he Academy committee has announced that Prof. Avishai Bar-Asher is the recipient of the 2026 Gershom Scholem Prize for Kabbalah Research, awarded by the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Prof. Bar-Asher will receive the prize at a formal ceremony to be held at the Academy in December 2026.

Prof. Bar-Asher, a scholar of Kabbalah at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was commended by the committee for the broad scope of his research and for the critical and independent thinking that characterizes his work.

The prize, in the amount of 45,000 NIS, is awarded once every four years to an outstanding scholar in the field of Kabbalah. Previous recipients of the Scholem Prize are the late Prof. Isaiah Tishby, Prof. Moshe Idel, Prof. Yehuda Liebes, Prof. Rachel Elior, Prof. Daniel Abrams, Prof. Jonathan Garb, Prof. Haviva Pedaya, and Prof. Ronit Meroz.