Ada Rapoport-Albert (; 26 October 1945 – 18 June 2020) was an Israeli-British scholar whose scholarship focused on

Jewish mysticism Academic study of Jewish mysticism, especially since Gershom Scholem's ''Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism'' (1941), distinguishes between different forms of mysticism across different eras of Jewish history. Of these, Kabbalah, which emerged in ...

, Sabbateanism, and gender in

Hasidic Judaism Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism ( Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of cont ...

. Rapoport-Albert also served as the president of the

Jewish Historical Society of England The Jewish Historical Society of England (JHSE) was founded in 1893 by several Anglo-Jewish scholars, including Lucien Wolf, who became the society's first president. Early presidents of the JHSE included Hermann Adler, Michael Adler, Joseph Jacob ...

.Naftali Loewenthal. Professor Ada Rapoport-Albert (26 October 1945–18 June 2020). JHS. Vol. 52(1):291-294. DOI: 10.14324/111.444.jhs.2021v52.020

Personal life

Ada Rapoport-Albert was born in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

in 1945 to Zalman and Alma Rapoport. Her mother was a pianist from Bulgaria, who trained in Vienna. Her father hailed from Berdichev. In the 1960s, Ropoport-Albert came to London to study for her dissertation with Joseph G. Weiss. Under Weiss's supervision, Ropoport-Albert began writing her doctoral dissertation on the Hasidic master, Rabbi

Nachman of Breslov Nachman of Breslov ( he, רַבִּי נַחְמָן מִבְּרֶסְלֶב ''Rabbī'' ''Naḥmān mīBreslev''), also known as Reb Nachman of Bratslav, Reb Nachman Breslover ( yi, רבי נחמן ברעסלאווער ''Rebe Nakhmen Breslover'' ...

. Following Weiss’s death in 1969, her supervisor was the scholar

Chimen Abramsky Chimen Abramsky ( he, שמעון אברמסקי; 12 September 1916 – 14 March 2010) was emeritus professor of Jewish studies at University College London. His first name is pronounced ''Shimon''. Biography Abramsky was born in Minsk to a Li ...

. After a short period at Oxford, Ropoport-Albert became an Associate Professor in Jewish History at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

(UCL). In 2002, she became head of the department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at UCL. She also held visiting positions at other institutions. Ropoport-Albert retired in 2012 but continued her research until her death in 2020. Rapoport-Albert died in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

on 18 June 2020, aged 74.

Selected publications

Books

* ''Women and the Messianic Heresy of Sabbatai Zevi, 1666-1816'' (London: Litttman Library of Jewish Civilization). * ''Female Bodies - Male Souls: Asceticism and Gender in the Jewish Mystical Tradition'' (London: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization), forthcoming. * ''Hasidic Studies: Essays in History and Gender'' (Liverpool University Press 2018).

Edited volumes

* With David Assaf, ''Let the Old Make Way for the New: Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Eastern European Jewry Presented to Immanuel Etkes'', 2 vols. (Jerusalem: The Shazar Center for Jewish History, 2009). * With Gillian Greenberg, ''Biblical Hebrew, Biblical Texts: Essays in Memory of Michael P. Weitzman'' (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001). * ''Hasidism Reappraised'' (London: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 1996). * ''Essays in Jewish Historiography'' (History and Theory Beiheft, 27; Wesleyan University 1988, Reprinted by Scholars Press, Atlanta, Georgia 1991). * With Steven J. Zipperstein, ''Jewish History - Essays in Honour of Chimen Abramsky'' (London: Nicolson & Weidenfeld: Peter Halban, 1988).

Articles and Chapters in Books

* "The Emergence of a Female Constitutency in Twentieth Century HaBaD", in D. Assaf and A. Rapoport-Albert (eds.), ''Let the Old Make Way for the New'', vol. 1, English Section, pp. 7-68. * "On the Position of Women in Sabbateanism", in ''Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought'' 16 (2001), pp. 143-327 (Hebrew). * "God and the Zaddik as the Two Focal Points of Hasidic Worship", in G. Hundert (ed.), ''Essential Papers on Hasidism'', New York University Press, New York and London 1991, pp. 296-325. * "The Hasidic Movement After 1772 - Structural Continuity and Change", in A. Rapoport-Albert (ed.), ''Hasidism Reappraised'', pp. 76-140. * "On Women in Hasidism: S. A. Horodecky and the Maid of Ludmir Tradition", in A. Rapoport-Albert and S. J. Zipperstein (eds), ''Jewish History: Essays in Honour of Chimen Abramsky'', pp. 495-529 * Rapoport-Albert, A. (1988). Hagiography with Footnotes: Edifying Tales and the Writing of History in Hasidism. ''History and Theory'', 27(4), 119-159. * Rapoport-Albert, A., & Kwasman, T. (2006). Late Aramaic: The Literary and Linguistic Context of the Zohar. ''Aramaic Studies'', 4(1), 5-19. * Rapoport-Albert, A. (2013). From woman as Hasid to woman as “Tsadik” in the teachings of the last two Lubavitcher rebbes. ''Jewish History'', 27(2), 435-473.

References