Professor Avraham Shapira is professor emeritus of Jewish Philosophy and Jewish History at Tel Aviv University. He is a member of Kibbutz Izrael. He studied Philosophy and Jewish studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He established and edited the quarterly "Shdemot" and formed a bridge between the masters of Jewish studies in Jerusalem - Martin Buber, Shmuel Hugo Bergman, Gershom Shalom, Akiva Ernest Simon, Nathan Rotenstreich and others – and the Kibbutz movement, particularly its second generation.
In 1967 he initiated with the writer Amos Oz the volume "Si-ach Lochamim" (Fighters Discourse) and was its editor. Over the years he initiated various projects related to "The Jewish Bookshelf". He collected and edited ten volumes of Gershom Shalom writings after Shalom passed away.
He was awarded the Avi-Chai Prize for promoting the dialogue between religious and secular sectors in Israel, and recently received an honorary doctorate from HUC in Jerusalem.