Ben-Oren Gershon

Gershon Ben-Oren (Tsitsuashvili) (b. June 13, 1939, Tbilisi) is a Jewish Orientalist and Semitologist.

He graduated from the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Tbilisi State University (1963). In 1972, he moved to Israel. He began working at the Ben-Zvi Institute in Jerusalem, which studies issues related to the Jewish diaspora. He currently works at the Haberman Institute for Literary Research (Lod). His research focuses on the language, literature, and history of Georgian Jews.

Ben-Oren's extensive article "The History of the Jews of Georgia Until the Communist Regime" (in English) was published in the book “In the Land of the Golden Fleece” (Tel Aviv, 1992).

He conducted a notable studies on the spoken language of Georgian Jews, and he also authored the Hebrew-Georgian and Georgian-Hebrew Encyclopedic Dictionary. In terms of Georgian-Jewish cultural and historical relations, the Georgian translation of the Hebrew Bible is particularly significant. He completed this translation of the Torah (Pentateuch) along with T. Kezerashvili and A. Mamistvalovani. It was published in Tel Aviv in 1988–89. For this translation, they were awarded the I. Machabeli Prize in 1994.

Literary works: The History of the Jews of Georgia Until the Communist Regime, წგ.: In the Land of the Golden Fleece, Tel-Aviv, 1992.

Literature: წ ე რ ე თ ე ლ ი  კ., ებრაული ბიბლიის ახალი ქართული თარგმანი, გაზ. «ლიტერატურული საქართველო». 1991 წ. 1 ნოემბ.

K. Tsereteli