Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1944.
Immigrated to Israel in 1962.
Married to Leontine Veerman. Children: Yehuda, Michal, Natan and Reuven
ACADEMIC DEGREES
1967 - BA, Jewish History and Sociology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
1972 - MA, Jewish History, Summa cum Laude, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
1979 – PhD, Cum Laude, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
TEACHING AND RESEARCH POSITIONS
1982-86 Senior Lecturer in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
1986-92 Associate Professor.
Since 1988 Bernard Cherrick Professor of Jewish History.
Since 1992 Full Professor of Jewish History.
Professor Kaplan was invited to the following universities and institutes of higher education:
Institute for Advanced Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Research Group: The Sephardic Diaspora (Fellow, 1986/7).
Yale University, New Haven, Ct. (Visiting Professor, 1990).
The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS), Wassenaar (Fellow, 1991).
Institute for Advanced Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Head of the Research Group (with Prof. Michel Abitbol): The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Its Consequences (Fellow, 1991/2).
Ecole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris (Associated Director of Research, February, 1992).
Wolfson College, Oxford University (Visiting Scholar, 1996/7).
University College London (Goldsmid Visiting Professor, 1996/7).
Institute for Advanced Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Head of the Research Group (with Prof. Michael Heyd): History of Emotions (Fellow, 1998).
École Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Sorbonne, Paris (Associated Director of Research, 1999).
Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, Penn University, Philadelphia (Visiting Scholar, January-February 2000).
All Souls College, Oxford University (Visiting Fellow, 2000/1).
Member of the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (2007-8).
Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, Penn University, Philadelphia
(Visiting Scholar, January-February 2011).
Scholion – Interdisciplinary Research Center in the Humanities and Jewish Studies,
the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Member of the Research Group: Eros, Family and Community,
(since October 2011).
Visiting Professor at the Department of Jewish Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University (April 2013).
APPOINTMENTS AT THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM
Director of the Four Year Program at the Rothberg International School, The Hebrew University (1978-1986).
Chairman of the Department of Jewish History (1988-90).
Chairman of Graduate Studies for the Faculty of Humanities (1993-96).
Director of the School of History (2001-4).
Academic Director of the Institute for Research on Dutch Jewry (1985-2012).
FUNCTIONS AND APPOINTMENTS AT ISRAELI ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS
Chairman of the Historical Society of Israel (1992-2000).
Member of the Board of Directors of the Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History (since 1993).
Chairman of the Directive Board of the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (1996-2004).
Since 2001 Chairman of the International Association of Historical Societies for the Study of Jewish History.
President of the World Association for Jewish Studies (2009-2013).
Since 2013 Chairperson of the Humanities Division at the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities
SCIENTIFIC EDITORSHIP
Editor of Tarbiz, a Quarterly for Jewish Studies, The Mandel Institute for Jewish Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1992-96).
Chair of the editorial board of Zion, A Quarterly for Research in Jewish History,
The Historical Society of Israel, Jerusalem (since 1993).
Editor of Zion, A Quarterly for Research in Jewish History, The Historical Society of Israel, Jerusalem (1997-2005).
Member of the Editorial Board of Pe'amim (since 1987).
Advisory editor of Brill's Series in Jewish History (since 1991).
Member of the Scientific Committee of the Series: Studi e Testi per la Storia della Tolleranza in Europa nei Secoli XVI-XVII, Universita degli studi di Firenze (since 1997).
Member of the Advisory Board of Studia Rosenthaliana, Amsterdam (since 1998).
Member of the Editorial Board of Historia, Journal of the Historical Society of Israel, Jerusalem (since 1999).
Member of the Advisory Board of Zutot; Perspectives in Jewish Culture, Dordrecht, The Netherlands (since 2002).
Member of the Editorial Board of Jahrbuch des Simon Dubnow Instituts, Leipzig (since 2002).
Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Menachem Stern Jerusalem Lectures.
Member of the Editorial Board of Sefarad, Instituto Arias Montano, Madrid, Spain (since January 2006).
Member of the Editorial Board of Jewish History (since November 2011).
Member of the Editorial Board of Zmanim, A Historical Quarterly (since October 2013).
SUPERVISION OF GRADUATE STUDENTS
MA Students
Nurit Arnon; Brigitte Gurevitch; Francisco Moreno Carvalho; Ilan Shuval; Briana Preminguer; Daniel Strum;
Tali Berner; Sarah Wolf; Limor Mintz-Manor; Bat-Ami Tor; Daniel Jonas; Benny Bar-Lavi (in preparation);
PhD. Students
Pinhas Bibelnik; Matt Goldish (with Prof. Michael Heyd); Avriel Bar Levav (with Prof. Zeev Griss
and Prof. Moshe Idel); Tirtsah Levi-Bernfeld; Eli Freiman (with Prof. Israel Yuval); Daniel Strum;
Yocheved Beeri; Tali Berner; Shalevet Dotan-Ofir (with Prof. Chava Turnianski);
Limor Mintz-Manor (with Prof. Ilana Parnes); Aliza Moreno-Goldsmidt;
Ana Lima (University of Lisbon, in preparation).
PRIZES, AWARDS AND HONORS
Warburg Scholarship, Institute of Jewish Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1973-75).
Alon Scholarship, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1979-1982).
Wiznitzer Prize (1983).
Ben Zvi Prize (2003).
Since July 2004 Fellow of the Israel Academy for Sciences and Humanities.
In 2012 he was awarded an ERC (European Research Council) Advanced Grant for his project:
Religious and Cultural Changes in the Western Sephardi Diaspora in the Early Modern Period.
Israel Prize on Jewish History (2013).
Huesped de Honor de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires (2013).