Benzion Netanyahu
Israeli encyclopedist and historian (1910–2012)
Benzion Netanyahu (né Mileikowsky; March 25, 1910 – April 30, 2012) was a Polish-born Israeli encyclopedist, historian, and medievalist. Born in Warsaw, he served as a professor of history at Cornell University. A scholar of Judaic history, he was also an activist in the Revisionist Zionism movement, who lobbied in the United States to support the creation of the Jewish state. His field of expertise was the history of the Jews in Spain. He was an editor of the Hebrew Encyclopedia and assistant to Benjamin Azkin, Ze'ev Jabotinsky's personal secretary.
Netanyahu was the father of current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; Yonatan Netanyahu, ex-commander of Sayeret Matkal; and Iddo Netanyahu, a physician, author, and playwright.
Biography
Benzion Mileikowsky (later Netanyahu) was born in Warsaw in partitioned Poland, which was under Russian control, to Sarah (Lurie) and writer and Zionist activist Nathan Mileikowsky. Nathan was a rabbi who toured Europe and the United States, making speeches supporting Zionism. In 1920 the Mileikowsky family immigrated to Mandatory Palestine. After living in Jaffa, Tel Aviv, and Safed, the family settled in Jerusalem.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Benzion Netanyahu” as israeli encyclopedist and historian (1910–2012). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q818507. VIAF identifies the subject as 114553377. The Library of Congress control number is n50076483. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1910, 2012 and 1920.
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This entry incorporates text from “Benzion Netanyahu” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.