AFTAU Honors Historian Bernard Lewis

With personal anecdotes and warm toasts from his celebrated friends, world-renowned scholar and historian of the Middle East, Prof. Bernard Lewis, was honored at a special fundraising event hosted by the American Friends of Tel Aviv University (AFTAU) on September 12, 2012, at New York’s Pierre Hotel.

Hundreds of guests gathered to celebrate the life and works of this influential academic on the publication of his critically-acclaimed memoir, Notes on a Century: Reflections of a Middle East Historian, the most recent of his 34 books.

Paying tribute to the highly-acclaimed Princeton professor were Nobel Peace Prize recipient Henry Kissinger; TAU Board of Governors Chairman Harvey M. Krueger; former Israeli Ambassador to the US and past TAU President Itamar Rabinovich; U.S. News & World Report editor-in-chief Mort Zuckerman; and MacArthur Fellowship winner and notable author Prof. Fouad Ajami.

(Pictured from left: Prof. Bernard Lewis, Mort Zuckerman, Harvey M. Krueger, Prof. Itamar Rabinovich and Jon Gurkoff)

A TAU Honorary Doctor, Prof. Lewis has had a close and continuing relationship with the University spanning decades, including as a visiting scholar and member of the Mortimer and Raymond Sackler Institute for Advanced Studies.

“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,” noted Prof. Rabinovich.

In tribute to Prof. Lewis’ long association with, and the invaluable donation of his extensive 18,000 volume library and archives to, the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, the Bernard Lewis Visiting Scholar Program has been established at the Center.  An internationally top-ranked think tank. Prof. Lewis serves on the Center’s International Board of Overseers.  Proceeds of the dinner will support the Center’s research and scholarship.

(Pictured from left: Prof. Bernard Lewis with TAU President Prof. Joseph Klafter)

View the AFTAU video >>