First Jewish Recipient of the Wolf Prize in Mathematics

Mathematician Izrail M. Gelfand was among the inaugural Wolf Prize in Mathematics laureates in 1978. He shared the first mathematics award with Carl Ludwig Siegel. The first Wolf Prize presentation ceremony was scheduled for 10 April 1978 at the Knesset in Jerusalem; the American Mathematical Society's contemporary August 1978 report explicitly dates the award to 10 April and confirms the Knesset ceremony. Gelfand did not attend in person. A Jewish Telegraphic Agency report dated 12 April 1978 describes the ceremony as occurring “last night,” implying 11 April; this one-day discrepancy is retained as an editorial source note rather than hidden. For the canonical achievement date, JWR uses 10 April 1978 on the weight of the contemporary American Mathematical Society account and the pre-event announcement specifying 10 April. The Wolf Foundation's official winner list independently confirms Gelfand and Siegel as the inaugural 1978 mathematics co-laureates. Gelfand is the Jewish holder of this first-recipient record; the prize itself was shared, but Siegel is not included as a Jewish record holder. Sources: American Mathematical Society, Notices, August 1978, p. 332 (https://www.ams.org/journals/notices/197808/197808FullIssue.pdf); Jewish Telegraphic Agency, “Wolf Prizes Announced,” 23 February 1978 (https://www.jta.org/archive/wolf-prizes-announced); JTA, “Flap over Wolf Prize Winners,” 12 April 1978 (https://www.jta.org/archive/flap-over-wolf-prize-winners); Wolf Foundation laureate list (https://wolffund.org.il/izrali-m-gelfand/).