Abraham Schalit

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Abraham Schalit

| native_name = אברהם שליט

| native_name_lang = he

| birth_date = 1898

| birth_place = Zolochiv, Austria-Hungary

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1979|08|21|1898|df=y}}

| alma_mater = University of Vienna

| awards = Tchernichovsky Prize
Israel Prize (1960)

}}

Abraham Haim Schalit ({{langx|he|אברהם שליט}}; 1898{{Spaced en dash}}21 August 1979)[https://www.ybz.org.il/_Uploads/dbsAttachedFiles/Article_17.10.pdf In memory of Abraham Schalit] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200814134434/https://www.ybz.org.il/_Uploads/dbsAttachedFiles/Article_17.10.pdf|date=2020-08-14}} Includes a wealth of information including his picture, date of death and more. (PDF document in Hebrew, Yad Ben Zvi website) was an Israeli historian and a scholar of the Second Temple period.

Biography

Schalit was born in 1898 in the Galician town of Zolochiv, then in Austria-Hungary (from 1918 to 1939 in Poland and now in Ukraine). He studied at the University of Vienna. In 1929, he immigrated to Mandate Palestine, now Israel. In 1950, he joined the faculty of History Department of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was appointed a professor in 1959.

Major works

Abraham Schalit wrote his major works on Herod and Josephus. The discovery of his lost 1925 Vienna dissertation on Josephus shows a shift in his views. He originally saw Josephus as a bad historian but a patriot, sincerely seeking to further the rebels' cause against Rome. Later he regarded him as a pragmatist.Daniel R. Schwartz, [https://www.jstor.org/pss/20101230 More on Schalit's Changing Josephus: The Lost First Stage]

Awards

In 1960, Schalit was awarded the Israel Prize in Jewish studies.{{cite web |url= http://cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/Units/PrasIsrael/Tashyag/Tashkab_Tashyag_Rikuz.htm?DictionaryKey=Tashk |title= Israel Prize recipients in 1960 (in Hebrew) |publisher= Israel Prize official website |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120614120031/http://cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/Units/PrasIsrael/Tashyag/Tashkab_Tashyag_Rikuz.htm?DictionaryKey=Tashk |archive-date=14 June 2012 |url-status= dead }}
Schalit was a recipient of the Tchernichovsky Prize for exemplary translation.