Emanuel Tov - Biography

Biography

Emanuel Tov was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands during the German occupation (1941). When he was one-year old his parents entrusted him to the care of a Christian family. His parents perished in the Holocaust, and following the war he grew up with his uncle and aunt as one of their children. He studied at a “gymnasium”, where he learned classical and modern European languages, and at the same time learned Hebrew at Talmud Torah. From age 14, he was active in the Zionistic youth movement “Ichud Habonim” and served as one of its leaders. At age 18, the movement sent him to Israel for training as a leader and in 1960 he became the general secretary of that movement in the Netherlands. In 1961, he immigrated to Israel. He studied at the Hebrew University (B.A. Bible; M.A. Bible and Greek literature), while serving also as an assistant in the Bible Dept. and at the Hebrew University Bible Project. In 1967-1969, he continued his studies at the Dept. for Near Eastern Studies and Languages at Harvard University. His dissertation, written under the guidance of Professors Shemaryahu Talmon of the Hebrew University and Frank Moore Cross of Harvard University, was submitted to the Hebrew University in 1973 as “The Septuagint Translation of Jeremiah and Baruch.” Upon his return to Israel, he served as an “assistant” at the University of Haifa and at the Hebrew University. In 1986, he was appointed Professor at the Hebrew University and in 1990 he became the J. L. Magnes Professor of Bible Studies. Served as visiting Professor at the Universities of Oxford, Uppsala, Doshisha (Kyoto), Macquarie and Sydney (Australia), Stellenbosch (South Africa), Vrije Universiteit (Amsterdam), University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), and the Pontifical Gregorian University (Rome). He stayed at Institutes for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, NIAS (the Netherlands), and Annenberg (Philadelphia).

He was one of the editors of the Hebrew University Bible Project. He is a member of the editorial board of the journal Dead Sea Discoveries, and served on the Academic committee of the Magnes Press. Co-founder and chairman (1991–2000) of the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation. Member of the Academic Committee of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Senior Associate Fellow, Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies.

From 1990-2009 he served as the Editor-in-Chief of the international Dead Sea Scrolls Publication Project, which during those years produced 32 volumes of the series Discoveries in the Judean Desert as well as two concordances .

He also published a CD containing editions of all the non-biblical Qumran scrolls and a six-volume printed edition of the scrolls meant for the general public.

Emanuel Tov is married to Lika (née Aa). They have three children and four granddaughters.