Shlomo avineri biography

שלמה אבינרי

Shlomo Avineri was born as Jerzy Wiener in Bielsko, Poland, 30 August 1933. He has recently passed away, at the age of 90, in Israel, on November 30, 2023.
Avineri was an outstanding political scientist and historian, author of a number of books on Karl Marx and the history and ideas of Zionism. His The Making of Modern Zionism(1981) remains a reference till today, and his more recent Herzl’s Vision – Theodor Herzl and the Foundation of the Jewish State (2013) is the most up-to-date biography of the founder of the Zionist movement.

Herzl’s Vision (2013)

The Making of Modern Zionism(1981)

His expertise covered also general international politics, and his quote about two visions of Amerian foreign politics became cult:
“Kissinger opted for a strategy of accommodation with Moscow, while Brzezinski, claiming that the very nature of Soviet ideology and policies prevents stability, sought strategies for undermining the Soviet system. Brzezinski was proven right and Kissinger was wrong.” —Shlomo Avineri

AVINERI, SHLOMO (1933– ), Israeli political scientist and educator. Born in Bielsko, Poland, Avineri arrived in Palestine in 1939 with his family who settled in Herzliyya. Avineri studied political science and history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and received his doctorate for a thesis "The Concept of Revolution."

Avineri has served on the academic faculty of the Hebrew University since 1959. In 1974 he became professor and in 1975–76 he served as dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences. In 1999–2001 he was director of the Institute for European Studies and in 2001 became professor emeritus. Over the years he was also a visiting professor in universities in the U.S. and Britain.

His research work was initially an extension of his doctoral thesis, dealing with the social and political thought of Karl Marx. It was connected to the discovery and publication of the philosophical manuscripts of the young Karl Marx. His research addressed the relationship between the philosophical, humanistic, and anthropological writings of the young Marx and his economic

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