Chaim Menachem Rabin ( he, חיים מנחם רבין; 1915–1996) was a German, then British, and finally

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i professor of

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

and

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigra ...

. Chaim Rabin was born in

Giessen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univers ...

, Germany, 22 November 1915, the son of Israel and Martel Rabin. Having completed his school studies in April 1933 he spent the year 1933–1934 in

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

, studying at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

.Report of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, 1995-1996
/ref>Utz Maas: ''Verfolgung und Auswanderung deutschsprachiger Sprachforscher 1933-1945.'
entry for Chaim Rabin
/ref> He then emigrated to England, where he eventually became a British citizen. He enrolled as a student at the

School of Oriental Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury ar ...

of the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

where he received his BA degree in 1937. In 1939 he was awarded his PhD with a thesis entitled ''Studies in Early Arabic Dialects'' at the now renamed School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where from 1938 was employed as a lecturer. On the outbreak of the war he was briefly interned on the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...

, but was soon released. In 1941 he moved to the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, where he received his MA, then D.Phil. in 1942, with a thesis entitled ''The Development of the Syntax of Post-Biblical Hebrew''. In 1943 he was appointed Cowley Lecturer in Post-Biblical

there. In 1956 with his wife, Batya, he emigrated to Israel, and took a post of Associate Professor, then full Professor of Hebrew Language at the

, where he remained until his retirement in 1985. At the Second International Conference Seminar of

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

Studies, held at Madras (now,

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

), India, Prof. Rabin presented a study on "Loanword evidence in biblical Hebrew for trade between

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

and

in the first millennium BC" and projected his hopes "that some day a Tamil scholar may try and discover whether there are in Tamil any loanwords from Hebrew or from South-Arabian". Following his early interest in

Arabic dialects The varieties (or dialects or vernacular languages) of Arabic, a Semitic language within the Afroasiatic family originating in the Arabian Peninsula, are the linguistic systems that Arabic speakers speak natively. There are considerable varia ...

, Chaim Rabin's field were all aspects of Hebraic linguistics, in particular, translations of the language of the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

, the Dead Sea Manuscripts, and the detailed study of medieval codices. He succeeded

Moshe Goshen-Gottstein Moshe Goshen-Gottstein (Hebrew: משה גושן-גוטשטיין) (6 September 1925 – 14 September 1991) was a German-born professor of Semitic linguistics and biblical philology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and director of the lex ...

chief editor An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of the

Hebrew University Bible Project The Hebrew University Bible Project (HUBP) is a project at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to create the first edition of the Hebrew Bible that reproduces the text of the Aleppo Codex and includes a thorough critical apparatus. It was begun in ...

. Rabin was a pioneer in training Israeli

translators Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

. Together with Shoshana Bloom, he established the Hebrew University's Department of Scientific Translation. He was a member of the

Academy of the Hebrew Language The Academy of the Hebrew Language ( he, הָאָקָדֶמְיָה לַלָּשׁוֹן הָעִבְרִית, ''ha-akademyah la-lashon ha-ivrit'') was established by the Israeli government in 1953 as the "supreme institution for scholarship on t ...

and died in Jerusalem on 13 May 1996.

Published works

* Hayim M. Nahmad with C. Rabin: ''Everyday Arabic: conversations in Syrian and Palestinian colloquial Arabic with vocabulary, phonetic and grammatical introduction, lists of useful culinary, military, political and commercial terms.'' with a Foreword by

H. A. R. Gibb Sir Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb (2 January 1895 – 22 October 1971), known as H. A. R. Gibb, was a Scottish historian and Orientalist. Early life and education Gibb was born on Wednesday, 2 January 1895, in Alexandria, Egypt, ...

. London: Dent, 1940 *''Arabic Reader''. London: Lund Humphries 1947 *''Everyday Hebrew - Twenty-nine Simple Conversations with English Translation and Full Grammatical Introduction'' London: Dent 1948 *''Hebrew Reader''. London: Lund Humphries 1949 *''Ancient West-Arabian: a study of the dialects of the Western Highlands of Arabia in the sixth and seventh centuries A.D''. London: Taylor's Foreign Press 1951 *

Maimonides Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah ...

, ''

The guide of the perplexed ''The Guide for the Perplexed'' ( ar, دلالة الحائرين, Dalālat al-ḥā'irīn, ; he, מורה נבוכים, Moreh Nevukhim) is a work of Jewish theology by Maimonides. It seeks to reconcile Aristotelianism with Rabbinical Jewish th ...

'', with introduction and commentary by

Julius Guttmann Julius Guttmann (Hebrew: יוליוס גוטמן), born Yitzchak Guttmann (15 April 1880 in Hildesheim – 19 May 1950 in Jerusalem), was a German-born rabbi, Jewish theologian, and philosopher of religion. Biography Julius was born to Jakob Gut ...

. translated from the Arabic by Chaim Rabin. London: East and West Library 1952 *''The

Zadokite Documents The Damascus Document is an ancient Hebrew text known from both the Cairo Geniza and the Dead Sea Scrolls.Philip R. Davies, "Damascus Document", in Eric M. Meyers (ed.), ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East'' (Oxford Universit ...

. I. The Admonition, II. The Laws. Edited with a translation and notes by Chaim Rabin''. Oxford:

Clarendon Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

1954 *''The Beginnings of Classical Arabic''. in Studia Islamica 4 (1955) pp. 19–37. reprinted in Ibn Warraq, ''

What the Koran Really Says ''What the Koran Really Says: Language, Text and Commentary'' (2002) is a book edited by Ibn Warraq and published by Prometheus Books. The book is a collection of classical essays, some translated for the first time, that provide commentary on ...

'' (2002) * "

Alexander Jannaeus Alexander Jannaeus ( grc-gre, Ἀλέξανδρος Ἰανναῖος ; he, ''Yannaʾy''; born Jonathan ) was the second king of the Hasmonean dynasty, who ruled over an expanding kingdom of Judea from 103 to 76 BCE. A son of John Hyrcanus, ...

and the Pharisees". in: ''Journal of Jewish Studies'' 7 (1956), pp. 3–11 * ''Qumran Studies''. Oxford University Press 1957. republished Schocken 1975 * "The Linguistics of Translation". in: A. D. Booth (ed.), ''Aspects of Translation'' (Studies in Communications 2), London: Secker and Warburg 1958, pp. 123ff * (with

Yigael Yadin Yigael Yadin ( he, יִגָּאֵל יָדִין ) (20 March 1917 – 28 June 1984) was an Israeli archeologist, soldier and politician. He was the second Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces and Deputy Prime Minister from 1977 to 1981. B ...

), ''Aspects of the Dead Sea scrolls''. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, Hebrew University 1958 * ''Studies in the Bible : edited on behalf of the Institute of Jewish Studies in the Faculty of Humanities''. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, Hebrew University 1961 * "Etymological Miscellanea", in: ''Scripta Hierosolymitana'' 8 (1961), pp. 384–400. * ''Essays on the Dead Sea scrolls. In memory of

E. L. Sukenik Eleazar Lipa Sukenik (12 August 1889, in Białystok – 28 February 1953, in Jerusalem) was an Israelis, Israeli archaeologist and professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is best known for helping establish the Department of Archaeolo ...

.'' Jerusalem : Hekhal Ha-Sefer, 1961 *

(edited with commentary), ''The scroll of the

War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness ''The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness'', also known as War Rule, Rule of War and the War Scroll, is a manual for military organization and strategy that was discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The manuscript was among the ...

'', translated by Batya and Chaim Rabin. London: Oxford University Press 1962 * ''Die Renaissance der hebräischen Sprache.'' Zürich : Israel-Informations-Büro, 1963 * ''The influence of different systems of Hebrew orthography on reading efficiency''. Jerusalem: The Israel Institute of Applied Social Research 1968 *''Loanword Evidence in Biblical Hebrew for Trade between Tamil Nad and Palestine in the First Millenium B.C.''. in Asher R. E. (ed), ''Proceedings of the Second International Conference Seminar of Tamil Studies'' (1971), vol.1, pp. 432–440. * Thesaurus of the Hebrew language in dictionary form. Jerusalem: Kiryat Sepher, 1970–1973 ** Thesaurus of the Hebrew ... ; Volume I. 1970 ** Thesaurus of the Hebrew ... ; Volume II. 1973 *
A Short History of the Hebrew Language
'. Publishing Department of the Jewish Agency (1973) * Chaim Rabin (Editor): ''Bible Translation: An Introduction.'' Israel: Bialik, 1984 (previously published in: Encyclopaedia biblica, 8 (1982), 737–870) * ''Die Entwicklung der hebräischen Sprache.'' Wiesbaden : Reichert in Komm., 1988 (publications of the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg, Nr. 2) * Chaim Rabin, Zvi Raday: ''Otsar ha-milim. Milim, tserufim e-imrot.'' (Thesaurus of the Hebrew Language in Dictionary Form. Edited by Chaim Rabin and Zvi Raday. 3 vols. Jerusalem, Sivan Press (1988) ontents: vol 1. A-L; vol 2. M-P; vol 3. TZ-T.* Chaim Rabin, Tzvi Raday: ''Hamilon HeHadash LaTanach'' (The New Bible Dictionary). (in Hebrew), 3 vols. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, 1989 * ''Semitic Languages - An Introduction.'' The Bialik Institute (Mosad Bialik) 1991 * ''Linguistic Studies : Collected Papers in Hebrew and Semitic Languages.'' Jerusalem, Israel: Bialik Institute, 1999 * ''The development of the syntax of post-biblical Hebrew''. Leiden; Boston: Brill 2000. .Bibliographie Linguistique - Linguistic Bibliography
/ref>

References

*Moshe H. Goshen-Gottstein, Shlomo Morag, Simcha Kogut (eds.), ''Studies on Hebrew and other Semitic languages presented to Chaim Rabin''. Jerusalem: Akademon Press 1990

External links

University CV
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Chaim Rabin: A Friend and Mentor
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rabin, Chaim Menachem People from Giessen Linguists from Israel Hebrew University of Jerusalem faculty Alumni of SOAS University of London Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom People interned in the Isle of Man during World War II Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Israeli people of German-Jewish descent 1915 births 1996 deaths 20th-century linguists British emigrants to Israel