Joseph Hacker is Professor of Medieval and Early Modern Jewish History at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, specializing in the history of the Jews in Spain, the Ottoman Empire and Eretz Israel. He has written and edited numerous articles and books on the social, religious and intellectual history of the Jews. Has been visiting professor at Harvard and Yale Universities, and the Jewish research in Jewish history, and Shalem, studies in the history of the Jews in Eretz Israel. Since late 1992 he has been Head of the Institute of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University.