Israelis You Should Know: Hugo Bergmann

The Fellowship  |  February 12, 2016

Name: Hugo Bergmann

Life: December 25, 1883 – June 18, 1975

Known for: Hugo Bergmann was an Israeli philosopher.

About him: Born and raised in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Hugo Bergmann became a member of Prague’s intelligentsia. But despite his life as a European thinker and his close friendship to the writer Franz Kafka, Bergmann’s Jewish heritage called him to the Holy Land.

With his wife Else, Bergmann made aliyah to British-mandate Palestine in 1920. In Israel, Bergmann was close friends with such Jewish writers and philosophers as Martin Buber, Felix Weltsh, and Max Brod. He served as professor and dean of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and wrote on both philosophy and quantum mechanics. Before his death, Hugo Bergmann was twice awarded the Israel Prize, in 1954 and 1974, for his contributions to the humanities, to the state of Israel, and to society on the whole.