Avner Falk ( he, אבנר פלק; born 1943) is an Israeli clinical psychologist and author. Falk has written psychoanalytic studies of Jewish and Israeli leaders,

Jewish history Jewish history is the history of the Jews, and their nation, religion, and culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions, and cultures. Although Judaism as a religion first appears in Greek records during the Hellenisti ...

, the

Arab–Israeli conflict The Arab–Israeli conflict is an ongoing intercommunal phenomenon involving political tension, military conflicts, and other disputes between Arab countries and Israel, which escalated during the 20th century, but had mostly faded out by the ...

antisemitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

and Islamic terrorism.

Biography

Avner Falk grew up in Tel Aviv and studied psychology and clinical psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1960–1966) and at

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

(1966–1970) where he received his Ph.D. in 1970. He returned to Israel in 1971 and worked as a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist in Jerusalem until 1995. He has published psychoanalytic biographies of Moshe Dayan,

David Ben-Gurion David Ben-Gurion ( ; he, דָּוִד בֶּן-גּוּרִיּוֹן ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first prime minister of Israel. Adopting the nam ...

Theodor Herzl Theodor Herzl; hu, Herzl Tivadar; Hebrew name given at his brit milah: Binyamin Ze'ev (2 May 1860 – 3 July 1904) was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish lawyer, journalist, playwright, political activist, and writer who was the father of modern po ...

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

and

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

. In 2005, his book ''Fratricide in the Holy Land: A Psychoanalytic View of the Arab-Israeli Conflict'' (2004) won the Outstanding Academic Title award from the American Library Association's ''Choice'' magazine. In July 2010 Dr. Falk was contacted by Dr. Hans-Joachim Lang, a Holocaust historian and journalist in the German university town of Tübingen, whose city government had just published the existence in its museum of a wooden Torah disc from Zgierz, the hometown of Falk's maternal family, which had been in its possession since 1994. It turned out that the disc was a relic from a Torah scroll that Falk's Polish-Jewish maternal grandfather, Jozef Cwi Szpiro (1880–1941), had donated to his Zgierz synagogue in 1927 in memory of his deceased parents, and that some time after 1939 came into the possession of Otto Michel (1903–1993), a well-known Tübingen university theologian, a former Nazi and SA member, who after the Second World War and the Holocaust became a Jewish Studies pioneer in Tübingen, and whose widow had given it to the city museum. Since then, Dr. Falk has been writing a psychohistorical book, which has also become a detective story, about when and how this relic of his grandfather's Torah scroll came into Michel's possession. Michel himself had said nothing about his Nazi past in his autobiography of 1989 and had apparently told no one about how he had come by the wooden Torah disc. In November 2011 Dr. Falk received this relic of his grandfather's Torah scroll from the mayor of Tübingen, Boris Palmer (born 1971), in a public ceremony in Tübingen's city hall, at which Falk delivered a German-language lecture on his findings entitled "Die Verneinung der Vergangenheit: Die Geschichte einer Thorarolle" ("The Denial of the Past: The Story of a Torah Scroll"). He continues his research for this book in the face of considerable resistance from some German archives.

Awards and critical acclaim

1987 Resident Scholar, Rockefeller Foundation Study and Conference Center, Bellagio, Italy 1997 Fellow of the International Napoleonic Society 1999 Featured Scholar, Clio's Psyche 2006 Outstanding Academic Title award for Fratricide in the Holy Land from the American Library Association's Choice magazine

Published works

Books 1985 משה דיין: האיש והאגדה. ביוגרפיה פסיכואנליטית oshe Dayan, the Man and the Myth: a Psychoanalytic Biography Jerusalem: Cana. Tel Aviv: Maariv Library. 1987 דוד מלך ישראל: ביוגרפיה פסיכואנליטית של דוד בן-גוריון avid King of Israel: a Psychoanalytic Biography of David Ben-Gurion Tel Aviv: Tammuz Publishing. 1993 ''Herzl, King of the Jews: a Psychoanalytic Biography of Theodor Herzl''. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America 1996 ''A Psychoanalytic History of the Jews.'' Madison, New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. Cranbury, New Jersey & London: Associated University Presses 2004 ''Fratricide in the Holy Land: A Psychoanalytic View of the Arab-Israeli Conflict''. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. 2007 ''Napoleon Against Himself: A Psychobiography''. Charlottesville, Virginia: Pitchstone Publishing. 2008 ''Antisemitism: A History and Psychoanalysis of Contemporary Hatred.'' Westport, Connecticut: Praeger. 2008 ''Islamic Terror: Conscious and Unconscious Motives.'' Westport, Connecticut: Praeger. 2010 ''Franks and Saracens: Reality and Fantasy in the Crusades.'' London: Karnac Books 2010 ''The Riddle of Barack Obama: A Psychobiography.'' Westport, Connecticut: Praeger

References

External links

Avner Falk's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Falk, Avner Israeli psychologists 1943 births Living people Washington University in St. Louis alumni Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni