Ruth Lapide


Ruth Lapide, Franconia, Germany, is a theologian and historian who is foremost among German language scholars that endeavor to facilitate and improve understanding between Jews and Christians, to a degree also with Muslims. An important part of her work deals with biblical mistranslations and with the Jewish roots of Christianity. She worked in this endeavor with her husband Pinchas Lapide until his death in 1997, after which she began a writing career while teaching at the Evangelischen Fachhochschule in Nuremberg. She is widely known from numerous television interviews about biblical topics broadcast by Bavarian Broadcasting and Bibel TV.

Life

Ruth Lapide studied political science, history and Judaic studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She specialized in the evolution of Christianity as a Jewish-rooted religion and became full professor. Since her return to Germany, she has been putting much effort into helping to facilitate dialog and reconciliation between Jews and Christians, between Germany and the State of Israel. In this she and her Austrian-born husband worked as partners until his death.
Ruth Lapide has been living in Frankfurt am Main since the mid-1970s.

Honors

In 2000, Ruth Lapide was awarded Germany’s most prestigious medal, the Bundesverdienstkreuz, and on April 11, 2003, she received the Hessischen Verdienstorden am Bande, the most prestigious medal of the German state of Hesse. In 2007 she received an honorary professorate and in 2008 received an honorary doctorate at the Protestant Augustana-Hochschule in Neuendettelsau, Central Franconia, Bavaria.

Publications