Yaron Tsur (; born June 19, 1948), an historian of the Jews in the Muslim lands in the modern era, is amongst the founders of the Open University of Israel, a professor in the department of Jewish history at Tel Aviv University and a former chairperson of its graduate school of Jewish studies. He is a pioneer in the field of Digital Humanities in Israel and the founder of the "Historical jewish press" website. Yaron Tsur was born in Jerusalem to a German-Jewish father and to a mother of Yemenite extraction. During his childhood and youth in Jerusalem, he sojourned with his parents in the home of his Yemenite grandfather in the Nahlat Ahim neighborhood, on the border of the more established and well known Rehavia neighborhood. Subsequently, Tsur would reflect in the introduction to his Torn Community on how this unique residential setting would mold both his sense of ethnic belonging as an Ashkenazi-Mizrahi hybrid as well as his professional path as a historian. As a youth Tsur studied music at the Jerusalem Conservatory and took up further studies in the field as Rubin Musical academy. During his mandatory military service Tsur served as an intelligence officer and reached the rank of major in the reserves. After he completed his service in the Israel Defense Forces Tsur found employment as a skit writer for the youth department of the Kol Yisrael ('Voice of Israel') radio station. Politically active as well, he was a central figure and organizer in the Peace Now. Tsur completed his three academic degrees at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He master's thesis dealt with a series of anti-Jewish disturbances that took place on Tunisian soil at the close of World War I. Subsequently, he devoted his doctoral dissertation to the Jewish minority in Tunisia during the transformative era from independent Muslim rule to French colonial occupation. Tsur is married to Nadine Kuperty-Tsur, an associate professor of French literature at Tel Aviv University, and the father of two sons, Daniel and Itamar, both from a previous marriage. The Open University In 1975 Tsur began a long lasting association with the Open University of Israel. Initially he co-designed 'From Jerusalem to Yavneh', the first course in the field of Jewish history to appear under the auspices of this unique and brand new institution. Subsequently, he chaired the academic team that produced 'Jews in a period of transformations',