Strata: Accolades for Ahituv

Raise your glass to Shmuel Ahituv, professor emeritus at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, who has been awarded the 2015 Israel Prize for Bible Studies. This is the highest honor bestowed on civilians by the State of Israel for exceptional work in their fields or strong contributions to Israeli culture.

Ahituv is the former head of the Bible, Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies Department at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and also the founder of Ben-Gurion University Press, which he directed for 14 years. His research in Biblical scholarship and epigraphy has contributed greatly to understanding the history of Biblical Israel. The committee responsible for awarding the Israel Prize identified Ahituv as “one of the foremost Bible researchers in Israel and the world.”

Ahituv studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he began working on the Biblical Encyclopedia. Eventually, he would become editor of the encyclopedia. He currently oversees the Bible for Israel scientific commentary series, a project that he began with Moshe Greenburg in the 1980s.

Ahituv was presented his award in a Jerusalem ceremony on Israel’s Independence Day, April 23, 2015.