Joseph Ben-David, 1920-1986

THE PRESENT ISSUE of Minerva is intended to commemorate Joseph Ben-David who died on 12 January, 1986. He was one of its most esteemed contributors and a member of its editorial advisory board almost from the beginning.

Joseph Ben-David was born in 1920 in Gyor, Hungary. He completed his secondary education at a Gymnasium in his native town while concurrently, and intermittently, pursuing Jewish religious studies. His first interest lay in chemistry and he became an apprentice as a dyer in a textile factory owned by a kinsman; he left this to become an apprentice in his father's printing and publishing works. Both of these brief experiences of science and technology foreshadowed his later interest in the academic study of these subjects.

In 1939, it was decided that he should leave Hungary for Palestine. He received a visa for entry into Palestine in 1941 and very shortly after his arrival there matriculated at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He intended at first to study chemistry, but he could not afford either the fees or the time, since he had to support himself by paid employment while studying. After his first semester, he became a member of a quasi-military police force, attached to the British army with special duties in the event that the German army reached Palestine. He was released from military service at the end of 1944 and once more entered the university. This time he studied history. He took his first degree in 1946, being awarded the Bialik prize in that subject. He then found employment as a social worker, concentrating his efforts on juvenile delinquents in the Old City of Jerusalem.

In 1947, Joseph Ben-David came to the London School of Economics on a scholarship from the mandatory government. Although the scholarship was intended for the study of social administration, he also studied sociology. He had made his first acquaintance with this subject at the Hebrew University where it was taught by Martin Buber. He spent two years in London and then returned to Jerusalem where he continued his sociological studies, receiving the MA in history and sociology in 1950 and the doctorate in 1955. On his return to Jerusalem, he was employed as a research worker in the Israeli Ministry of Social Welfare. He began to teach in the department of sociology at the Hebrew University in 1951 and he taught there until his death, rising steadily until he reached the rank of professor. His service at the Hebrew University was interrupted from time to time by visiting professorships at universities in North America; most notably at the University of California at Berkeley and at the University of Chicago where, in the last period of his life, he came regularly as a professor in the departments of sociology and education.

His entire academic life was devoted to the study of universities and of the institutional settings of advances in scientific knowledge. Fundamental

Joseph Ben-David, 1920-1986

Research and Universities 1 was his first work and it foreshadowed all that he wrote in the last decade and a half of his life. His second work, The Scientist's Role in Society: A Comparative View, 2 quickly came to be regarded as a classic in its field. American Higher Education: Directions Old and New 3 and Centers of Learning: Britain, France, Germany, United States 4 have also established themselves as works of sound learning and authoritative judgement. They, together with a posthumously forthcoming collection of his papers are a worthy inheritance.

Joseph Ben-David's intellectual interests coincided very closely with those of Minerva and it was in Minerva's pages that some of his most important writings appeared. It is fitting that his achievements should be remembered in this place.

E.S.

1 (Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 1968.) z (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1971; 2nd edn, with a new introduction, Chicago:

University of Chicago Press, 1984.) 3 (New York: McGraw Hill, 1972.) 4 (New York: McGraw Hill, 1977.)