Sarah Stroumsa (; born 1950) is the Alice and Jack Ormut Professor of Arabic Studies at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

. She has contributed several investigations into Jewish and Arabic scholastic philosophy. In 2021 she was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

Career

After earning her B.A, Stroumsa joined the faculty at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1977. By 1999, she was appointed to

Full professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a 'person who professes'. Professors ...

and later sat as Vice-Rector of the University from 2003 until 2006. In 2003, she was named the Alice and Jack Ormut Professor Emerita of Arabic Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. A few years later, she became the first woman to serve as Rector of the Hebrew University. The year after her promotion, Stroumsa was the recipient of the Italian Solidarity Award. During her tenure as Rector, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem jumped from 72nd to 57th on the World Universities Ranking list. She also helped establish the University's first Muslim prayer room. After ending her tenure as Rector, she was the recipient of a Research Grant from the

Alexander von Humboldt Foundation The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation () is a foundation that promotes international academic cooperation between scientists and scholars from Germany and abroad. Established by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, it is funded by t ...

for a Research Project at

Freie Universität Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public university, public research university in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in West Berlin in 1948 with American support during the early Cold War period a ...

. In 2018, Stroumsa and her husband earned the 2018 Leopold Lucas Prize.

Personal life

Stroumsa is married to

Guy Stroumsa Guy Gedalyah Stroumsa (; born 27 July 1948) is an Israeli scholar of religion. He is Martin Buber Professor Emeritus of Comparative Religion at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Emeritus Professor of the Study of the Abrahamic Religions at ...

and they have two daughters.

Published works

Regarding

Maimonides Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...

, she insists that

Leo Strauss Leo Strauss (September 20, 1899 – October 18, 1973) was an American scholar of political philosophy. He spent much of his career as a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, where he taught several generations of students an ...

's 'dichotomy of esoteric versus exoteric writing does not do justice to Maimonides' context-sensitive rhetoric,' claiming instead that he "'plays a double game', reconciling and integrating dualities through the constant, creative interplay between Arabic and Hebrew, Islamic and Jewish culture." * ''Dawud ibn Marwan al-Muqammis's 'Ishrun Maqala'' (Etudes sur le judaisme medieval XIII, Leiden: Brill, 1989) * With Daniel J. Lasker, ''The Polemic of Nestor the Priest: Qiṣṣat Mujādalat al- Usquf and Sefer Nestor ha-Komer'' (Jerusalem: Ben Zvi Institute, 1996), 2 Vols. * ''The Beginnings of the Maimonidean Controversy in the East: Yosef Ibn Shimʿon's Silencing Epistle Concerning the Resurrection of the Dead'' (Jerusalem: Ben Zvi Institute, 1999; Hebrew). * ''Freethinkers of Medieval Islam: Ibn al-Rāwandī, Abū Bakr al-Rāzī, and Their Impact on Islamic Thought'' (Islamic Philosophy and Theology XXXV; Leiden: Brill, 1999; Paperback edition 2016). * With H. Ben-Shammai, E. Batat, S. Butbul, and D. Sklare, ''Judaeo-Arabic Manuscripts in the Firkovitch Collections: Yefet Ben ʿEli al-Basri, Commentary on Genesis, A Sample Catalogue'' (Jerusalem: Ben Zvi Institute, 2000; Hebrew). * Maimonides in his World: Portrait of a Mediterranean Thinker (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009; Paperback edition, 2012). * .(ירושלים: מאגנס, 2021ֿ), ''הרמב״ם בעולמו: דיוקנו של הוגה ים תיכוני'' * ''Dāwūd al-Muqammaṣ, Twenty Chapters. The Judeo-Arabic text, transliterated into Arabic characters, with a parallel English translation, notes, and introduction'' (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2016). * ''Andalus and Sefarad: On Philosophy and its History in Islamic Spain'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019). * With Guy G. Stroumsa, ''Eine dreifältiger Schnur: Über Judentum, Christentum, und Islam in Geschichte und Wissenschaft'' / ''A Cord of Three Strands: On Judaism, Christianity and Islam in History and Scholarship'' (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck: 2020). * .(ירושלים: מאגנס, תשפ״ג 2022), ''דאוד בן מרואן אלמקמץ, עשרים פרקים: תרגום מוער מערבית יהודית'' * ''Théologie et philosophie au temps des Almohades'' (XIIe siècle de l’Ère commune) (Rabat: Académie du Royaume du Maroc, 2023). * ''Das Kaleidoskop der Convivencia: Denktraditionen des Mittelalters im Austausch zwischen Islam, Judentum und Christentum'' (Blumenberg Vorlesungen 7; Freiburg: Herder, forthcoming 2023).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stroumsa, Sarah Living people Educators from Haifa Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Israeli women academics 1950 births International members of the American Philosophical Society Hebrew University Secondary School alumni