Brigadier General Yitzchak Kraus

Rabbi Prof. Yitzhak Kraus Professor at the Midrasha, branch of The Ludwig and Erica Jesselson Institute for Advanced Torah Studies in Bar-Ilan University. In the last four years he was the President of Herzog Academic College (2010-2014). Until 2010 he was the head of the Midrasha for Women, at where He served as Deputy-Head of the Midrasha since 1994. He was the head of the Jewish Thought Program at Orot College in Elkana, and previously lectured in Bar-Ilan’s Basic Jewish Studies program.

Rabbi Prof. Kraus obtained his Ph.D. degree in philosophy from Bar-Ilan University. He also holds Semicha (rabbinical ordination) after studying in Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavne (in the framework of the Hesder program) and Ateret Kohanim for twelve years. Rabbi Prof. Kraus served as rabbi of community in Givahat Shmuel.

Rabbi Prof. Kraus is the author of the book "The Seventh – Messianism in the Last Generation of Habad" (2009) He organized a conference on the “Habad movement in the 20th Century” at Bar-Ilan University in January 2002, and has co-edited a book on that subject. His book about Habad movement in the 20th century will appear soon. He has also published scholarly articles on the radical doctrine of the Satmar Hasidim, and on the theological response to the Balfour Declaration.