The Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Israel, Dr. Clemens von Goetze, will confer Germany’s highest honor, the Order of Merit, on the President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Prof. Menahem Ben-Sasson, on Wednesday, March 1.
The Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany will recognize Prof. Ben-Sasson’s commitment to German-Israeli relations in the field of science, and thus to the cooperation between the two nations. The Order was established in 1951 to express recognition and gratitude to deserving men and women of the German people and of foreign countries.
Prof. Ben-Sasson is the thirteenth president of the Hebrew University and is currently serving his second four-year term in office. Prior to serving as president, Ben-Sasson was an MK, served as Chairman of the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, and headed the Knesset Lobby for Higher Education.
Prof. Ben-Sasson is a scholar in the Department of the History of the Jewish People in the Faculty of Humanities. A historian of the heritage of Jews in Muslim Lands, he has written some forty books and scholarly articles. He has served as President of the World Union of Jewish Studies, Vice-President of the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, Chairman of the Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East, and on the board of directors at Yad Vashem. Prof. Ben-Sasson lives in Jerusalem and speaks Hebrew, Arabic, English, French and German. He is married and has three children and six grandchildren.