Daniel R. Schwartz (; born 1952) is a professor of Jewish History 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. ...

. He is a scholar of

Hellenistic Judaism Hellenistic Judaism was a form of Judaism in classical antiquity that combined Jewish religious tradition with elements of Hellenistic culture and religion. Until the early Muslim conquests of the eastern Mediterranean, the main centers of Hellen ...

Flavius Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a History of the Jews in the Roman Empire, Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing ''The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Judaea ...

, the

Second Temple Period The Second Temple period or post-exilic period in Jewish history denotes the approximately 600 years (516 BCE – 70 CE) during which the Second Temple stood in the city of Jerusalem. It began with the return to Zion and subsequent reconstructio ...

, and the book

2 Maccabees 2 Maccabees, also known as the Second Book of Maccabees, Second Maccabees, and abbreviated as 2 Macc., is a deuterocanonical book which recounts the persecution of Jews under King Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the Maccabean Revolt against him. It ...

Background

Daniel Schwartz was born in the United States in 1952. He immigrated to Israel (

aliyah ''Aliyah'' (, ; ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from Jewish diaspora, the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel or the Palestine (region), Palestine region, which is today chiefly represented by the Israel ...

) in 1971. He earned a Ph.D in Jewish History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1980, studying under

Menahem Stern Menahem Stern (; March 5, 1925 – June 22, 1989) was an internationally acclaimed Israeli historian of the Second Temple period. He was murdered in Jerusalem by Palestinians during the First Intifada. Biography Menahem Stern was born in 1925 in ...

. He chaired the university's Department of Jewish History between the years 1992 and 1994. He became

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 ...

in 1995. Schwartz served on the Committee for the Itzhak Ben-Zvi Award of the Yad Itzhak Ben-Zvi Institute. In 2011 he was appointed academic head of the Scholion Interdisciplinary Research Center in Jewish Studies.

Works

Schwartz published the book ''Agrippa I'' in 1987 in Hebrew on

Herod Agrippa Herod Agrippa I ( Roman name: Marcus Julius Agrippa; ), also simply known as Herod Agrippa, Agrippa I, () or Agrippa the Great, was the last king of Judea. He was a grandson of Herod the Great and the father of Herod Agrippa II, the last known k ...

, the last king of the

Herodian dynasty The Herodian dynasty was a royal dynasty of Idumaean (Edomite) descent, ruling the Herodian Kingdom of Judea and later the Herodian tetrarchy as a vassal state of the Roman Empire. The Herodian dynasty began with Herod the Great who assumed ...

. The book won the 1988 Arnold Wischnitzer Prize. It received a translation into English in 1990. Aryeh Kasher of Tel Aviv University, whose review of ''Agrippa I'' includes numerous disagreements with Schwartz, describes the biography as "an impressive work full of original and stimulating ideas." After the murder of Menahem Stern in 1989, Schwartz was called upon to edit various drafts and fragments that Stern had been in the process of writing. Stern had intended to produce a multivolume survey of Jewish history in the

Second Temple period The Second Temple period or post-exilic period in Jewish history denotes the approximately 600 years (516 BCE – 70 CE) during which the Second Temple stood in the city of Jerusalem. It began with the return to Zion and subsequent reconstructio ...

. The result was published in 1995 as ''Hasmonean Judea in the Hellenistic World: Chapters in Political History'' (

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

: Zalman Shazar Center). Schwartz wrote ''2 Maccabees'', a scholarly commentary and annotated translation into Hebrew of the book

(which only survived in

Koine Greek Koine Greek (, ), also variously known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek, Septuagint Greek or New Testament Greek, was the koiné language, common supra-regional form of Greek language, Greek spoken and ...

). It was published in Hebrew in 2004, followed by a translation into English in 2008. Schwartz's book is considered one of the authoritative modern works on the subject along with

Jonathan A. Goldstein Jonathan A. Goldstein (1929–2004) was a biblical scholar and author who wrote for the Anchor Bible Series. He was the author of books on I Maccabees and II Maccabees, as well as a book about competing religions in the ancient world. Goldstein ...

's 1983 book on 2 Maccabees. As a follow-up, Schwartz wrote ''1 Maccabees'', a scholarly commentary in English on the book

1 Maccabees 1 Maccabees, also known as the First Book of Maccabees, First Maccabees, and abbreviated as 1 Macc., is a deuterocanonical book which details the history of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire as well as the founding and earliest hi ...

for the Anchor Yale Bible series. It was published in 2022.

Awards and honors

* Arnold Wischnitzer Prize, 1988 * Féher Prize, 1992

References

External links

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Scholion – Interdisciplinary Research Center in Jewish Studies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwartz, Daniel R. 1952 births Living people Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem American emigrants to Israel Judaic scholars