
Shimon Mordukhovich Iakerson (Russian: Семён Мордухович Якерсон; born August 4, 1956) is a Russian scholar specializing in medieval
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
manuscripts and
incunabula
In the history of printing, an incunable or incunabulum (plural incunables or incunabula, respectively), is a book, pamphlet, or broadside that was printed in the earliest stages of printing in Europe, up to the year 1500. Incunabula were pro ...
.
Career
Iakerson is the Head of the Department of
Semitic and Hebrew Studies at the
St. Petersburg State University, Russia. He is also the Head Researcher at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the
Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...
, as well as a corresponding member of the Hebrew Paleography Project of the
Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He has lectured at a variety of academic institutions around the world, most recently at
Sorbonne in Paris, France. One of his most notable lecture series was "Collectors and Collections: Hebrew Manuscripts and Incunabula in Russia" delivered on 23–24 May 2010 at the
Penn Libraries
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
in Philadelphia, USA, organized jointly with the Jewish Studies Program and the
Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
The Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania—commonly called the Katz Center—is a postdoctoral research center devoted to the study of Jewish history and civilization.
History
The Katz Center is t ...
. In recent years he has become involved with Jewish
museology
Museology or museum studies is the study of museums. It explores the history of museums and their role in society, as well as the activities they engage in, including curating, preservation, public programming, and education.
Terminology
The w ...
and the presentation of
Jewish history to larger audiences, for a period of time serving as a curator at the
Judaica collections of the
Russian Museum of Ethnography. Later was the head chair of in
St. Petersburg State University and the leading researcher in the Department of Hebrew Manuscripts of the
Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...
.
Achievements
Since 1985, Iakerson has produced 49 publications on Jewish history and
Hebrew incunabula
The Hebrew incunabula are a group of Jewish religious texts printed in Hebrew language, Hebrew in the 15th century.
Only about 100 incunabula are determined to have been definitively printed before 1500. There are eight of which either no copy is ...
. His works have been published in Russian, Hebrew, French, Dutch and English.
His opus magnum is the ''Catalogue of Hebrew Incunabula from the Collection of the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America'', wherein he describes the largest collection of Hebrew books printed with
movable type
Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric characters or punctuatio ...
before 1501 A.D. He holds the first Honorable Medal of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress “For Service to the Jewish People” (28 July 2005, Jerusalem) for the publication of his 2005 ''Catalogue of Hebrew Incunabula from the Collection of the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America'' and is a winner of the
Antsiferov award in Saint-Petersburg studies for the 2008-2009 publication of the illustrated volume ''
Jewish Treasures of Petersburg''.
Family
Daughters:
*
Dina
Dina ( ar, دينا, he, דִּינָה, also spelled Dinah, Dena, Deena) is a female given name.
Women
* Dina bint Abdul-Hamid (1929–2019), Queen consort of Jordan, first wife of King Hussein
* Princess Dina Mired of Jordan (born 1965), Princ ...
(born 1983) — Israeli art historian and artist. She born in
St. Petersburg, immigrated to
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
(1990). She lives 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 ...
.
* Maria (born 1994).
Bibliography of Individual Works
1. От буквы к литере. Очерки по истории еврейской средневековой книги / From Letter to Type. Essays on the History of the Medieval Hebrew Book. Санкт-Петербург, 2016. 391 с.
2. ОЦАР СЕФАРАД - СЕФАРДСКАЯ СОКРОВИЩНИЦА. Сефардская книга X – XV вв. От рукописной к печатной традиции. Учебно-методическое пособие для студентов СПбГУ, обучающихся по направлению «Востоковедение и африканистика». Санкт-Петербург, 2015. 128 с., илл.
3. Наставление Иуды Ибн Тиббона сыну Самуилу, сочиненное во дни юности оного. Факсимиле рукописи. Пролегомена, критическое издание текста, перевод с иврита, глоссарий и указатели С. М. Якерсона. Поэтический перевод пролога и эпилога Е. К. Юзбашян. СПб, 2011. 200 с., илл.
4. Еврейские сокровища Петербурга.
�. 2Ашкеназские коллекции Российского этнографического музея. СПб, 2009. 231 с., ил.
� соавт.: Урицкая Л.Б.
5. Еврейские сокровища Петербурга. Свитки, кодексы, документы. СПб, 2008. 264 с., ил.
6. Агнон Ш. И. Первый поцелуй / Перевод, предисловие и комментарии
С. М. Якерсона. СПб.: Центр «Петербургское востоковедение», 2006. 24 с.
7. Большая Хоральная Синагога в Санкт-Петербурге. СПб.: «Конструкт», 2006.
8. Abraham Firkovich de Karaïet en zijn verzameling Hebreeuwse en Samaritaanse
manuscripten in Sint-Petersburg. Amsterdam, 2005. 39 p. (Printed in Dutch)
9. Еврейская рукописная и первопечатная книга X—XV вв. как историко-культурный источник / Автореферат диссертации на соискание ученой степени
доктора исторических наук. СПб., 2005. 57 с.
10. Catalogue of Hebrew Incunabula from the Collection of the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Vol. 1—2. New York and Jerusalem. 2004—2005. (Parallel text in English and Hebrew).
11. Уникальное Пятикнижие из собрания барона Гинцбурга.
�., 2004 12 с. (приложение к факсимильному изданию памятника. Text in Russian and English).
12. Еврейская средневековая книга: Кодикологические, палеографические и книговедческие аспекты. М., 2003. 256 с.
13. Избранные жемчужины. Уникальные памятники еврейской культуры в Санкт-Петербурге (рукописи, документы, инкунабулы, культовая утварь). Санкт-Петербург, 2003. 144 с. (Parallel text in Russian and English).
14. Ohel Hayim: A Catalogue of Hebrew Manuscripts of the Manfred and Anne Lehmann
Family. Vol. 3: Printed Books. Incunabula and Sixteenth Century Books. New York,
1996.
9 314, XXIII pp. (The Manfred and Anne Lehmann Foundation Series. 22). (In English and Hebrew).
15. Инкунабулы на семитских языках (древнееврейском и арамейском) и их место в европейской книжной культуре XV века / Автореферат диссертации на соискание ученой степени кандидата филологических наук. Л., 1989. 16 с.
16. Еврейские инкунабулы. Описание экземпляров, хранящихся в библиотеках Москвы и Ленинграда. Ленинград, 1988. 337 с.
17. Каталог инкунабулов на древнееврейском языке библиотеки Ленинградского отделения Института востоковедения АН СССР. Ленинград, 1985. 107 с.
References
*In 2 vols. "New York and Jerusalem: The Jewish Theological Seminary of America," 2004–2005.
*“Speaker biography” in Shimon Iakerson, “Unique Hebrew Manuscripts in Saint-Petersburg, Russia,” a lecture delivered at the Library of Congress on February 3, 2010, and available at
https://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4841 .
*“Shimon Mordukhovich Iakerson,” The Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
http://www.orientalstudies.ru/eng/index.php?option=com_personalities&Itemid=74&person=215.
*https://www.ephe.fr/international/directeurs-d-etudes-invites/shimon-iakerson
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20th-century Russian historians
21st-century Russian historians