Avi Becker

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Avi Becker is a writer, statesman, and Professor at the Harold Hartog School of Government and Policy at Tel Aviv University. ^[1]

Born in Tel-Aviv in 1951, Becker served in the Israel Defense Forces and rose to the rank of Captain. He is a graduate of Tel Aviv University with a Ph.D. in Political Science from the City University of New York.

Dr. Becker heads the Jewish Public Policy Project and the UN-Israel Institute at the Hartog School of Government and Policy. He is a columnist for Haaretz.

Becker was Secretary General of the World Jewish Congress in 2002-03, and International Director and Head of the WJC Israel office (1985-2001).

Becker was a member of the Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations (1977-1982). He was also a delegate to five General Assemblies and two Special Sessions of the General Assembly on disarmament, May-June, 1978 and June-July, 1982.

Becker worked with several governments on ownership of property confiscated during the Nazi period. He served on the Claims Conference of Material Claims against Germany, the Norwegian Foundation for Jewish Heritage, The Dutch Jewish Fund, The Government Foundation for Restitution in the Czech Republic, and The Slovak Fund on Jewish Property.

Becker has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Jewish Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv, of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, of the Board of Trustees of Bar-Ilan University, of the WIZO College of Design and Management, and of the Africa-Israel Hotels Corporation.

[edit] Books

The Chosen: The History of An Idea, and the Anatomy of an Obsession
Disarmament Without Order - The Politics of Disarmament in the United Nations (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press 1985).
The United Nations and Israel - From Recognition to Reprehension (Lexington, MA Lexington Books, 1988).
Chief Editor, Jewish Communities of the World, (Minnesota Lerner Publications, 1999).
Editor, The Plunder of Jewish Property During the Holocaust-Confronting European History, (England: Palgrave and New York: New York University Press, 2001). Contributing two essays.
Co-editor with Yaacov Ro'i - Jewish Culture and Identity in the Soviet Union (New York: New York University Press 1989). In this book he contributed the essay: " Superpower relations and Jewish Identity in the Soviet Union ".
Editor, Arms Control Without Glasnost - Building Security in the Middle East (Jerusalem: Israel Council On Foreign Relations, 1993), including his article: " Denuclearization Without Glasnost ".
Co-editor, picturial album, World Jewish Congress Jubilee 1936-1986 (Jerusalem, World Jewish Congress, 1986).
Editor (proceedings) International Law and Foreign Policy (Jerusalem, Israel Council on Foreign Relations, 1991).
Co-editor (reader) German Unification: A Jewish - Israeli Perspective (Jerusalem, Israel Council on Foreign Relations, 1991).