Jacob Katz, 1904-1998

Awarded the Israel Prize in 1980, modern Israeli historian Katz was a leading figure in Jewish social studies as a Hebrew University professor. He used rabbinical sources for books such as 1970’s “Freemasons and Jews” and 1973’s “Out of the Ghetto: The Social Background of Jewish Emancipation, 1770-1870.” His work provides much of the basis for scholarly analysis of antisemitism.

Photo: Cover of “Jacob Katz on the Origins of Orthodoxy,” Shikey Press