Juda Lion Palache (October 26, 1886 – October 18, 1944) was a professor of Semitic languages (Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic) at the University of Amsterdam and a leader of the Portuguese Jewish community in that city.

His father Isaac was chief rabbi of the Portuguese Sephardic community.

In October 1924, he became professor of Semitic languages at the University of Amsterdam, the first Jew to hold this position.

[1][6][7][8]) During these years at the University of Amsterdam, his chair served two faculties, Arts and Theology.

Beek, said of him: Voor mijn voorganger in Amsterdam, de joodse geleerde Palache, die de gehele Biblia Hebraica uit zijn hoofd kende ("For my predecessor in Amsterdam, the Jewish scholar Palache, knew all the Biblia Hebraica from his head").

From 2000 to 2016, the Menasseh ben Israel Institute held an annual Leeser Rosenthal/Juda Palache lecture by internationally renowned researchers in Jewish studies.

The lectures occurred with the cooperation of the chair of Hebrew and Jewish studies at the University of Amsterdam (the Juda Palache Institute) and the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana.