Yoel Rappel, also known as Joel Rappel, is an Israeli historian who specializes in the study of Jewish history and the evolution of

Jewish prayer Jewish prayer ( he, תְּפִלָּה, ; plural ; yi, תּפֿלה, tfile , plural ; Yinglish: davening from Yiddish 'pray') is the prayer recitation that forms part of the observance of Rabbinic Judaism. These prayers, often with i ...

Early life

Rappel is the son of Israeli historian and grew up on Kibbutz Yavneh.

Academic career

Rappel received his Ph.D. in Jewish history and rabbinic literature from Boston University. In addition to teaching at Boston University, Rappel has taught at Bet Berl College and the Avshalom Institute for Israel Studies. He has published 29 books and edited 80 academic articles. As a fellow at the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

, Rappel specializes in the study of Jewish history and the evolution of

. He previously worked for 40 years as a journalist and senior program editor at the

Israel Broadcasting Authority The Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA; ) was Israel's public broadcaster from 1948 to 2017. History The Israel Broadcasting Authority was an outgrowth of the radio station ''Kol Yisrael'', which made its first broadcast as an independent st ...

. In 2018, Rappel's research confirmed that Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, the first

Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel The Chief Rabbinate of Israel ( he, הָרַבָּנוּת הָרָאשִׁית לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, ''Ha-Rabbanut Ha-Rashit Li-Yisra'el'') is recognized by law as the supreme rabbinic authority for Judaism in Israel. The Chief Rabbinate Co ...

and the grandfather of Israeli President

Isaac Herzog Isaac "Bougie" Herzog ( he, יצחק "בוז׳י" הרצוג, Yitskhak "Buzhi" Hertsog; born 22 September 1960) is an Israeli politician who has been serving as the 11th president of Israel since 2021. He is the first president to be born in ...

, wrote the

Prayer for the Welfare of the State of Israel The Prayer for the Welfare of the State of Israel is a prayer said in Religious Zionist and Conservative Judaism synagogues on Shabbat and Jewish holy days. The prayer requests divine providence for the State of Israel and its leaders, and that th ...

, settling a decades-long academic dispute over the prayer's authorship. Rappel's findings were corroborated by the

National Library of Israel The National Library of Israel (NLI; he, הספרייה הלאומית, translit=HaSifria HaLeumit; ar, المكتبة الوطنية في إسرائيل), formerly Jewish National and University Library (JNUL; he, בית הספרים הלא� ...

Elie Wiesel research

In 2009, Boston University professor

Elie Wiesel Elie Wiesel (, born Eliezer Wiesel ''Eliezer Vizel''; September 30, 1928 – July 2, 2016) was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Peace Prize, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored Elie Wiesel b ...

, arguably the most famous Holocaust survivor, asked Rappel to organize and manage his archive, which contained approximately one million documents. Over 7 years, Rappel curated the archive. Rappel was also the Hebrew editor for Wiesel's books. Rappel discovered a never-published Hebrew-language version ''

Night Night (also described as night time, unconventionally spelled as "nite") is the period of ambient darkness from sunset to sunrise during each 24-hour day, when the Sun is below the horizon. The exact time when night begins and ends depends o ...

'', Wiesel's famous memoir about his experiences during the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

. The archived version included harsh criticisms of Jews who were too optimistic about the future, Jewish leaders who did not speak up, and Wiesel's Hungarian neighbors who "joyously watched the Jews" being deported. These were not included in the originally published 1960 version.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rappel, Yoel Boston University faculty Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Israeli historians 21st-century male writers Historians of the Holocaust