Margalit Finkelberg (née Karpyuk; born 1947) () is an Israeli historian and

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

. She is the professor emerita of Classics 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 ...

. She became 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 2005 and served as president of the Israel Society for the Promotion of Classical Studies from 2011 to 2016. In 2021, she was elected vice president of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

Early life

Finkelberg was born in

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

on March 8, 1947 and immigrated to Israel in 1975. She received a Ph.D. from 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. ...

Career

Finkelberg began teaching in 1987 at the Hebrew University and from 1991 taught at Tel Aviv University. While there, she was the recipient of the 1991 Gildersleeve Prize from the

Johns Hopkins University Press Johns Hopkins University Press (also referred to as JHU Press or JHUP) is the publishing division of Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and is the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. The press publi ...

for the best article published in the

American Journal of Philology The ''American Journal of Philology'' is a quarterly academic journal established in 1880 by the classical scholar Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve and published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. It covers the field of philology, and related areas ...

. A few years later, while still teaching at Tel Aviv University, Finkelberg published ''The Birth of Literary Fiction in Ancient Greece'' in 1998. From 1999 to 2000, Finkelberg studied as a visiting fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, where she began to craft her future book ''Greeks and Pre-Greeks: Aegean Prehistory and Greek Heroic Tradition.'' In the early 2000s, Finkelberg collaborated with

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 ...

at the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (now known as the Israel Institute for Advanced Study) to research "Mechanisms of Canon-Making in Ancient Societies." These efforts would later come into fruition in 2003, with their book ''Homer, the Bible, and Beyond: Literary and Religious Canons in the Ancient World.'' Despite this, Finkelberg still wrote about linguistics. In an article from 2001, Finkelberg claimed that there was a "high degree of correspondence between the phonological and morphological system of Minoan and that of Lycian" and proposed that "the language of

Linear A Linear A is a writing system that was used by the Minoans of Crete from 1800 BC to 1450 BC. Linear A was the primary script used in Minoan palaces, palace and religious writings of the Minoan civilization. It evolved into Linear B, ...

is either the direct ancestor of Lycian or a closely related idiom." Beginning in 2002, Finkelberg headed the Department of Classics at Tel Aviv University until 2006. In 2005, Finkelberg became a member of the

. That same year, she also published ''Greeks and Pre-Greeks: Aegean Prehistory and Greek Heroic Tradition.'' From 2006 to 2007, Finkelberg was a member of the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...

in Princeton, New Jersey. While there, she received funding to study the impact of Homeric poems. In 2011, she was elected president of the Israel Society for the Promotion of Classical Studies and was selected to sit on the Committee for the Evaluation of Archaeology Study Programs at

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) (, ''Universitat Ben-Guriyon baNegev'') is a public university, public research university in Beersheba, Israel. Named after Israeli List of national founders, national founder David Ben-Gurion, the unive ...

. The following year, Finkelberg edited the first Homer Encyclopedia, which was considered the first comprehensive reference work on the Greek poet

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

. She was also the 2012 Recipient of the Rothschild Prize in the Humanities. In 2013, Finkelberg sat on the Dan David Prize Review Committee for Classics, the Modern Legacy of the Ancient World. She was also Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford (2000) and an International Visiting Research Scholar at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

(2014). In 2016, Finkelberg stepped down as president of the Israel Society for the Promotion of Classical Studies. She retired from teaching in 2017.

Selected publications

The following is a list of selected publications: *''The birth of literary fiction in ancient Greece'' (1998) *''Homer, the bible, and beyond: literary and religious canons in the ancient world'' (2003) *''The birth of literary fiction in ancient Greece'' (2004) *''Greeks and Pre-Greeks: Aegean Prehistory and Greek Heroic Tradition'' (2005) *''The Gatekeeper: Narrative Voice in Plato's Dialogues'' (2019) * ''Homer and Early Greek Epic. Collected Essays'' (2020)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Finkelberg, Margalit Living people 1947 births Belarusian Jews Writers from Minsk Moscow State University alumni Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Academic staff of Tel Aviv University Linguists from Israel Israeli women academics 21st-century Israeli women writers Members of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Soviet emigrants to Israel