Meir Jacob Kister

Meir Jacob Kister ( Hebrew מאיר יעקב קיסטר; * January 16, 1914 in Mościska , Galicia ; † 16th August 2010 in Jerusalem ) was a from Poland originating Israeli Arabist .

Kister attended school in Sanok and Przemyśl . In 1932 he began studying law at the University of Lviv , but moved to Warsaw in 1933 , where he worked in publishing. As a Jew, he went to Palestine in 1939 . Here he studied Arabic at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem , a. a. with David Hartwig Baneth and Shlomo Dov Goitein . From 1945 to 1946 he worked briefly as a press attaché at the Polish embassy in Beirut . From 1946 to 1958 he taught Arabic at a school in Haifa .

In addition, he continued his studies, received his MA in 1949 and his doctorate in 1964. From 1958 he taught at the Hebrew University, where he worked as a senior lecturer from 1964 and as a professor from 1970 until his retirement in 1983. He is one of the founders of the Arab departments at Tel Aviv Universities (1969) and Haifa .

Kister is considered a prime example of Israeli oriental studies and Israeli orientalism , which treat Arabic purely passively, like a dead language ; In this sense, Kister is ascribed the following quote: "If you want to learn to speak Arabic , go to Berlitz ."

Since 1975 Kister was a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences , since 1984 a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . In 1981 he received the Israel Prize , in 1988 the Rothschild Prize .

He is the father of the biblical scholar Menahem Kister .

Web links

• Website of the Hebrew University on MJ Kister, with biography, list of writings and full text of many of his writings (English)

Footnotes

1. ^ Allon J. Uhlmann: Arabic instruction in Jewish schools and universities in Israel. Contraditions, subversion, and the politics of pedagogy. In: International Journal of Middle East Studies Vol. 42, No. 2 (May 2010), pp. 291–309, here p. 301.