yehuda liebes was born in jerusalem in 1947. his father, (1910–1988), a noted hebrew translator of classic literature, left his native germany at the age of 18 to study at the hebrew university of jerusalem. he returned to his homeland to continue his education, but was expelled from his university due to the nuremberg laws. he then undertook agricultural training in latvia with a zionist movement. there he married his first wife, with whom he settled in pardes hanna in mandatory palestine and had two daughters before they divorced. in 1941 liebes married his second wife, mira, a native of riga who had grown up in berlin. they had two children, a daughter (tamar, today head of the department of communications at hebrew university) and a son (yehuda). on his mother's side, yehuda was a cousin of israeli intellectual yeshayahu leibowitz.