Gerhard Scholem who, after his immigration from Germany to
Israel, changed his name to
Gershom Scholem (
Hebrew: גרשם שלום) (December 5, 1897 – February 21, 1982), was a German-born Israeli philosopher and historian. He is widely regarded as the founder of the modern, academic study of
Kabbalah, becoming the first Professor of
Jewish Mysticism at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His close friends included
Walter Benjamin and
Leo Strauss, and selected letters from his correspondence with those philosophers have been published.