Joseph Ginat
Joseph Ginat (, March 6, 1936 – 2009) was an Israeli anthropologist, author, political advisor, and soldier. Biography. Joseph Ginat was a Sabra, a Jew born in Atarot settlement north to Jerusalem before Israel was created on May 14, 1948. Ginat's grandfather, a Levite, came to live in the Promised Land and to be buried in what he considered to be sacred soil. Military service. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, at twelve-years-old, Ginat was given a World War I rifle and told to defend the east entry of a small Jewish village north of Jerusalem. He  parachuted into the Sinai Peninsula with the Paratroopers Brigade during the Suez Crisis. Ginat fought in the battle of Jerusalem during the Six-Day War in 1967 and served as an aide-de-camp to General Moshe Dayan and a recognizant for the tank brigade. Education and academic career. Ginat received his Bachelor of Arts in anthropology from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1964 and his Master of Arts from Tel Aviv University in anthropology in 1970. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Utah's Department of Anthropology in 1975 submitting a dissertation entitled "A Rural Arab  Community in Israel: Marriage Patterns and Woman's Status." Ginat was an instructor at the University of Haifa from 1974 to 1975, lecturer from 1976 to 1981, senior lecturer from 1982 to 1987, and associate Professor from 1988 to 1996. He was made full Professor at The University of Haifa in 1996. He served as a visiting professor at numerous other universities: Work with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Ginat was influential in Mormon history, and developed personal relationships with several LDS Church presidents. Ginat learned from Ezra Taft Benson that one of the earliest LDS  apostles, Orson Hyde, had traveled from synagogue to synagogue in Europe trying to convince Jews to return to Jerusalem, and had dedicated the holy land for their return in 1841. Because this predated Theodor Hertzl, who is widely credited as being the father of modern Zionism, Ginat saw Hyde as having been the first Zionist, and went to great lengths to honor him as such. Ginat was instrumental in the construction of an Orson Hyde Memorial Garden on the Mount of Olives. There is also an Orson Hyde Square located at Netanya Academic College, north of Tel Aviv, where Ginat  served as college vice-president.