Ben-Sasson, Haim Hillel
BEN-SASSON, HAIM HILLEL
BEN-SASSON, HAIM HILLEL (1914–1977), Israeli historian. Ben-Sasson was born in Volozhin, Lithuania, and immigrated to Palestine in 1934. He taught at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, from 1949 and became a full professor in 1970. Among Ben-Sasson's published works are Millon le-Munaḥei ha-Politikah (1941), a Hebrew political dictionary; Perakim be-Toledot ha-Yehudim bi-Ymei ha-Beinayim (1958), a history of the Jews in the Middle Ages; and Hagut ve-Hanhagah (1959), on the social concepts of Polish Jewry at the end of the Middle Ages. He also edited the textbook of Jewish history Toledot Am Yisrael (3 vols., 1969–70; A History of the Jewish People, 1976). From 1966 served as one of the editors of the Hebrew historical quarterly Zion; he was also editor (first edition) of the Encyclopaedia Judaica's history division for Jewish history in Central and Eastern Europe and the departmental editor for general articles on Jewish history, Jewish economic history, and the history of the Jews in Poland and Lithuania.