Israel W. Charny (; 1931 – 14 December 2024) was an Israeli psychologist and

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

scholar. He is the editor of two-volume ''Encyclopedia of Genocide'', and executive director of the

Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide The institute on the Holocaust and Genocide was founded in Jerusalem, in 1979, by Israeli scholars Israel W. Charny, Shamai Davidson and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel. In 1982 the institute on the Holocaust and Genocide held an interdisciplinary, mu ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

Biography

Israel Charny received his A.B. in psychology with distinction from

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

in 1952, and his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in clinical psychology from the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded in 1850 and moved into its current campus, next to the Genesee River in 1930. With approximately 30,000 full ...

in 1957. He established and directed the first group psychological practice in the

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

area (1958–1973), where he was also the first professor of psychology at the newly founded

Reconstructionist Rabbinical College The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) is a Jewish seminary in Wyncote, Pennsylvania. It is the only seminary affiliated with Reconstructionist Judaism. It is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Assoc ...

in Philadelphia. An affiliate of the Institute for the Study of Genocide, the

International Association of Genocide Scholars The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) is an international non-partisan organization that seeks to further research and teaching about the nature, causes, and consequences of genocide, including the Armenian genocide, the Holoc ...

was founded in 1994 by Israel Charny, Helen Fein, Robert Melson and Roger Smith. From 2005 to 2007, he was vice president and then president of the organization. Charny was devoted to the study of the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

and

since the mid-1960s. His first publication on the subject which appeared in Jewish Education in 1968 was "Teaching the Violence of the Holocaust: A Challenge to Educating Potential Future Oppressors and Victims for Nonviolence." He once wrote, "...Genocide in the generic sense means the mass killing of substantial numbers of human beings, when not in the course of military action against the military forces of an avowed enemy, under conditions of the essential defencelessness of the victim..." Charny, a clinical psychologist and practicing psychotherapist, was professor of psychology and family therapy at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

, where he was the founder and first director of the Program for Advanced Studies in Integrative Psychotherapy (Family, Couples, Individual and Group Therapy) of the

Martin Buber Martin Buber (; , ; ; 8 February 1878 – 13 June 1965) was an Austrian-Israeli philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of existentialism centered on the distinction between the I and Thou, I–Thou relationship and the I� ...

Center and Department of Psychology. He was the founding and first president of the Israel Association of Family Therapy and later a president of the International Family Therapy Association. He is best known for his active stance against

denial Denial, in colloquial English usage, has at least three meanings: * the assertion that any particular statement or allegation, whose truth is uncertain, is not true; * the refusal of a request; and * the assertion that a true statement is fal ...

of the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily t ...

, and has written articles and given lectures on the subjects of

and

genocide denial Genocide denial is the attempt to deny or minimize the scale and severity of an instance of genocide. Denial is an integral part of genocide and includes the secret planning of genocide, propaganda while the genocide is going on, and destruction ...

. He is most noted for his comparison of

Armenian genocide denial Denial of the Armenian genocide is the negationist claim that the Ottoman Empire and its ruling party, the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), did not commit genocide against its Armenian citizens during World War I—a crime docume ...

Holocaust denial Historical negationism, Denial of the Holocaust is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that asserts that the genocide of Jews by the Nazi Party, Nazis is a fabrication or exaggeration. It includes making one or more of the following false claims: ...

, citing that they both have similar techniques and psychological motivation. Charny died in Jerusalem on 14 December 2024, at the age of 93.

Views

During the

Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip The Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip is a major part of the Gaza war. Starting on 7 October 2023, immediately after the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, Hamas-led attack on Israel, Israel began bombing of the Gaza Strip, bombing the Ga ...

, Charney said: "Israel houldoffer to cease all fighting following return of all Israeli hostages. At the same time, Israel should underscore its readiness to return to massive destruction of Gaza in response to any further bombings or invasions by Hamas."

Selected publications

*''Marital Love and Hate'' *''Existential/Dialectical Marital Therapy'' *''Encyclopedia of Genocide'' *''Genocide: A Critical Bibliographic Review'' *''The Widening Circle of Genocide'' *''Century of Genocide Critical Essays and Eyewitness Accounts'' *''Fascism and Democracy in the Human Mind'' *''The Genocide Contagion'' * Republished in Israel's Failed Response to the Armenian Genocide Denial, State Deception, Truth versus Politicization of History. Academic Studies Press. Boston, 2021.

References

External links

Biography of Israel CharnyList of books by Israel CharnyGenocide Prevention Now, founded and directed by Israel Charny
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Charny, Israel 1931 births 2024 deaths Jewish scholars Israeli historians Temple University alumni University of Rochester alumni Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Genocide studies scholars Israeli psychotherapists Israeli psychologists Reconstructionist Rabbinical College faculty Jewish Israeli writers American emigrants to Israel Writers from Brooklyn