Ruth Kark


Ruth Kark is an Israeli scholar and Professor of Geography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Biography

Ruth Kleiner was born in Herzliya. She completed her B.A. at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1964. She was awarded an MA in 1972 and earned her doctorate in 1977. Her PhD thesis was on The Development of the Cities Jerusalem and Jaffa from 1840 up to the First World War.
Kark was married to Jeremy David Kark, with whom she had three children.

Academic career

Kark has written and edited more than 20 books and over 250 peer-reviewed articles on the history and historical geography of Palestine and Israel. Kark is noted for her work on settlement in the Land of Israel in the 19th-century and Western influences on the Holy Land. More recently, she has written about women and land ownership in traditional and modern cultures. Kark is often brought into court hearings in Israel as an expert on land disputes.

Published works

Books

In 2009, Kark and co-author Joseph Glass won an award for their research on the development of banking in Ottoman Palestine.
In 2013, Kark was awarded the Yakir Yerushalayim prize for her contributions to the city of Jerusalem.