Ephraim Isaac

Ephraim Isaac Author Photo

Biography of Ephraim Isaac

Ephraim Isaac (born May 29, 1936), BD (Harvard Divinity School ’63), Ph.D. (Harvard University ’69), D.H.L. (CUNY), D.Litt. (AAU), is a founder and the first professor of the Harvard University Department of African & Afro-American Studies, created in 1969. The Harvard Department has established the Ephraim Isaac Prize for Excellence in African Languages. Ephraim is author of numerous scholarly works about the Late Second Temple period and Classical Ethiopic and Yemenite Jewish religious literature. He is Director, Institute of Semitic Studies, Princeton NJ, Chair, Board of the Horn of Africa Peace & Development Committee, and President Emeritus, Yemenite Jewish Federation of America. He has taught at Hebrew University, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, Bard College, and other institutions of higher learning. He has received many honors, including the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding 2002 Peacemaker in Action Award, honorary degrees from John J. College of Cuny, Addis Ababa University of Ethiopia, NEH Fellowship, among others. He knows seventeen languages, lectures widely on the subject of "Religion & Warfare," "Religion & Hate," etc. and sits on Boards of some twenty-five international religious, educational, and cultural organizations.

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1 Book by Ephraim Isaac