Professor Emeritus of History of the Jewish People.[3][4]

Beinart was an expert on Iberian Jews.[3] He visited many towns in Spain to investigate their Jewish pasts.[2]

Beinart became a corresponding member of the Spanish Academy of Humanities in 1973 and a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 1981.[5] He was the inaugural recipient of the "Three Cultures Prize" from the Córdoba, Andalusia for his scholarship in 1986.[6] He received an honorary doctorate from the Complutense University of Madrid in 1988.[3] He was the recipient of the Israel Prize in 1991.[5]

• Beinart, Haim, ed. (1974–1985). Records of the trials of the Spanish Inquisition in Ciudad Real. Jerusalem: Israel National Academy of Sciences and Humanities. ISBN 9789652080240. OCLC 1297217.
• Beinart, Haim (1980). Trujillo, a Jewish community in Extremadura on the Eve of the Expulsion from Spain. Jerusalem: Magnes Press. ISBN 9789652233493. OCLC 7248199.
• Beinart, Haim (1981). Conversos on Trial: The Inquisition in Ciudad Real. Jerusalem: Magnes Press. ISBN 9789652233844. OCLC 8766020.
• Beinart, Haim (1992). Atlas of Medieval Jewish History. Jerusalem: Carta. ISBN 9781441656179. OCLC 709715798.
• Beinart, Haim, ed. (1992). The Sephardi Legacy. Jerusalem: Magnes Press. ISBN 9789652237996. OCLC 28150442.
• Beinart, Haim (2002). The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain. Portland, Oregon: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization. ISBN 9781874774419. OCLC 470225028.