אליאס יוסף ביקרמן

Elias Joseph Bickerman (1897-1981), historian, born in Kishinev, Russia (now Chisinau, in Moldova) and studied in Petrograd (St. Petersburg), Russia. In 1918 he reached Germany, studying at the University of Berlin, where he taught until 1932 when he moved to France. There he taught at higher institutions and after the Nazi occupation escaped to New York. In New York Bickerman taught at the New School for Social Research, the Jewish Theological Seminary, and the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and from 1952 was professor at Columbia University. After his retirement in 1967, he again taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Bickerman wrote on many aspects of ancient history and specialized in particular in the Hellenistic world, writing basic works on the Maccabees.