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Norman Golb (15 January 1928 – 29 December 2020) was the Ludwig Rosenberger Professor in Jewish History and Civilization at the Oriental Institute of the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
. Golb was born in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
,
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...
,
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
, on 15 January 1928 to Joseph and Rose Golb, child immigrants from Ukraine. He earned his
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...
from
Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...
in 1954. While a student he had fellowships to do studies at Dropsie College in Philadelphia and another that ended up with him spending from 1955-1957 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 ...
. He joined the faculty of the
Hebrew Union College 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 ...
, Cincinnati in 1958 before settling at the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
, where he has worked since 1963. Golb has also been a
visiting scholar In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic for which the visitor ...
at the
University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...
(1957–58),
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
(1966), and
Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...
(1969–70). Golb was a key proponent of the viewpoint that the
Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls (also the Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the ...
found in Qumran were not the product of the Essenes, but rather of many different Jewish sects and communities of ancient Israel, which he presents in his book '' Who Wrote The Dead Sea Scrolls?: The Search For The Secret Of Qumran''. In the 1990s, Golb was an advocate for the freeing of the Scrolls for general scholarly studies. Golb was the discoverer, in 1962, of the Kievan Letter, the earliest document attesting to Jewish habitation of
Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Ky ...
. He also identified
Obadiah the Proselyte Obadiah the Proselyte (Hebrew: ) was an early-12th-century Italian convert to Judaism. He is best known for his memoirs and the oldest surviving notation of Jewish music, both unique survivals. He was born Johannes, son of Dreux, around 1070 in Op ...
as the author of the oldest known manuscript of Hebrew music (12th century), the earliest extant legal record of the Jews of Sicily, a new document dealing with the First Crusade and new manuscript materials relating to the Jews of Rouen. Finally, he recovered a genizah document describing a European convert to Judaism (11th century) and an original manuscript of the Khazars. Golb died in Chicago on 29 December 2020 aged 92.


Selected bibliography

* (1998) ''The Jews in medieval Normandy: A social and intellectual history'' New York: Cambridge University Press. * (1997) ''Judaeo-Arabic studies: proceedings of the Founding Conference of the Society for Judaeo-Arabic Studies'' Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers. (Conference Proceedings from the Founding Conference of the Society for Judaeo-Arabic Studies) * (1995) ''Who wrote the Dead Sea scrolls?: The search for the secret of Qumran'' New York: Scribner. * (1994) "The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Ethics of Museology" (Journal Article in ''The Aspen Institute quarterly'': AQ : issues and arguments for leaders ) * (1992) "The Freeing of the Scrolls and Its Aftermath" (Journal Article in ''The Qumran chronicle'') * (1992) "The Qumran– Essene Hypothesis: A Fiction of Scholarship" (Journal Article in ''The Christian century'') * (1990) "Khirbet Qumran and the Manuscripts of the Judaean Wilderness: Observations on the Logic of their Investigation" (Journal Article in ''Journal of Near Eastern studies'') * (1989) "The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Perspective" (Journal Article in ''The American scholar'') * (1985) ''Les Juifs de Rouen au Moyen Age: Portrait d'une culture oubliée'' Rouen: Université de Rouen. (Book in the series Publications de l’Université de Rouen ) * (1984) "A Marriage Document from Wardunia de-
Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
" (Journal Article in ''Journal of Near Eastern studies'') * (1982) with
Omeljan Pritsak Omeljan Yosypovych Pritsak ( uk, Омелян Йосипович Пріцак; 7 April 1919, Luka, Sambir County, West Ukrainian People's Republic – 29 May 2006, Boston) was the first Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History at Har ...
: '' Khazarian
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 ...
documents of the tenth century'' Ithaca: Cornell University Press. * (1980) "The Problem of Origin and Identification of the Dead Sea Scrolls" (Journal Article in ''Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia for promoting useful knowledge'') * (1976) Toledot hayehudim be'ir rouen bimé habenayim Tel Aviv, Israel: Dvir Publishing House. * (1973) A Judaeo–Arabic Court Document of
Syracuse Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy * Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' * Province of Syracuse United States *Syracuse, New York **East Syracuse, New York ** North Syracuse, New York * Syracuse, Indiana *Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, M ...
, A.D. 1020 (Journal Article in Journal of Near Eastern studies ) * (1972) '' Spertus College of Judaica
Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast and ...
ite manuscripts'' Chicago: Spertus College of Judaica Press. * (1967) The Music of Obadiah the Proselyte and his Conversion (Journal Article in ''The Journal of Jewish studies'') * (1965) Notes on the Conversion of Prominent European Christians to Judaism During the Eleventh Century (Journal Article in ''The Journal of Jewish studies'') * (1957) "Literary and Doctrinal Aspects of the Damascus Covenant in the Light of Karaite Literature" (Journal Article in ''The Jewish Quarterly Review: New Series'') * (1957) "Sixty Years of Genizah Research" (Journal Article in ''Judaism'')


References


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{{DEFAULTSORT:Golb, Norman 1928 births 2020 deaths Academics from Chicago American male non-fiction writers American expatriates in Israel Khazar studies Johns Hopkins University alumni Harvard University staff Hebrew Union College faculty University of Chicago faculty 21st-century American historians Historians from Illinois