Prof. Shlomo Avineri passed away at the age of 90 today (Friday). He was a researcher in the field of political science and served as Director General of the Foreign Ministry in the first Rabin government.
Professor Shlomo Avineri is the recipient of the Naftali Prize in Economic and Social Sciences in 1977 for his book "Hegel's Political Theory", and the recipient of the Shlomo Bublik Prize in 2009.
In the same year, he was awarded the Order of the Italian Star of Solidarity by the President of Italy. In 2010 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Weizmann Institute of Science for his contribution to research and society in Israel, and in 2011 he was awarded an honorary fellow by the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. In 2013, Avineri won the EMET Prize.
Avineri was married to attorney Deborah Nadler, who passed away last year, and father to Maayan Avineri-Rabhon.
The Hebrew University said: "Avineri, a researcher and historian in the field of political philosophy, one of the most important scholars of Hegel and Marx, Zionism and socialism, winner of the Israel Prize and the EMET Prize, and a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. For 6 decades he was an admired lecturer at the Hebrew University and a visiting scholar at the world's most prestigious research institutions. Today, Israeli academia is saying goodbye to one of the giants of political thought in Israel and around the world. May his memory be blessed."
"Immoral parasitism"
Avineri also spoke painfully about the "fashion" of obtaining European passports, saying: "Anyone applying for a German passport today, or Polish, or Hungarian, or Romanian, does not really see himself as a citizen of Germany, Poland, Hungary or Romania.
London. Did not like the influx to Europe, Photo: Getty Images
"Their national and civic consciousness is not part of his consciousness, he does not pay taxes in these countries and has no real interest in what is happening in them. All he asks is to enjoy the benefits without taking part in the burden. This is ugly and immoral parasitism, and only the heavy sense of guilt that weighs on the Europeans prevents them from criticizing it."
Born in Poland, lectured in Israel
Avineri was born in Bielsko, Poland, and immigrated to Eretz Israel with his parents in 1939. From 1962 to 1965 he was one of the founders of the opposition "From the Foundation" group within Mapai and one of its most prominent activists. He published articles in a journal also called From the Ground Up. He served as Head of the Department of Political Science and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, as well as Head of the Center for European Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Avineri has taught as a visiting professor at Yale University, Cornell University, the University of California, Oxford University, Northwestern University, Australian National University Canberra, Yeshiva University School of Law in New York, and others.
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