Rabbi Dr. Yehuda Brandes, President of Herzog College, has been awarded the B’Sheva Jerusalem Prize for Chinuch. It will be presented on Monday August 2 at the B’Sheva Group’s Jerusalem Summer Conference at the Begin Center.
Rabbi Dr. Brandes has been chosen to receive this prestigious prize in recognition of his many years of service to educational institutions in Israel, his contribution to the analytical study of Talmud, and his dedication to training teachers from across the religious spectrum in Israel and overseas. During his extensive career, he has inspired thousands of students and motivated many hundreds of graduates of Herzog College to become influential teachers in Israel’s education system.
Yehuda Brandes was born in Tel Aviv, the only child of two Holocaust survivors. He studied and later taught Talmud at the Hebrew University, and was principal of the Himmelfarb High School in Jerusalem. In 1990 he was one of the founders of Ma’ale School of Television, Film and the Arts, and taught there for many years. For 16 years he was head of Beit Morasha, the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies and Leadership in Jerusalem, and in 2014 he was appointed President of Herzog College.
Rabbi Dr. Brandes is a member of the religious education board of the AMIT Educational Network and chair of the national plenum of Israel’s Bnei Akiva youth movement. He has also written many books and articles on Talmud, Tanakh, Jewish law, education, and Jewish philosophy.
Other Jerusalem Prize awardees this year include former government minister MK Uri Ariel; the composer Nurit Hirsh; Dr. Chagai Amir, Director of the Rehabilitation Department of Loewenstein Hospital; and Dr. Avraham Mittelman.
