Emanuel Tov

Emanuel Tov FBA (Hebrew: עמנואל טוב; born Menno Toff, 15 September 1941) is a Dutch–Israeli biblical scholar and linguist, emeritus J. L. Magnes Professor of Bible Studies in the Department of Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has been intimately involved with the Dead Sea Scrolls for many decades, and from 1991, he was appointed Editor-in-Chief of the Dead Sea Scrolls Publication Project.

Emanuel Tov was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands on 15 September 1941, during the Nazi German occupation. During the Holocaust, when Tov was one year old, his parents Juda (Jo) Toff and Toos Neeter were deported to concentration camps, and they entrusted him to the care of a Christian family, and following the war he grew up with his uncle Juda Koekoek and aunt Elisabeth Koekoek-Toff as one of their children.

From age 14, he was active in Habonim Dror, a Labour Zionist youth movement, and served as one of its leaders. At age 18, the movement motivated him to go to Israel for training as a leader and in 1960 he became the general secretary of that movement in the Netherlands. In 1961, he immigrated to Israel.

Emanuel Tov is married to Lika (née Aa). Tov and Lika have three children (a daughter Ophira, and two sons, Ariel and Amitai) and four granddaughters.

Tov studied at Boerhaaveschool and then at Kohnstamm School, in South Amsterdam. At the age of 12, Tov started studying Latin and Greek language at the Spinoza Lyceum, where he met his future wife Lika Aa. At the age of 18, he finished his studies at a gymnasium, where he learned classical and modern European languages, and at the same time learned Hebrew at a Talmud Torah from his Bar Mitzvah.

Tov spent a year in Israel (from 1959 to 1960) at Machon L'Madrichei Chutz La'Aretz, studying for leadership in the youth movement Habonim. He sang in the choir and learned to play the flute. Tov then returned to the Netherlands.

In October 1961, Tov decided to return to Israel to study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1964 he completed his B.A. in Bible and Greek literature, and in 1967 he received his M.A. in Hebrew Bible, while serving also as an assistant in the Bible Dept. and at the Hebrew University Bible Project. In 1967–1969, he continued his studies at the Dept. for Near Eastern Studies and Languages at Harvard University. His dissertation, written under the guidance of Professors Shemaryahu Talmon of the Hebrew University and Frank Moore Cross of Harvard University, was submitted to the Hebrew University in 1973 as "The Septuagint Translation of Jeremiah and Baruch" (summa cum laude), earned him a PhD from the Hebrew University.

Upon his return to Israel, he worked as an assistant at the University of Haifa and at the Hebrew University.