Israel Prize winner in serious condition following hit-and-run in Jerusalem

Internationally celebrated mathematician David Kazhdan was riding bicycle with son when truck struck him, fled scene.

By DANIEL K. EISENBUD
MDA on the scene 370 (photo credit: Courtesy MDA)
MDA on the scene 370
(photo credit: Courtesy MDA)
Internationally recognized mathematician and Israel Prize laureate David Kazhdan remains hospitalized in serious condition at an area hospital after being struck by a truck while riding his bicycle in the capital Sunday morning.
At the time of the accident, Kazhdan was biking with his son from Beit Shemesh, police said. The driver of the truck fled the scene and has yet to be identified.
Kazhdan was rushed by ambulance to Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem where he remains in serious condition, a hospital spokesperson said Monday.
According to Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld authorities are actively searching for the driver to determine his culpability in the incident.
“The Traffic Department of Jerusalem is looking into the incident to determine if it was an accident or otherwise,” said Rosenfeld Monday.
Kazhdan’s son, Eli, told an area news organization that he was riding in front of his father when the accident occurred and did not see what transpired.
“I heard the crash, and when I looked back I saw my father lying on the ground,” he said. “I didn’t manage to see the truck because my focus was on my dad.”
Kazhdan was born in Moscow in 1946 and moved to the United States in the mid-70s. He made aliya in 2002, and has since resided in Jerusalem with his wife and three children.
In 2012 he was awarded the Israel Prize, Israel’s highest honor, for mathematics and computer science for his contributions to group theory.
Kazhdan was described by the award’s committee as “one of the world’s leading mathematicians in recent decades.”
He currently works as a professor of mathematics at Hebrew University, and is a professor emeritus at Harvard and member of the National Academy of Sciences.