Wouter Jacques "Wout" van Bekkum (born 21 May 1954) is a Dutch professor of Middle East Studies at the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen (city), Groningen in ...

. His expertise lies in the field of Semitic languages and culture, especially the different varieties of the

Hebrew language 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 Hebrew poetry from Late Antiquity until the Middle Ages.

Career

Van Bekkum was born on 21 May 1954 in

Winschoten Winschoten (; gos, Winschoot) is a city with a population of 18,518 in the municipality of Oldambt in the northeast of the Netherlands. It is the largest city in the region of Oldambt in the province of Groningen which has 38,213 inhabitants. ...

. Between 1972 and 1979 he studied

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 ...

and

cultures Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...

at the

. For the final year of his study he did a one-year program 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 ...

. After completing his studies he was a student assistant in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic Linguistics for one year before being appointed as assistant-teacher in

Modern Hebrew Modern Hebrew ( he, עברית חדשה, ''ʿivrít ḥadašá ', , '' lit.'' "Modern Hebrew" or "New Hebrew"), also known as Israeli Hebrew or Israeli, and generally referred to by speakers simply as Hebrew ( ), is the standard form of the He ...

in 1980. Van Bekkum kept this position until 1986. In that year he started as lecturer of Classical, Rabbinic, Medieval and Modern Hebrew. In 1988 he earned his doctor title in Medieval Hebrew Poetry at the University of Groningen with a thesis titled: ''The Qedushta'ot of Yehudah according to Genizah Manuscripts''. In 2000 he was appointed as full professor of

Middle Eastern studies Middle Eastern studies (sometimes referred to as Near Eastern studies) is a name given to a number of academic programs associated with the study of the history, culture, politics, economies, and geography of the Middle East, an area that is gene ...

. In 1996, aside from his work at the University of Groningen, he also started working as professor occupying an

endowed chair A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders and donors. Endowments are of ...

(Dutch: bijzonder hoogleraar) of Modern Jewish history at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

. He remained in function in Amsterdam until 2001. Van Bekkum was elected a member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

in 2003. In 2019 during the Medieval Hebrew Poetry Colloquium in

Leuven Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic ...

, Belgium, he was honored with a

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

, edited by Joachim Yeshaya, Elisabeth Hollender, Naoya Katsumata, ''The Poet and the World, Festschrift for Wout van Bekkum on the Occasion of His Sixty-Fifth Birthday'', Studia Judaica 107, De Gruyter Berlin, 339 pages. On 24 April 2020 he was appointed Officer in the

Order of Orange-Nassau The Order of Orange-Nassau ( nl, Orde van Oranje-Nassau, links=no) is a civil and military Dutch order of chivalry founded on 4 April 1892 by the queen regent, Emma of the Netherlands. The order is a chivalric order open to "everyone who has ...

Main Publications

van Bekkum, W. J. (1998). ''Hebrew Poetry from Late Antiquity. Liturgical Poems of Yehudah. Critical Edition with Introduction & Commentary''. (vol. 43 ed.) Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff/Brill. van Bekkum, W. J. (2007). ''The Secular Poetry of El 'azar ben Ya'aqov ha-Bavli. Baghdad, Thirteenth Century, on the basis of Manuscript Heb. IIA, 210.1''. Leiden-Boston: Martinus Nijhoff/Brill. van Bekkum, W. J., & Katsumata, N. (2011). ''Giving a Diamond, Essays in Honor of Joseph Yahalom on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday''. (Tome XLIX ed.) Boston: Martinus Nijhoff/Brill. van Bekkum, W. J. (1996). Deutung und Bedeuting in der hebraïschen Exegese. ''Frankfurter Judaistische Beiträge'', ''23'', 1 - 13. van Bekkum, W. J. (1998). Lights of Sion and Lights of Edom. ''Dutch Studies published by NELL'', ''1-2'', 109 - 120. van Bekkum, W. J. (2002). Reconstruction of Yiddish Colloquial in Winschoten. In K. Siewert (Ed.), ''Aspekte und Ergebnisse der Sondersprachenforschung II'' (pp. 197 - 208). (Sondersprachenforschung; No. 7). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. van Bekkum, W. J. (2008). Qumran Hymnology and Piyyut: Contrast and Comparison. ''Revue de Qumran'', ''Numéro 91''(Tome 23), 341 - 356. van Bekkum, W. J. (2009). Discussing Cultural Influences: Text, Context, and Non-Text in Rabbinic Judaism. ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'', ''129''(1), 139–141. van Bekkum, W. J. (2011). The Future of Ancient Piyyut. In M. Goodman, & P. Alexander (Eds.), ''Rabbinic Texts and the History of Late-Roman Palestine'' (pp. 217 - 233). Oxford: Oxford University Press. van Bekkum, W. J. (2012). Hebrew Poetry. In S. Cushman, & R. Greene (Eds.), ''The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics'' (pp. 601 - 610). van Bekkum, W. J. (2013). Leopold Zunz and Jewish Hymnology. ''European Journal of Jewish Studies'', ''7.2'', 187 - 197. van Bekkum, W., & Katsumata, N. (2017). Between Convention and Innovation: A Study of Thematic and Literary Features of Three Sedarim for Wayyosha of the tenth and eleventh centuries . ''Journal of Jewish Studies'', ''68''(2), 324–345.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bekkum, Wout van 1954 births Living people 20th-century Dutch historians Historians of Jews and Judaism Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Middle Eastern studies scholars Officers of the Order of Orange-Nassau People from Winschoten University of Amsterdam faculty University of Groningen alumni University of Groningen faculty 21st-century Dutch historians