Gershom Scholem
1897 – 1982 German-Israeli (Jewish) Historian, founder of the academic study of Kabbalah
Scholar who turned the history of Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism into a rigorous academic field.
- Religion
- Judaism (secular scholar)
- Affiliations
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Scholem emigrated from Germany to Jerusalem and became the foremost historian of Jewish mysticism at the Hebrew University. His research reconstructed the development of Kabbalah, the Sabbatean movement and Hasidism, and argued that mysticism was a driving force in Jewish history rather than a fringe. His attribution of the Zohar to Moses de Leon remains a central, if still contested, claim in the field.
Works in the library
In the timeline
- 1941 Gershom Scholem founds academic Kabbalah studies central figure
- 1941 Gershom Scholem revives the study of Kabbalah central figure