Zehava Jacoby (Hebrew:זהבה יעקובי; néeSophia Feigenbaum; 24 January 1940 – December 1999) was an Israeli art historian who specialized inCrusader art.
Jacoby was born in Lwów, Poland (nowLviv, Ukraine). Her father, Yosef Feigenbaum, was killed inthe Holocaust; her mother, Ella (née Fabian), survived by escaping a train that was taking her to anextermination camp and joined thePolish resistance. During this time Jacoby, baptized and renamed Barbara,lived hidden in the home of a Polish woman. After the war, she was reunited with her mother; from 1945 to 1949, they wandered through Poland, Germany, Italy, and South America. In 1949, theysettled in Israel, but the mother died the same year.[1]
In 1964, Jacoby earned abachelor's degree inEnglish literature andHebrew literature at theHebrew University. She started teaching in theart history department of theUniversity of Haifa in 1970, gained amaster's degree in art history in 1972, and became a senior lecturer in 1973. In 1976, Jacoby received adoctorate from the Hebrew University. From 1978 until 1982, she headed the University of Haifa's art department. Her specialty was theRomanesque andCrusader sculpture, and she devoted most of her time to the sculptures in Israel.[1] Using an 18th-century drawing byElzear Horn, Jacoby was able to suggest a reconstruction of thetomb of KingBaldwin V of Jerusalem, which had been destroyed in 1808.[2]
Jacoby was married to historianDavid Jacoby [he], with whom she had two daughters. She died suddenly in December 1999. Her life's work, an 800-photograph inventory of the remains of Crusader sculpture in Israel, was left unfinished. Her family donated the fruit of her research, a collection of photographs of Crusader sculpture in Israel, to theYounes and Soraya Nazarian Library, which preserved it and made it accessible to the public.[1]
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