Levi Billig

Levi (Lewis) Billig (; 1897 – 22 August 1936) was an Anglo-Jewish orientalist and scholar of Arabic. One of the pioneers of Arabic education in the Yishuv in Mandatory Palestine, Billig co-edited the first Arabic textbook for Hebrew-speaking students and was the first lecturer in Arabic language and literature at Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Billig was murdered in 1936 by an Arab assassin in his home in the early months of the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine.

Early life Billig was born in London, England, in 1897. He earned two master's degrees, in classics from London University in 1920 and in Oriental Studies from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1925. At Cambridge, his professors included Edward Granville Browne, Anthony Ashley Bevan, and Reynold A. Nicholson. He also studied at Jews' College London.

Academic career In 1926, Hebrew University administrator Judah L. Magnes appointed German scholar Josef Horovitz as the inaugural Visiting Director of the university's School of Oriental Studies. Billig was appointed the first lecturer in Arabic Language and Literature and oversaw the new department's research work. Billig was the only one of the eight founders of the School of Oriental Studies not to graduate from a German university. Billig was one of three Jews killed by Arabs on 22 August, and one of 73 Jews killed since the beginning of the Arab revolt. Hebrew University closed on 23 August in mourning over Billig's murder. Shelomo Dov Goitein dedicated his Hebrew version of Genealogies of the Nobles by 9th century Muslim historian Al-Baladhuri, published in 1938, to Billig.

Billig's death was linked with that of Avinoam Yellin, a frequent Billig collaborator and the son of David Yellin, who was killed in October 1937 during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. Both men had dedicated their lives to the study of and friendship with Arabs. Their deaths marked the symbolic death of the Arabic Reader and signaled a change in Arabic studies for Jewish schools in Palestine, from a grammarian approach to one more practical.