DR.

AVRAHAM AVI-HAI
Biographical Notes

Dr. Avraham Avi-hai’s career in Israel spans his work with the founders of Israel until his
own leadership role in the Jewish world. Dr. Avi-hai was privileged to work in the shadow
of Israel's founders and great leaders. Early on, he was on the staff of Prime Minister
David Ben-Gurion and his successor, Levi Eshkol. Dr. Avi-hai was recruited to
Government service by the man who later became Jerusalem’s Mayor, Teddy Kollek.

For a decade he was World Chairman of United Israel Appeal - Keren haYesod, and a
welcome visitor in Jewish centers around the world. He has lectured in most major cities
in the Western world.

In the early 1970s, Dr. Avi-hai was a founding Dean of the Rothberg International School
at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and also acted as its Provost, and is now a Member
Emeritus of the University’s Board of Governors. He has been Visiting Professor at the
University of Rochester in the US and at York University in Canada.

In the course of his career, he was a welcome speaker in major and minor communities
across the world. He counts in the tens of thousands the students who have studied at
the Rothberg School and thousands whose lives he touched as a leader in the Jewish
Agency and WZO.

He received his Bachelor's degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary, New York, and
his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees at Columbia University in New York
(Political Science). Previously he had studied at the University of Toronto and at Yeshiva
University, New York. In his earlier years in Israel, Avi-hai was a reporter for The
Jerusalem Post, and a correspondent for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He now
writes a bi-weekly column for the Post, called “The POSTman Knocks Twice.” In addition
to English and Hebrew, he speaks Yiddish and French, and has a working knowledge of a
number of other European languages.

His book Ben-Gurion -- State Builder has appeared in English, Hebrew, French, and
Spanish. His DANGER! Three Jewish Peoples, is a controversial analysis of spreading
rifts in Jewish peoplehood. In recent years he has devoted most of his time to studying
and writing. His novel in Hebrew and in English, A Tale of Two Avrahams is available on
Amazon, and from Gefen Publishers’ in Israeli bookstores. It combines two genres, those
of a modern thriller and a historical novel, and has hadexcellent reviews.

Dr. Avi-hai was born in Toronto, Canada and immigrated to Israel in 1952. For a time, he
lived and worked as a farmer and building laborer in a kibbutz in the south of Israel. He is
married and lives facing the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem with his wife Henrietta,
where they are often visited by three generations of offspring.