Zellig Harris - Biography

Biography

Harris was born on October 23, 1909 in Balta, Russian Empire. In 1913 when he was four years old his family immigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At age 13, at his request, he was sent to live in Palestine, where he worked to support himself, and throughout his life, he returned frequently to live on a socialist kibbutz in Israel. His brother was Dr. Tzvi N. Harris, who with his wife Shoshana played a pivotal role in the understanding of the immune system and the development of modern immunology. His sister, Anna H. Live, was Director of the English Institute (for ESL students) at the University of Pennsylvania (now named the English Language Program). In 1941, he married the physicist Bruria Kaufman, who was Einstein's assistant in the 1950s at Princeton. In the 1960s the couple established residence in Israel and lived in kibbutz Mishmar Ha'Emek, and adopted their daughter, Tamar. From 1949 until his death, Harris maintained a close relationship with Naomi Sager, director of the Linguistic String Project at New York University. Their daughter, Eva Harris, is a professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of California, Berkeley, and the President of the non-profit organization Sustainable Sciences Institute. Harris died in his sleep after a routine working day at the age of 82 on May 22, 1992, in New York.