Last update - 00:00 05/12/2006
Prof. Ravitzki regains consciousness after serious head injury
By Rali Sa'ar, Tamara Traubman and Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondents
Prominent scholar in Jewish thought Professor Aviezer Ravitzki regained his consciousness in the past few days, after becoming comatose in October this year.
Ravitzki was hit in his head by a bus when he crossed a street near the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem over a month ago.
Doctors at the Loewenstein Hospital Rehabilitation Center in Ranana, where Ravitzki is treated, have confirmed that the professor's condition has improved dramatically and that he began responding to his surrounding.
Head of the Intensive Care Unit at the hospital, Dr. Ben Zion Krimnechky, said that Ravitzki may be moved to rehabilitation in the next few days.
Ravitzki heads the Department of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem and is a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. He became Israel Prize laureate in 2001 for his contribution to research in Jewish thought.
Ravitzki, born in 1945 in Jerusalem, is a prominent figure in academia and the public arena.