Yehoshua Blau, also spelled Joshua (; 22 September 1919 – 20 October 2020) was an Israeli scholar of Arabic language and literature, previously

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

Emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

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. ...

Life and career

Blau was born in

Cluj Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (), Budapest () and Belgrade ( ...

, Romania in September 1919. He moved to

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

with his family in 1938. He earned a master's degree in Hebrew, Arabic, and Biblical studies in 1942. He married Shulamit in 1945, and they had a son and daughter. His doctoral studies were interrupted by the

1948 Arab-Israeli War Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The current Constitutions of Constitution of Italy, Italy and of Constitution of New Jersey, New Jersey (both later subject to amendment) ...

, during which he served in the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

in an intelligence unit. He was awarded a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 1950 for his dissertation, "The Grammar of Judeo-Arabic." Prior to his academic career, he taught at high schools and published several Hebrew grammars. He briefly taught at

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

before taking an academic position at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he taught from 1957 to 1986. Even after his retirement, he remained a professor emeritus and informally guided graduate students into his late 90s. He was an active member of the

Academy of the Hebrew Language The Academy of the Hebrew Language (, ''ha-akademyah la-lashon ha-ivrit'') was established by the Israeli government in 1953 as the "supreme institution for scholarship on the Hebrew language in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem of Givat Ram cam ...

since the 1950s and served as its president from 1981 to 1993. He continued to edit its journal until 1999. Blau was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

in 1983. He published a number of books and articles on the Arabic and Hebrew languages, and the Semitic languages generally, in Hebrew and English (and occasionally in German). Blau was elected as a member of the

Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, based in Jerusalem, was established in 1961 by the State of Israel to foster contact between Israeli scholars in the sciences and humanities and create a think tank for advising the government on res ...

in 1968.

Selected works

*''A grammar of Biblical Hebrew (Porta linguarum Orientalium: Neue Serie 12)''. Wiesbaden: O. Harrassowitz. (1976) *''On Pseudo-Corrections in Some Semitic Languages''. Jerusalem: The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. (1970) *''Phonology and Morphology of Biblical Hebrew (LSAWS 2)''. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns. (2010)

References

External links

Joshua (Yehoshua) Blau home page
Hebrew University of Jerusalem * Ofra Tirosh-Becker
In Memoriam, Professor Joshua Blau z"l (1919–2020)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blau, Joshua 1919 births 2020 deaths Corresponding fellows of the British Academy Historical linguists Israeli men centenarians Linguists from Israel Israeli Arabists Writers from Cluj-Napoca Romanian emigrants to Mandatory Palestine Israeli people of Romanian-Jewish descent 20th-century Israeli linguists 21st-century linguists Members of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Academic staff of Tel Aviv University Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Grammarians of Hebrew Semiticists Place of death missing Jewish centenarians

Life and career

Selected works

See also

References

External links