Israel Shahak

Israel Shahak
ישראל שחק
Born	Israel Himmelstaub (1933-04-29)April 29, 1933 Warsaw, Poland
Died	July 2, 2001(2001-07-02) (aged 68) Jerusalem, Israel
Occupation(s)	Professor of chemistry, political scientist, civil rights activist, author
Signature

Israel Shahak (Hebrew: ישראל שחק; born Israel Himmelstaub, 28 April 1933 – 2 July 2001) was an Israeli professor of organic chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a Holocaust survivor, an intellectual of liberal political bent, and a civil-rights advocate and activist on behalf of both Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews). For twenty years, he headed the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights (1970–90) and was a public critic of the policies of the governments of Israel. As a public intellectual, Shahak's works about Judaism proved controversial, especially the book Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years (1994).^[1]