Michael M. Laskier

Professor Emeritus Michael M. Laskier
LM301013-17A.jpg
Native name	מיכאל מ' לסקר
Born	1949 (age 74–75)
🏳️ Nationality	Israeli
🏳️ Citizenship	Israeli, American
💼 Occupation

Professor Michael Menachem Laskier (Hebrew: מיכאל מנחם לסקר; born May 5, 1949) is an Israeli Historian of the modern era, Orientalist, a scholar and a writer.

Biography

Michael M. Laskier was born in Petah Tikva, Israel in 1949 to Haya and Avraham Laskier. At 1962 the family moved to Los Angeles and he was educated in Van Nuys High School at 1967. Laskier served in the Israeli Air force In the anti-aircraft unit between 1980 and 1988.

Graduate Education

Laskier received his Master's degree in History at 1973 and his PhD in History at 1979 from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

His PhD thesis about “The Jews of Morocco and the Alliance Israélite Universelle: 1860-1956" was published by University Microfilm International, Ann Arbor, Michigan. His Supervisors were Professors Nikki R. Keddie and Malcolm H. Kerr.

Academic Career

Between 1980 and 1988 Laskier held full-time lecturer of the Jewish & Middle Eastern-African History Departments in Tel Aviv University and was also a Research Fellow in The Diaspora Research Institute. He has also taught in IDF's Piqud u-Mateh College and the Overseas Studies Program as part of the teaching duties at the University.

At the same time and between 1988 and 1990 and then between 1993 and 1994 he was visiting Associate Professor of History in The American Jewish University in Los Angeles (formerly: The University of Judaism).

Between 1995 and 2003 Laskier had an Associate Professorship of History and Political Science of the Ashqelon Academic College and was a Chair of the Political Science Department. Additionally, he was a Chair of the Dormitory, Student Scholarship & Tuition and Learning Disabilities committees, Member of the Academic Council, Faculty Research Funding Committee, as well as the Faculty Teaching Appointment Committee.

Between 2004 and 2017 Laskier had full professorship of Middle Eastern Studies at the Bar-Ilan University. During this time he was also the director of the Menachem Begin Center for the Study on Underground & Resistance Movements (2006-2016).

At 2012, Laskier became the Chief Academic Officer of The Academic College on the Sea of Galilee (under the auspices of Bar-Ilan University).

Since October 2017 Laskier is Professor Emeritus.

Over the years Laskier taught over 60 different academic courses. He had published thirteen important books mostly as a writer but also as an editor, and over 180 research articles. One of his books, North African Jewry in the Twentieth Century, had won the prestigious American National Jewish Book Award in 1994.

Laskier work was recognized and awarded for its contribution to research. He was listed in biographies of prominent and emerging writers for inclusion in Contemporary Authors, Vol. 144 (1993); Biography/scholarly achievements in The Writer Directory, St. James Press, Detroit, Michigan; biographies of emerging authors for inclusion in International Authors and Writers Who's Who - Fifteenth Edition, Cambridge, England

Laskier is married and father of two children. He lives in Givatayim, Israel.

Areas of Specialization

• Israel & The Arab States: Back-Channel Israeli-Arab Contacts, Arab-Israeli Conflict, Israel & Inter-Arab Politics, Israel and the Mediterranean Basin including relations with European Union Member-States in the Southern Mediterranean Region, Diplomacy, Security Issues
• Middle East Regional Politics, Modern Arab History: Middle East/Maghreb in the 19th/20th Centuries, Inter-Arab Politics, Radical Islam
• Modern Jewish History: Middle East, Maghrib, France: Economics, Politics, Muslim-Jewish Ties, Modernization, Education, Colonialism, Zionism, Emigration, Anti-Semitism, World War II, Underground Organizations
• Israeli Society Since 1948: Emigration [Aliyah] from the Diaspora, Americanization of Israeli Culture, Israeli Society Seen by Palestinians; Civil Liberties & Social Action Forces; Core & Periphery
• French Politics, The European Union, The Maghreb and Islam: Franco-Israeli Relations in the 1950s through the 1990s, Trade Agreements, Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, Islam in Europe, Tran-National Terrorist Networks, Mutual Interests and Conflicts between Europe and Maghrebi states, Problems relating to immigration, drugs, and money laundering

Work experience

• 1996-2001: Member of Ashqelon Academic College’s Faculty Research Funding Committee
• 1998-2001: Chair of Ashqelon Academic College Student Tuition & Scholarship Committee
• 1998-2001: Member of Ashqelon Academic College’s Faculty Appointment Committee
• 1998-2002: Chair of Political Science Department, Ashqelon Academic College
• 2001-2002: Member of Ashqelon Academic College’s Academic Council 2002-2009: Member of Facultative Ph.D. Committee at the Bar-Ilan University's Faculty of Jewish Studies on behalf the Middle East History Department
• 2004-2006: Member of the Interdisciplinary Studies Committee (an appointment by the Academic Senate), Bar-Ilan University

• 2005- 2007: Member of the Central Doctoral Committee of Bar-Ilan University, under the Auspices of the University's Academic Senate
• 2005-2006: Member of the Committee to Debate & Approve a bachelor's degree-granting status in Middle Eastern Studies at the College of Netanya (appointed by Ms. Limor Livnat, Israel's former Minister of Education and Culture and head of the Israel Council for Higher Education- MALAG)
• 2006-2017: Member of the Higher Senate of Bar-Ilan University
• 2006-2007: Member of Supervisory Committee of the Israel Council for Higher Education at the Faculty of Jewish Studies, Bar-Ilan University, to Assess the Quality of the Department of Middle Eastern History and the Department of Eretz-Yisrael Studies
• 2006-2009, 2015-2017: Member of the Senior Faculty Appointments Committee of Bar-Ilan University
• 2006-2007: Member of the Aharon and Rachel Dahan Research Center Academic Committee, Bar-Ilan University
• 2006-2016: Director of the Menachem Begin Center/Endowed Chair for the Study of Underground Movements, Bar-Ilan University
• 2007: Member of a Special Committee that include Bar-Ilan University's Rector, Professor Yosef Menis, and Vice-President for Research, Professor Harold Basch, to Determine the Amount of Money to be disbursed to Faculty from Available Research Funds
• Serving from 2003 either as Chairperson or Member of Faculty and Department preliminary and professional committees that deliberate on advancing scholars in rank and tenure (emphasis on faculties of Jewish Studies, Faculty of the Humanities, and the Social Sciences in Bar-Ilan University; also at Tel Aviv University and the University of Haifa )

• 2007-2008: Member of the Nathan Rotenstreich Doctoral Dissertation Fund Council to disburse sizeable scholarship for Ph.D. students at Bar-Ilan University's Faculty of Jewish Studies
• 2009-2017: Member of the Small Senate – chief academic decision-making body – at Bar-Ilan Universit
• 2009: Member of Jury judging the best book of the year for research on Israeli history for the prestigious Reuven Hecht Award, Haifa University
• 2011-2013: President of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Association of Israel (MEISAI)
• 2011-2015: Member of the Faculty Rank and tenure Appeals Committee of Bar-Ilan University
• 2011-2016: Member of the Bar-Ilan University Press Book Manuscript Academic Selection and Publications Committee
• 2012-2017: Academic Head (Rector) of The Kinneret Academic College on the Sea of Galilee on behalf of Bar-Ilan University
• 2012-2017: Member of the Academic Senate of Kinneret Academic College on the Sea of Galilee
• 2015-2017: Member of the Inter-Universities Academic Autonomy Committee that works Closely with the Presidents of the Israeli Research Universities, the Minister of Education and the Council for Higher Education (MALAG). Elected as representative of Bar-Ilan by the University's Senate
• 2015-2017: Chair of the Middle Easter Studies Department Doctoral Committee
• Since 2015: Member of the International Committee for the Advancement of Sephardi Studies in North America

Visiting Research and Teaching Scholar

• 1988-1989: Near Eastern Languages and Cultures (NELC), UCLA
• 1990-1992: Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES), University of Chicago
• 1988-1990; 1993-1994: American Jewish University

Selected publications

Books

• The Alliance Israélite Universelle and the Jewish Communities of Morocco: 1862-1962. Albany, State University of New York Press, 1983
• North African Jewry in the Shadow of Vichy and the Swastika. Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University Press, 1992, In Hebrew
• The Jews of Egypt, 1920-1970: In the Midst of Zionism, Antisemitism and the Middle East Conflict. New York & London: New York University Press, 1992
• North African Jewry in the 20th Century: Jews of Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. New York & London: New York University Press, 1994
• The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa in Modern Times (with Reeva Spector Simon and Sara Reguer), New York: Columbia University Press, 2003
• Israel and the Maghreb: From Statehood to Oslo. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004
• Israel and the Aliya from North Africa, 1948-1970. Sde-Boqer: Ben-Gurion University Press, 2006. In Hebrew
• Security and Political Challenges Put to the Test: Israel in the Arab and International Arenas (with Ronen Yitzhak), Bar-Ilan University Press, 2012, In Hebrew

Editorship

• Sephardi Jews before and after 1492, Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, Lafayette: Purdue University Press, Volume 10 (Spring 1992), 212 pp.
• The Convergence of Judaism and Islam: The Religious, Scientific and Cultural Dimensions (with Yaacov Lev), Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2011, 352 pp.

• The Divergence of Judaism and Islam: Interdependence, Modernity and Political Turmoil (with Yaacov Lev), Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2011, 368 pp.
• Terrorism on Behalf of the Revolution: The Palestine Liberation Organization and the Soviet Union (with Hanoch Bazo), 1968-1991. In Hebrew (Bar-Ilan University Press, 2016), 214 pp.

Laskier also had over 130 Papers Presented at Scientific Conferences, Symposia & Workshops.

He was listed in biographies of prominent and emerging writers for inclusion in Contemporary Authors (Vol. 144, 1993); Biographies of emerging authors in International Authors and Writers Who's Who (Fifteenth Edition), Cambridge, England; Biography and scholarly achievements in The Writer Directory, St. James Press, Detroit, Michigan

Awards and Honors

• 1994: Maurice Amado Foundation for the National Jewish Book Award
• 1994: National Jewish Book Award of the Jewish Book Council, New York. Distinguished Award for outstanding books in Jewish/Middle Eastern studies, for book: North African Jewry in the 20th Century, New York University Press
• 2008: The Renée and Nessim Gaon Book Award for his work Israel and the Aliyah from North Africa: 1948-1970. Ben-Gurion University Press, at Yad Ben-Zvi in Jerusalem
• 2005: Nomination as Honorary Member of the Governing Board of the American Biographical Institute, Raleigh, North Carolina
• 2005: Nomination and inclusion in Great Minds of the 21th Century, a distinguished publication of the American Biographical Institute, Raleigh, North Carolina
• 2005: Nomination as One of 2000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the Early 21^st Century by the prestigious International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, England, in the Field of Arts & Humanities

Grants

• 2012: Grant by Bar-Ilan University for the 36^th Annual Conference of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Association of Israel (MEISAI) Conference
• 2013: Grant by the Menachem Begin Institute for the Study of Resistance Movements at Bar-Ilan University & The Dan Shomron Research Center for Security Studies at the Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee for a Joint International Conference on 40 Years to the Yom Kippur War
• 2014-2017: Grant by the Menachem Begin Institute for the Study of Resistance Movement at Bar-Ilan University & The Dan Shomorn Research Center for Security Studies at the Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee for a Joint 2-Book Project on the Yom Kippur War
• 2007: Grant by Bar-Ilan University's Research Authority for organizing the conference on Islam and Judaism at the University of Maryland
• 2007: Grant by the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation New York, for the book Judaism and Islam in Medieval & Modern Times
• 2005: Grants by the U.S. Embassy in Tel-Aviv, by San Francisco State University and by Bar-Ilan University for organizing the International Conference at Bar-Ilan University "Bridging he Worlds of Judaism & Islam"
• 2000: Grant by Raphael Foundation (through Jamie and Mickey Shamah) for the Promotion of Syrian-Jewish Culture toward the book edited by Michael M. Laskier, Reeva S. Simon and Sara Reguer, The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa in Modern Times, published by Columbia University Press
• 1998: Grant by Ashqelon Academic College for book project entitled: Israel and the Maghreb: From Statehood to Oslo, published by the University Press of Florida
• 1996-1999: Grants by Lucius N. Littauer Foundation in NY, by Maurice Amado Foundationin LA, by Memorial Foundation of Jewish Culture, by the Alliance Israélite Universelle, byEzra K. Zilkha Foundation in NY and by Ashqelon Academic College of Bar-Ilan University for editing the book: The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa in Modern Times, published by Columbia University Press
• 1996: Grant by Davis Institute for International Relations, Hebrew University, for Israel and the Maghreb: From Statehood to Oslo, published by University Press of Florida
• 1995: Grant by Ben-Gurion Heritage Center of Ben-Gurion University, for the writing of a major book manuscript on Israel and the Aliya from North Africa: 1948-1970
• 1986: Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture & Tel-Aviv University
• 1973-1974: NDEA IV Grants for Arabic Language Studies

References

This article "Michael Laskier" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Michael Laskier. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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