Robert S. Wistrich facts for kids
Robert Solomon Wistrich (born April 7, 1945 – died May 19, 2015) was a well-known professor. He taught about European and Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He also led the University's Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism. Wistrich believed that antisemitism, which is hatred or prejudice against Jewish people, was "the longest hatred." He saw Anti-Zionism, which is opposition to the idea of a Jewish state, as a new form of this hatred. Many experts say Wistrich helped connect traditional Zionist ideas about Jewish history with the study of antisemitism.
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Robert Wistrich's Life Story
Early Life and Education
Robert Wistrich was born on April 7, 1945, in a place called Lenger in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. His parents were Polish Jews who held left-wing political views. They had moved to Lviv in 1940 to escape the Germans. However, they found the Soviet system to be very difficult. In 1942, they moved to Kazakhstan, where Wistrich's father was put in prison twice by the NKVD, the Soviet secret police.
After World War II, his parents went back to Poland. But they found that it was still dangerous for Jewish people there. So, the family moved to France. Robert Wistrich grew up in England. He went to Kilburn Grammar School. There, a teacher named Walter Isaacson, who had escaped from Nazi Germany, taught him how to think for himself.
In December 1962, when he was 17, Wistrich won a special scholarship. This allowed him to study History at Queens' College, Cambridge. He earned his first degree from the University of Cambridge in 1966. Later, he received his MA degree in 1969. At Cambridge, he started a magazine about literature and art called Circuit. He helped edit it from 1966 to 1969. From 1969 to 1970, he spent a year studying in Israel. During this time, he became the youngest literary editor for New Outlook. This was a left-wing magazine in Tel Aviv started by Martin Buber.
Becoming a Historian
Robert Wistrich earned his Ph.D. degree from the University of London in 1974. From 1974 to 1980, he worked as a Director of Research. He was at the Institute of Contemporary History and the Wiener Library in London. This library was the biggest research center about the Third Reich in Europe at that time. He also edited the Wiener Library Bulletin.
He became a Research Fellow at the British Academy. By the time he started working at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1982, he had already written several popular books.
Studying Antisemitism
In 1985, his book Socialism and the Jews won an award. This award was from the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism and the American Jewish Committee. His 1989 book, The Jews of Vienna in the Age of Franz Joseph, won the Austrian State Prize in History.
His next study, Antisemitism: The Longest Hatred (1991), won a UK literary prize a year later. This book was also used to create a three-hour TV documentary mini-series called The Longest Hatred. Wistrich wrote the script for this show. In 1993, he also wrote Good Morning, Mr. Hitler. This was an award-winning documentary about Nazi art.
Between 1991 and 1995, Wistrich was the first person to hold the Chair of Jewish Studies at University College London. He also kept his job at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He wrote several radio plays for BBC radio and Kol Israel. These plays were about historical figures like Leon Trotsky and Theodor Herzl. In 2003, he was the main history expert for a BBC documentary called Blaming the Jews. This film was about modern Muslim antisemitism. In 2006, he was the academic advisor for the movie Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West.
From 1999 to 2001, he was one of six scholars on the International Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission. This group looked into what Pope Pius XII did during World War II, especially concerning The Holocaust. From 2002, he directed the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism. He also edited its journal, Antisemitism International.
His Passing
Robert Wistrich passed away from a heart attack on May 19, 2015. He was in Rome, Italy.
Books by Robert Wistrich
- Revolutionary Jews from Marx to Trotsky, 1976.
- Who's Who in Nazi Germany, 1982.
- Socialism and the Jews, 1982.
- Trotsky: Fate of a Revolutionary, 1982.
- The Jews of Vienna in the Age of Franz Joseph, 1989.
- Antisemitism, the Longest Hatred, 1992.
- Hitler and the Holocaust, 2001.
- A Lethal Obsession: Antisemitism – From Antiquity to the Global Jihad, 2010.
