Isaiah Shachar

Yeshayahu Stengel (later Shacher) studied European and Jewish history at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His master thesis in 1963 was entitled Criticism of the Jewish community and Its Leadership in the Hasidic and Non-Hasidic Literature of Eighteenth century Poland—A Comparative Study (in Hebrew). 1964-66

Shachar was junior research fellow at the Warburg Institute (University of London) where he worked on a doctoral dissertation under the supervision of professor E. H. Gombrich (finished 1967). It was published in his main work: The Judensau: A Medieval Anti-Jewish Motif and Its History, Warburg Institute Surveys, 5 (London, 1974). He also edited the catalogue of the Feuchtwanger Collection of Judaica at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem (Jerusalem, 1981), and published miscellaneous monographs, including one establishing the authenticity of the personal seal of Nachmanides (found in a field in Israel). His interests included the early history of Hasidism; Jewish iconography and portraiture, and Jewish/Hebrew bibliography. His personal library was auctioned at Sotheby's (1980).

He held teaching posts at Hebrew University and University College, London, and at the Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies.

A memorial volume commemorating the life and works of Shachar was edited by Clare Moore in 1993: The Visual Dimension: Aspects of Jewish Art (Westview Press, 1993).