Manfred Halpern (February 1, 1924 in

Mittweida Mittweida () is a town in Saxony, Germany, in the Mittelsachsen district. Geography Mittweida is situated on the river Zschopau (river), Zschopau, 18 km north of Chemnitz, and 54 km west of Dresden. Embedded within the steep hills and ...

, Germany – January 14, 2001 in

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

, USA), a transformation theorist, noted scholar of the Middle East, and author of the foundational study of post-imperial politics in the Middle East, The Politics of Social Change in the Middle East and North Africa, as well his life's work on transformation ''Transforming the Personal, Political, Historical, and Sacred in Theory and Practice''.

Early life and education

Born to nonobservant Jewish parents in Mittweida Germany, he fled the Nazi regime as a child with his parents in 1937, settling in New York City where he attended

Townsend Harris High School Townsend Harris High School at Queens College (THHS) is a public magnet A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a fo ...

. Halpern was an undergraduate at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

when WWII began. He joined the Army, serving as a battalion scout in the 28th Infantry Division, surviving winter on the side of a tank during the

Battle of the Bulge The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. The battle lasted from 16 December 1944 to 28 January 1945, towards the end of the war in ...

. After Germany surrendered, Halpern served in Counterintelligence helping trace former Nazis in Germany, including in his hometown of Mittweida; he also served as an instructor in the Counterintelligence Corps. After the War Halpern returned to UCLA and completed his degree, earning his master's degree and doctorate from the

School of Advanced International Studies The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is a graduate school of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C., United States, with campuses in Bologna, Italy, and Nanjing, China. It is consistently ranked one of th ...

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consiste ...

. Between 1948 and 1958 he served in the State Department in intelligence research as an expert on Near Eastern and North African politics. He was given the Department's Meritorious Service Award in 1952.

Princeton

Halpern joined the faculty of

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...

in 1958, where he taught until he retired in 1994. Initially offering classes in Middle Eastern politics, Halpern devoted four decades of scholarship to a Theory of Transformation ~ developed through his two Princeton courses "The Sacred and the Political" and "Political and Personal Transformation", as well over 30 scholarly articles, published in book form eight years after Halpern's death. Halpern's work explores the ways personal, political, historical, and sacred relationships continually change; from the breaking apart of traditional emanational modes of authority, through the fragments of incoherence and deformation, into the kinds of transformations currently seen across all scales in the 21st century.

Personal life

A world traveller and a gardener, Halpern was married twice, with five children and five grandchildren.

References

1924 births 2001 deaths People from Mittweida Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States Islam and politics Historians of Islam Jewish scholars of Islam Middle Eastern studies in the United States Townsend Harris High School alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies alumni {{islam-historian-stub