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Isaac Barzilay, professor emeritus of Hebrew language and literature, died on April 15, with his family in Northern California. He was 91 years old.
Barzilay received his Ph.D. from Columbia in 1955 in European and Jewish history and in philosophy. He taught Hebrew language and literature in the department of Middle East Languages and Cultures for 25 years, from 1960 to 1985.
Barzilay was a prolific author on Jewish intellectual thought, writing: Between Reason and Faith (Mouton, 1967), Shlomo Yehudah Rappaport and His Contemporaries (Massada, 1970), Delmedigo (Yashar of Candia) (Brill, 1974) and Manasseh of Ilya: Precursor of Modernity Among the Jews of Eastern Europe (Magnes, 1999).
Born in Vilkovishki, Lithuania, on March 15, 1915, Barzilay spent most of his childhood in Bialystok, Poland, where his family moved during World War I. He received an M.A. from Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1939, after studying philosophy, Hebrew language and literature, and Jewish history.
His teaching career began shortly after graduation at Bialik Gymnasium in Haifa, Israel, where he taught from 1940 to 1941. From 1942 to 1944, Barzilay served as an interpreter with the British Intelligence Corps.
He moved to the United States in 1946 and spent 12 years teaching at the Heraliah Hebrew Teachers Institute. During that time, he also taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Brooklyn College, Queens College and the Academy for Higher Jewish Learning. From 1958 to 1960, he was assistant professor of Jewish Studies at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.
Barzilay served as president of the American Academy for Jewish Research and was a member of the Academy of Political Science and of the Hebrew Pen Club of America.
He is survived by his children, Joshua and Sharona, four grandchildren and two sisters.
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