One of the world’s most eminent authorities on Sephardic studies, Moshe Lazar began his life in Rumania in 1928, though his family moved to Antwerp, Belgium when he was still an infant. In 1940, the Lazar family was forced to flee to France when Nazi planes bombed Antwerp. The family was placed in a transit camp for three years as they awaited deportation to Auschwitz, but was finally able to escape with the help of the French Underground. Young Lazar was placed in a Catholic school where he memorized English and mathematics textbooks.

A few years later, Lazar was studying comparative literature at the Sorbonne and, while in Paris, shared an apartment with Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel. Another notable acquaintance of Lazar was Marcel Marceau, from whom he took pantomime lessons.

From Paris, Lazar’s travels took him to Israel in 1948 where he fought in the War of Independence as well as two subsequent Israeli wars in Sinai. In 1951, Lazar received his M.A. in French literature, romance philology, and history from Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Later while at the University of Salamanca in Spain, he became interested in Ladino, the language of Spanish Jews, and became a world authority in the subject as he saved and translated hundreds of manuscripts including a Jewish prayer book for women from the late 1400s.

A doctoral thesis on the literature of courtly love earned Lazar his Ph.D. from the Sorbonne in Paris. He then went on to become the first Dean of the School of Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Tel Aviv. Another achievement around the same time was becoming one of the founders of Israeli television in the 1960s.

By the late 1970s, Dr. Lazar had arrived in the United States, founding the comparative literature program at the University of Southern California. In addition to comparative literature, Lazar taught French, Italian, Spanish, Medieval drama, Medieval Jewish culture in Spain, and subjects pertaining to the post-expulsion Sephardic diaspora.

One of Lazar’s most noteworthy achievements began in the early 1980s when he learned that the ancient Jewish quarter in the city of Girona (near Barcelona) was in danger of being replaced by a shopping center. The area--referred to as The Call--was considered the birthplace of the Jewish Kabala and had been buried since the Spanish Inquisition and only recently become uncovered. Moshe Lazar rallied support to rescue the area and formed a corporation called American Friends of Girona’s Call. For his efforts, he was awarded the Orden del Mérito Civil by the consul general of Spain in 1993.

For his years of teaching, research, and service to USC, Lazar received the Raubenheimer Outstanding Senior Faculty Award in 2003. An exhibit at USC in 2005 was founded on much of Lazar’s Sephardim research: "The First Renaissance of Europe: Sefared, Al-Andalus, España. Three Cultures in Contact."

Moshe Lazar’s last big project was a major study of 1800 years of anti-Semitic propaganda imagery, writings, sermons, and films called "Satan’s Synagogue." He retired from USC in 2011 and passed away in 2012 after battling Alzheimer’s for several years. He is survived by wife Sonia and daughter, Ilanit.