Yaron Ezrahi

Yaron Ezrahi (born 1940 in Tel Aviv, Israel), is an Israeli political scientist. He is Professor of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Ezrahi is a Senior Fellow Emeritus at the Israel Democracy Institute in Jerusalem, Israel.. Ezrahi obtained his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1973.

Areas of study

Ezrahi has written extensively on the impact of modern science and technology on democratic governments and the conduct of public affairs. He is also interested in comparative politics and democracies; science policy; cultural policy; culture and democracy. He has also written extensively on Israeli democracy and through his activities at the Israel Democracy Institute, he has partaken in the effort to draft a written Israeli constitution. Ezrahi appears regularly in both the Israeli and international media in papers such as Haaretz ,the New York Times , Foreign Affairs , CNN , the BBC , 60 Minutes , Charlie Rose , Al Hayat , etc.

Positions held

Ezrahi served as head of the advanced program for the History and Sociology of the Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and as Chairman of the Academic Committee of the Sidney M. Edelstein Center for the History, Philosophy and Sociology of the Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Professor Ezrahi was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and served as a Visiting Professor at the universities of Pennsylvania, Harvard and Duke. Professor Ezrahi also served as consultant to a variety of institutions including the White House, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Israel National Academy of Science, and, more recently, the Carnegie Commission on Science and Government.

Ezrahi has been active in advising Israeli politicians and has been an active member of the peace movement in Israel.

Awards and honours

Winner of the 1997 National Jewish book Award, in the category of Israel and Zionism
Former board member of Daniel Barenboim's East - West Diwan Orchestra

Selected publications

"Israel Towards a Constitutional Democracy" (With Mordechai Kremnitzer and the assistance of Margit Cohen and Eytan Alimi), The Israel Democracy Institute, 2001 (Hebrew);
"Rubber Bullets, Power and Conscience in Modern Israel", Farrar, Straus Giroux, 1997;
"Of Technology, Pessimism and Postmodernism", (Co-editor, with Everett Mendelsohn and Howard Siegal), Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1994;
"The Descent of Icarus: Science and the Transformation of Contemporary Democracy", Harvard University Press, 1990.

Family

Yaron Ezrahi is the son of Hannah Ezrahi (nee Diesenhaus) and the music educator, composer and violinist Yariv Ezrahi (cousin of President Ezer Weizman; counts amongst his pupils Daniel Barenboim) Whilst his grandfather, Mordechai Krichevsky-Ezrahi, came to Palestine in the 19th century from what is now the Ukraine in order to partake in the revival of the Hebrew language, the family origins are Sephardic, from the de Lattes family.

His first wife was Professor Sidra Dekoven Ezrahi and he has three children: Talya, Ariel and Tehila. He is married to Professor Ruth HaCohen.