Alek Epstein

Alek D. Epstein in Kiev 2011

Alek D. Epstein (born April 18, 1975 in Moscow ) is a well-known Russian - Israeli sociologist , political scientist and historian . He lives and works in Jerusalem and Moscow and takes part in numerous academic training projects and various human rights initiatives in both countries. Epstein is an expert on Israeli history and politics and on the Arab-Israeli conflict . He researches the contribution of intellectuals to the emergence of civil society , the development of civil disobedience as an indicator of the change in civil-military relations , the development of Jewish studies as a field of research in various countries , the emergence of the Palestinian refugee problem and the unsuccessful Approaches to solving various aspects of the professional and social integration of immigrant researchers in Israel and other related issues.

Alek D. Epstein has published more than 160 articles in various journals and edited volumes, he is the author of more than 14 books on Israel and the Middle East, which are published in Russian. He takes part in social and public life in Russia. He is also known as a human rights activist. His books The thought police: Violence, expert and anti-extremism campaign in today's Russia , which he wrote together with Oleg Vassiliev, and the protection of violence against the critique of society: Ten years of anti-extremism campaign in contemporary Russia were among the most important works on intellectual dissent in Russian public life. With the books Total War: Art Activism in the Time of Tandemocracy and Art on the Barricades: “Pussy Riot”, the “Buss Exhibition” and Protest Art Activism and The Spiritual Battle of Viktor Bondarenko and Yevgenia Maltzewa and the Battle of the Sacred Images for A new life in the arts , he gained even more prestige as a civil activist and art sociologist. He is the chairman of the jury of the “Alternative Prize for Art Activism in Russia”.

Professional biography

Alek D. Epstein graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1999. His PhD and MA dissertations were supervised by Martin van Creveld and Baruch Kimmerling . Since 1999 he has worked in the Sociology, Political Science and Communication Department of the Open University of Israel. He has lectured at the Sociology Department of Rothberg International School and the Chais Center of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Tel-Aviv School of Communication and Journalism. For 12 years he taught sociology at the Jewish Studies Department of the Chair for the Countries of Africa and Asia at Moscow State University .

Epstein describes himself as an atheist and humanist , advocates basic rights and the equality of all people. He supports same-sex marriages and speaks out in favor of the adoption of children by homosexual couples. He is an opponent of the death penalty and rejects the idea of ​​a strong nation state . His book Thought Police: The Violence, the Experts and the Anti-Extremism Campaign in Today's Russia (Moscow 2011), which he wrote together with Oleg Wasiliev, is a work dedicated to contemporary dissent in Russia. Epstein has worked as a coordinator for the Russian-language Chais Program for Jewish Studies at the Open University of Israel , developing lasting relationships with leading Russian universities. From 2006 to 2008 he has among others with the Universities of Moscow State Institute of International Relations , State University of Nischschnij Novgorod, Ural State University (Ekaterinburg), Tomsk State University , Kazan State University closed and other contracts. His articles have been published in journals and edited volumes at these universities.

In November 2012 he donated the Alternative Prize for Art Activism in Russia and has been chairman of the jury ever since. The winners included Matwej Krilow, Artem Loskutow, Maria Kisselewa and the Pussy Riot group . The award ceremony was organized as part of the Media Impact Collection in the Swerew Center for Modern Art on December 4, 2012.

Awards

Alek Epstein has received scholarships from numerous institutes, including the Theodor Herzl Scholarship. His research was supported by the following foundations: Bernard Cherrick Center for the Study of Zionism and the History of Israel, the Minerva Center for Human Rights (twice), the Leslie and Vera Keller Foundation for Enhancement of the Jewish Heritage , the Lavon Institute for the history of the Israeli labor movement, the Schaine Center for Social Research, the David Asseo Foundation and the Administration for Research and Development of the Open University of Israel.

His name is in the directories 2000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st Century (English: 2000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st Century, fifth edition) and Who's Who in the world : (English Who's Who in the World been twenty-sixth edition) was added.

research

Epstein's PhD dissertation is devoted to Israeli political culture during the period of labor hegemony . Later he directed research on the development of sociology in Israeli society and intercultural dialogues between scholars and teachers from the former USSR and their Israeli colleagues. As a recognized expert in the field of Israeli history and politics and the Arab-Israeli conflict , he studied the effect of intellectuals on the fears of civil society, the development of deliberate disobedience to orders as an indicator of a change in the models of civil-military relationships, and developments of Jewish Studies as a field of research in different countries, about the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem and the unsuccessful attempts to solve it, on various aspects of professional and social integration of immigrant scientists in Israel, on bilateral relations between Israel and Russia and many others.

Publications on the Arab-Israeli conflict

Alek D. Epstein in the Urals Gorky State University in 2008

Alek Epstein has published 150 articles in various edited volumes and scientific journals, e.g. B. Journal of Human Rights; Terrorism and Political Violence; International Studies in the Sociology of Education; Journal of Educational Administration and History; New Global Development: Journal of International and Comparative Social Welfare; Language in Society; Language Problems and Language Planning; Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development; Journal of International Migration and Integration; Tourism, Culture and Communication, Jewish Political Science Review; Journal of Israeli History; Israeli Sociology. He is the author of fourteen books published in Russian, including:

• Wars and Diplomacy. The Arab-Israeli conflict in the twentieth century (Kiev / Moscow, 2003),
• Israel and the Palestinian Refugee Problem: History and Politics (Moscow, 2005),
• Israel in the time of "post-Zionism": academy, ideology and politics (Moscow, 2005),
• After the failure of the “Road Map”: Attempts to alleviate the Israeli-Arab conflict (Moscow, 2006),
• Israel's war against Hezbollah and its influence over Middle Eastern politics (Moscow, 2006),
• The struggle against HAMAS: Israel, Jordan and the PLO face to face with Islamic fundamentalism (Moscow, 2007),
• The diplomatic battle for Jerusalem. A story behind the scenes (Moscow / Jerusalem, 2008),
• Israel and the (un) occupied territories: between annexation and withdrawal (Moscow / Jerusalem, 2008),
• Israeli Policies of Targeted Killing: Politics, Law, and Ethics (Moscow, 2009),
• Israelis and Palestinians: From Confrontation to Negotiation and Back (Moscow / Jerusalem, 2009),
• The black years. Soviet Judaism between Hitler and Stalin, 1939–1953 (with the assistance of Kirill Feferman, Raanana, Israel, 2010),
• The rise and fall of the Israeli left (Moscow, 2011),
• Russia and Israel: A Difficult Path to Each Other (with the assistance of Stanislaw Koscheurow, Moscow / Jerusalem, 2011),
• The renewal of the Jewish statehood and the unsolved Jewish dilemma (Kiev, 2011),
• Free hostage at all costs: Israel's negotiations with Palestinian and Lebanese fighting organizations (with the assistance of Yevgeny Warschawer, Moscow, 2012),
• Close friends? The United States and Israel: The Hidden History (in 2 volumes, Moscow / Jerusalem, 2014).

His books Political and Ethnic Cleansing in the USSR, 1918–1953 (Raanana, Israel, 2007) and Russian-speaking Israelis 'at home' and 'abroad': Identity and Migration (together with Zeev Khanin and Marina Niznik, Jerusalem / Ramat-Gan , 2011) are published in Hebrew. Alek Epstein edited 12 volumes in different languages, in which he also contributed as an author:

• Mass immigration and its influence on Israeli society (Moscow, 2000),
• Contemporary Israel: Politics and Society (Moscow / Jerusalem, 2002),
• The Zionist Imperatives: An Anthology of Contemporary Thought (Moscow / Jerusalem, 2003),
• The Palestinian-Arab conflict over the mirror of public opinion and international diplomacy (Moscow, 2004),
• The Post-Soviet Jews: Identity and Education (Jerusalem, 2008),
• The Jewish State at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century. An anthology of contemporary Israeli social and political thought (Moscow / Jerusalem, 2008) - in Russian,
• National Priorities: Immigration and Integration in Israel at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century (Jerusalem 2007) - in Hebrew,
• Every Seventh Israeli: Jews in the Former USSR: Models of Social and Cultural Integration (Jerusalem, 2007),
• The formation of national identity: Jewish training in Russia twenty years after the Cold War (Jerusalem, 2008),
• Immigration Researchers in Israel: Successes and Challenges of Integration in a Comparative Context - in English.

Alek Epstein also edited the Russian editions of the courses "Israel: The First Decade of Independence" (Part I. The Founding of Israeli Democracy, 4 volumes, 2001; Part II. Society, Economy and Culture (4 volumes, 2002–2003), “From the national home to the formation of the state: The Jewish community in Palestine between the world wars” (2 volumes, 2006), “Democracy and State Security in Israel” (3 volumes, 2007–2009)) and “The search for identity between assimilation and Immigration: Russian-Speaking Jews in the Twentieth Century ”(2 volumes, 2007–2008). Alek Epstein has participated in various television and radio programs, his contributions have been published in magazines and edited volumes.

In July 2012 Alek Epstein published an illustrated book of protest art, which contains works that Russian protest artists have created to express their support for the feminist punk rock group Pussy Riot. Alek Epstein wrote texts for this illustrated book himself.

Publications on Russian art activism

In June 2011, the Moscow publishing house Gilea published his book “The Thought Police”, which was written with the assistance of Oleg Wassiljew. Violence, Expert and Fight against Extremism in Russia Today ”published. (Some chapters in this book have appeared as articles in various magazines). In this work, the authors have brought together their scientific and intellectual ideas and expressed their support for human rights. Alexander Verkhovsky, Vsevolod Jemeliz, Boris Stomachin and many others spoke about the presentation of the book. The human rights portal Kasparov.ru published a large interview with the authors. In June 2012 the Freie Marxis-Verlag, led by Kirill Medvedev, published a follow-up book. The new monograph was entitled The Protection of Violence Against Criticism by Society. Ten years of the anti-extremism campaign in Russia . It also included contributions from the philosophies of Ilja Budraitski and Alexej Pensin. The book was presented as part of the Seventh International Moscow Open Book Festival in the Central House of the Artist.

In March 2012, the Umlaut Network publisher, run by Georgij Jeremin, published the monograph Der Totale “Krieg”. Kinst activism in the time of tandemocracy . This work offers a deep social and political analysis of the art group “Woina” ('The War') as a social phenomenon and examines its entire history from its creation in February 2007. Some excerpts from this book were published in autumn 2011 as articles in published two issues of NZ magazine. Andrei Erofeev, Yuri Samodurov, Peter Verilov, Anton Nikolaev, Denis Mustafin and many others took part in the presentation, which was held in the Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art; detailed interviews with the author were published on the web portals "Around Art - Contemporary Art" and "Art-Chronik" as well as on the radio "Freiheit". The monograph was named one of the most important books of the week by Kommersant and The Russian Reporter .

At the end of July 2012, on the eve of the court proceedings against Nadezhda Tolokonnikova , Yekaterina Samuzewitsch and Marija Aljochina , the publishing director Viktor Bondarenko and the “Kolonna publications” publisher published an album written by Alek D. Epstein entitled “Art on the Barricades. “Pussy Riot”, the Buss Exhibition and Protest Art Activism ”published. In addition to the detailed preface (excerpts from this were published as articles in two numbers by the “NZ” magazine), the album offers over a hundred photos of performances and works of art, the authors of which are Wiktorija Lomasko, Anton Nikolaew, Lena Hades , Alexej Knedlyakowski, Lusine Dschanian, Yevgenia Maltzewa, Leonid Danilov, Vladimir Kosin, Oleg Chwostov, Viktor Bogorad and other outstanding Russian artists are. Galina Bleich created the original layout and designed the book. Extensive interviews with Alek D. Epstein were published after the presentation on the Internet portals Radio Freiheit, Gazeta.ru and Be In. An excerpt from the album has been published on the Artguide website. Many statements were published on the Internet portals Art-Chronik, Grani.ru, Noart Gallery, ZHIR-Project, etc. Art-Chronik and Time-Out Moscow magazines recognized the album as one of the most important art books published in summer 2012.

At the end of November 2012, the foundation “Russia for All” together with the publishing house Kolonna publications published an album written by Alek D. Epstein, entitled “The project of Wiktor Bondarenko and Jevgenia Maltzewa“ The spiritual battle ”. The struggle for a new life of sacred images in art ”. This book is an unprecedented account of the exhibition of Evgenia Maltzewa's paintings, one of the most outstanding cultural events in recent years. The original layout was carried out by Galina Bleich. Viktor Bondarenko, Marat Gelman, Roman Bagdasarov and others took part in the presentation in the Sakharov Museum and Social Center , and an extensive interview with the author was published on the Radio Free Europe website.

Scientific congresses

Alek Epstein was the organizer and chairman of the international conference on "Contemporary Israel: Politics, Culture and Society" at the Moscow Institute for the Studies of Israel and the Middle East and Moscow State University. The congress took place from September 8-11, 2000. It was one of the first conferences in the history of Russian science devoted exclusively to the study of Israeli society. He was a participant in the sessions on the history of Israel and Zionism at the 14th and 16th International Interdisciplinary Conference on Jewish Studies.

Web links

• Alek Epstein's website (Russian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Alek D. Epstein on academia.edu (en)
2. ↑ Dr. Alek Epstein, Open University of Israel (English)
3. ^ The Chais Center for Jewish Studies in Russia . Archived from the original on September 30, 2011. Retrieved February 11, 2020. ( English )
4. ^ Alternative Prize for the Russian Activist Art. Radio Free Europe.
5. ^ Intellectual and Social Origins of Jewish Pacifism in Israel (en)
6. ↑ Haaretz.com The betrayal of the sociologists (en)
7. ↑ Globalaffairs.com (en)
8. ↑ Publishing activities of the Jewish Studies Institute ( Memento from March 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
9. ↑ Art that overcomes fear: an interview with the author (carried out by Dmitri Woltschek, Radio Free Europe (ru)).
10. ↑ Alek Epstein's 'Art on the Barricades' | Giuviv Russian Film Blog .
11. ^ "Alek Epstein Publishes An Album Of Contemporary Russian Protest Art Dedicated To Pussy Riot", Art and Culture .
12. ^ Radio Free Europe