Yehuda Kiel

picture of Yehuda Kiel  

Yehuda Kiel was an Israel Prize recipient (1992), who was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia in 1916. His family moved to Lithuania and later to Latvia after the Russian Revolution. 

Kiel moved to British Mandate Palestine in 1936 and studied Knowledge of the Land of Israel, history, sociology and psychology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He was the National Executive secretary of Bnei Akiva and involved in the student union of the university. He graduated and began teaching at Kfar HaRoeh in 1940 along with his future wife, Tamar.The couple married in 1941.

Yehuda Kiel headed the religious education department in the Ministry of Education from 1967 to 1977. He is probably best known for heading the Da'at Mikra project, which combines modern scientific research and traditional biblical exergesis.

Kiel passed away on 16 June 2011.