HIRSCHBERG, ḤAÏM Z'EW

HIRSCHBERG, ḤAÏM Z'EW (1903–1976), Israel historian. Hirschberg born in Tarnopol, Galicia, studied at the Israelitisch-Theologische Lehranstalt and the University of Vienna. He was rabbi in Czestochowa, Poland (1927–39), and in 1943 he emigrated to Ereẓ Israel, where he held a number of teaching posts and was a research fellow at the Hebrew University (1947–56). In 1960 he began teaching Jewish history at Bar-Ilan University and he headed the Institute for Research on the History of the Jews in the Eastern Countries (1970).

Hirschberg's published work includes Yaḥas ha-Aggadah la-Halakhah (with B. Murmelstein, 1929, "The Relation of Aggadah to Halakhah"); Der Diwan des as-Samau'al ibn Adija (1931); Juedische und Christliche Lehren im vor- und fruehislamischen Arabien (1939); Yisrael ba-Arav ("Jews in Arabia," 1946); Be-Ẓel ha-Islam ("In the Shadow of Islam," 1957); Me-Ereẓ Mevo ha-Shemesh ("From the Land of the Setting Sun," 1957); and his major work Toledot ha-Yehudim be-Afrikah ha-Ẓefonit (2 vols., "History of the Jews in North Africa," 1965). Hirschberg also translated *Nissim b. Jacob'sḤibbur Yafeh me-ha-Yeshu'ah (1954) with notes and an introduction. In his introduction he presents a history of the Jewish scholars of Kairouan and a biography of Nissim b. Jacob. He was coeditor of two geographical studies, Ereẓ Kinnarot (1950) and Kol Ereẓ Naftali (1968) as well as of memorial volumes for P. Churgin (1963) and S. Bialoblocki (1964). He was editor of the division of the history of Islamic lands and departmental editor of Islam and Judaism, the Muslim world, Arabia, Ereẓ Israel (640–1917), Muslim Spain, and Yemen for the Encyclopaedia Judaica (first edition).