Lydia Aran ( he, לידיה ארן; October 1921 – March 5, 2013 in Jerusalem), was a professor emerita at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

and a scholar of

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

. She taught in the Hebrew University's Department of Indian Studies until her retirement in 1998. Aran was born in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urba ...

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

, where she survived the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

by being hidden, with her twin sister, in the small village of

Ignalina Ignalina ( pl, Ignalino) is a city in eastern Lithuania. It is known as a tourist destination in the Aukštaitija National Park. Ignalina is also famous for the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant in nearby Visaginas. Legend It is said that Ignalina ...

by her high school history teacher, Krystyna Adolph, an ethnically Polish Catholic.Krystyna’s Gift—A Memoir, Lydia Aran, Commentary, February 2004
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Books

* ''The Art of Nepal'' * ''Buddhism: An Introduction to

Buddhist Philosophy Buddhist philosophy refers to the philosophical investigations and systems of inquiry that developed among various schools of Buddhism in India following the parinirvana of The Buddha and later spread throughout Asia. The Buddhist path combin ...

and Religion'' (Hebrew) 1993 * ''Destroying a Civilization: Tibet 1950-2000'' (Hebrew) 2007

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aran, Lydia Hebrew University of Jerusalem faculty Holocaust survivors Lithuanian Jews Lithuanian emigrants to Israel Writers from Vilnius 2013 deaths 1921 births Lithuanian women writers