Emanuel Tov
Emanuel Tov, (עמנואל טוב; born September 15, 1941, Amsterdam, the Netherlands as Menno Toff) is a Dutch–Israeli biblical scholar and linguist, emeritus J. L. Magnes Professor of Bible Studies in the Department of Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has been intimately involved with the Dead Sea Scrolls for many decades, and from 1991, he was appointed Editor-in-Chief of the Dead Sea Scrolls Publication Project. Emanuel Tov was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands on September 15, 1941, during the Nazi German occupation. During the Holocaust, when Tov was one year old, his parents Juda (Jo) Toff and Toos Neeter were deported to concentration camps, and they entrusted him to the care of a Christian family, and following the war he grew up with his uncle Juda Koekoek and aunt Elisabeth Koekoek-Toff as one of their children. From age 14, he was active in the Zionistic youth movement Habonim and served as one of its leaders. At age 18, the movement motivated him to go to Israel for training as a leader and in 1960 he became the general secretary of that movement in the Netherlands. In 1961, he immigrated to Israel. Emanuel Tov is married to Lika (née Aa). Tov and Lika have three children (a daughter Ophira, and two sons, Ariel and Amitai) and four granddaughters. Tov earned his primary studies at Boerhaaveschool and continued at Kohnstamm School, in South Amsterdam. At the age of 12, Tov started studying Latin and Greek language at Spinoza Lyceum, where he knew his future wife Lika Aa. At the age of 18, he finished his studies at a "gymnasium", where he learned classical and modern European languages, and at the same time learned Hebrew at Talmud Torah from his Bar Mitzvah. Tov spent a year in Israel (from 1959 to 1960) at Machon L'Madrichei Chutz La'Aretz, studying for leadership in the youth movement Habonim. He sang in the choir and learned to play the flute. Tov then returns to the Netherlands. Tov decides to return to study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in October 1961. In 1964 he completed B.A.
