Gitler, Haim
Born in Mexico in 1962, Dr Haim Gitler immigrated to Israel in 1974.He received his BA and MA in Archaeology from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and was awarded a PhD from Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland in 2011.
Professional Background
Haim joined the staff of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, in 1987, becoming Curator of Numismatics in 1994. In this capacity, he oversaw the renewal of the permanent galleries of Numismatics in 1994 and 2010, as well as curating numerous temporary exhibitions of numismatics.
In 2013, in addition to being Curator of Numismatics, Dr Gitler was appointed the Tamar and Teddy Kollek Chief Curator of Archaeology at the Israel Museum, with overall responsibility for the management of the Museum’s Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Archeology Wing, as well as the Shrine of the Book, which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the off-site Rockefeller Archaeological Museum.
Haim taught Numismatics at the Rehovot campus of the Hebrew University from 1996 through 1998, and at Tel Aviv University from 2010 through 2014.
From 2005 through 2016, he served as President of the Israel Numismatic Society (INS), founding its prestigious journal Israel Numismatic Research in 2006. He was previously Associate Editor of the Israel Numismatic Journal.
In 2018, Haim was reelected President of the INS, a position he still holds.
He has also served as a member of the Bank of Israel’s Committee for Planning Coins, Banknotes, and Commemorative Issues.
In 2022, Haim was elected to be one of the nine members of the Committee of the International Numismatic Council and was appointed Secretary of the committee. He is the first Israeli scholar elected as a member of the INC Committee.
Haim has been a member of archaeological expeditions in Israel and Jordan. In Israel, he has published numerous articles on the numismatic findings from the excavations of the Jewish Quarter, Jerusalem; Ashkelon; the Ancient Boat in the Sea of Galilee; Har Adar and Khirbet el-‘Aqd. He has also presented papers on excavations in Jordan conducted by Father Michele Piccirillo of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum: Mount Nebo (The Coins, in M. Piccirillo and E. Alliata eds., Mount Nebo, New Archeological Excavations 1967–1997, Jerusalem 1998, pp. 550–567; Umm al–Rasas (Le Monete, in M. Piccirillo and E. Alliata, eds., Umm al–Rasas – Mayfa’ah I, Gli scavi del complesso di Santo Stefano, Jerusalem 1994, pp. 318–320) and Madaba (The Coins, in A. Acconci and E. Gabrieli, Scavo del cortile Bajali a Madaba, Liber Annuus 44, 1994, pp. 515–517); and the excavations at Az-Zantūr in Petra, conducted by Prof. Bernhard Kolb of Basel University (A Group of 120 Clay Bullae from Petra with Titles of the City, Numismatic Chronicle 165, 2005, pp. 183–192).
Concurrent with his various roles, Gitler is a photographer. In 1986 he was accepted as a member of the Association for the Promotion of the Art of Photography, which is affiliated with the Fédération Internationale de l’Art Photographique (FIAP). His photographs have been shown in three solo exhibitions in Israel: at the Jerusalem Theater, the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot and the Photography Club in Tel Aviv. In 1986, his photographs were selected for an international show on behalf of “FIAP”, exhibited in Italy and the Soviet Union.
Areas of Scholarship and Publications
Haim’s main areas of specialization include the coinages of Persian Late Period Palestine: Philistia, Samaria, Judah and Edom. He has published more than 100 articles on Electrum, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, Crusader, and Modern coinages. Other topics on which he has written extensively include papers on metallurgical analyses of coins and jewelry; Hacksilber hoards; Roman and Islamic coin dies; clay bullae from the excavations in Petra; Byzantine and Islamic weights; Crusader lead seals; magical amulets; and museology. He has collaborated with more than 45 scholars worldwide on these publications.
