SARFATTI, GAD B.

SARFATTI, GAD B. (1916– ), Hebrew scholar and linguist. Born in Pisa, Italy, he studied at the University of Florence (1933–37). He immigrated to Israel in 1939, joined kibbutz Tirat Ẓevi (1940–47), and served in the Israeli army (1948–50). While Sarfatti received his academic training in mathematics in Italy, in Israel he studied Talmud in a yeshivah (1941–43), and Hebrew and linguistics at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1952–55). He also studied at the Laboratoire d'analyse lexicographique of the University of Besancon, France (1963). Sarfatti's major fields of research are Medieval Hebrew and Hebrew semantics. Teaching at Bar-Ilan University from 1962, he was appointed full professor in 1978, and emeritus in 1988. He was elected a member of the Hebrew Academy in 1970 and was named its vice president (1981–87). He was visiting professor at various universities in Italy and the U.S. He was awarded the Israel Prize for linguistics in 2000. Among his major publications are Mathematical Terminology in Hebrew Scientific Literature of the Middle-Ages (Heb., 1968) and Hebrew Semantics (Heb., 1985). A full list of Sarfatti's works and scientific publications appear in Balshanut Ivrit ("Hebrew Linguistics"), 33–35 (1992), 9–13. (Aharon Maman (2nd ed.)