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American Friends of Tel Aviv University
To Host Gala Dinner
Celebrating the Career of Historian
Bernard Lewis
High Profile Fundraiser to Feature the Hon. Henry Kissinger;
Mort Zuckerman; Ambassador Itamar Rabinovich; and Harvey
Krueger – and a Special Tribute by Professor Fouad Ajami
NEW YORK – American Friends of Tel Aviv University (AFTAU)
will celebrate the life and work of world-renowned Middle
East scholar and author Bernard Lewis on September 12 at the
Pierre Hotel in New York in honor of the recent publication
of his memoir, Notes on a Century: Reflections of a Middle
East Historian.
Dinner Chairs include former Secretary of
State Henry Kissinger, New York Daily News publisher Mort
Zuckerman, former Israeli Ambassador to the United States
Itamar Rabinovich, and Barclays Vice Chairman and Tel Aviv
University International Board of Governors Chairman Harvey
M. Krueger. MacArthur Fellowship winner and Middle East
scholar Professor Fouad Ajami also will pay a special
tribute to Professor Lewis at the event.
“American Friends of Tel Aviv University is honored to
recognize the remarkable achievements of Bernard Lewis,”
said Gail Reiss, President & CEO of AFTAU. “Professor Lewis
has been a great friend to
Tel Aviv University and we’re excited that the evening is
going to bring together such an accomplished and
sophisticated group in
his honor.”
Professor Lewis, the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus
of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, is widely
esteemed as one of the West’s foremost scholars of the
Middle East. He is widely regarded — as he continues a
prolific sixty year career at age
96 — as the most influential postwar historian of Islam and
the Middle East.
Dinner proceeds will go toward the research and scholarship
of Tel Aviv University’s (TAU) Moshe Dayan Center for Middle
Eastern and African Studies, an internationally top-ranked
think tank with which Professor Lewis has long been
associated. Earlier this year, Professor Lewis donated his
extensive 18,000 volume library and archive
to TAU.
His expertise and counsel have been frequently sought by
policymakers at the highest level, including many in the
administration of President George W. Bush. The author of 34
influential books, Professor Lewis’ memoirs, Notes on a
Century: Reflections of a Middle East Historian, was
published in May 2012,
to widespread critical acclaim.
The evening will include reflections on, and
reminiscences of, Professor Lewis’ remarkable life and
career, by each of the four Dinner Chairs.
Henry Kissinger is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and
served as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor
in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and
Gerald Ford.
Dr. Kissinger is the founder and chairman of Kissinger
Associates,
an international consulting firm.
“For decades, Bernard Lewis has been widely considered the
most eminent and influential scholar exploring the complex
issues of the Middle East. He has inspired a generation of
policy-makers, historians and others concerned with this
vital region, including myself,” said Dr. Kissinger.
“American Friends of Tel Aviv University’s gala dinner on
September 12 will bring together many who have benefitted
from his insights for a richly deserved tribute to his life
and work.”
Mort Zuckerman has been the publisher and owner of the New
York Daily News since 1993 and has served as editor-in-chief
of U.S. News & World Report since 2007. He co-founded Boston
Properties, Inc., in 1970 and serves as the chairman of the
board and director.
“Quite simply, Bernard Lewis has been the most insightful
and wise analyst and the greatest academic on the subject of
the broader Middle East,” said Mr. Zuckerman. The American
people literally have to be grateful to him for the
contributions he has made to our understanding of that
region on both the academic and the government levels.”
Harvey M. Krueger is a figure of great renown in the
investment banking and financial services community who
credited with almost single-handedly opening the
international capital markets to Israeli governmental and
corporate securities. He currently serves as Vice Chairman
of Barclays Capital. Mr. Krueger was elected Chairman of
TAU’s International Board of Governors in 2010.
Ambassador Itamar Rabinovich served as the Israeli
Ambassador to the United States from 1993 to 1996. He is a
former president of Tel Aviv University and is currently
president of the newly established Israel Institute, a
Distinguished Global Professor at New York University, and a
Distinguished Fellow at the Brookings Institution.
“I am honored and delighted by the
opportunity to pay tribute to my friend and mentor Professor
Bernard Lewis by serving as co-chair of this dinner,” said
Ambassador Rabinovich. “During the past forty years,
Professor Lewis has been a regular visitor to Tel Aviv
University where faculty, students, and the audiences
attending his annual public lectures were enriched by his
unparalleled knowledge and understanding of the Middle East
and the world of Islam.”
The evening will be keynoted by a special tribute to
Professor Lewis delivered by Professor Fouad Ajami, a former
student of Professor Lewis, who considers the professor a
mentor, colleague, and friend. Professor Ajami is a highly
sought-after media commentator on Middle Eastern issues,
frequently appearing on PBS, CNN and CBS. A senior fellow at
Stanford University, he is widely respected as one of the
West’s finest Middle East scholars.
"AFTAU is honoring a towering historian who is revered as a
champion of liberty and reason. Bernard Lewis is a great
scholar who has so well mastered the past that he has been
able to tell of storms yet to come, and who has served as a
guide with a powerful searchlight with respect to America’s
role in the Middle East over the past thirty years,” said
Professor Ajami. “I first met Professor Lewis nearly four
decades ago when I was a young, obscure scholar. He was an
idol of mine then, and he remains so today. A man of
kindness fused with incomparable achievement, we don't
produce his likes nowadays. I look forward to paying tribute
to him on this special occasion.”
A limited number of seats remain available for the event.
For more information on securing a ticket, please visit
www.aftau.org/site/PageServer?pagename=LewisEvite
or contact Gail Reiss at
greiss@aftau.org or (212) 742-9058.
About American Friends of Tel Aviv University
www.aftau.org : AFTAU
supports Israel’s leading, most comprehensive, and most
sought-after center of higher learning. Independently ranked
94th among the world’s top universities for the impact of
its research, TAU’s innovations and discoveries are cited
more often by the global scientific community than all but
10 other universities. Internationally recognized for the
scope and groundbreaking nature of its research and
scholarship, Tel Aviv University consistently produces work
with profound implications for the future.
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