Yaacov Lozowick (; born 1957) is a German-born

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i historian and writer. He was the director of the archives at

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem (; ) is Israel's official memorial institution to the victims of Holocaust, the Holocaust known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (). It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; echoing the stories of the ...

. From 2011 to 2018 he was Israel's Chief Archivist at the

Israel State Archives Israel State Archives (ISA; ''Arkhiyon Medinat Yisra'el'') is the national archive of Israel, located in Jerusalem. The archive houses some 400 million documents, maps, stamps, audio tapes, video clips, photographs and special publications. His ...

Biography

Yaakov Lozowick was born in 1957 in

Bad Kreuznach Bad Kreuznach () is a town in the Bad Kreuznach (district), Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a spa town, known for its medieval bridge dating from around 1300, the Alte Nahebrücke (Bad Kreuznach), Alte Nahebrücke, ...

. In 1980, he gained qualifications as a tourist guide. In 1982, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

and

Jewish philosophy Jewish philosophy () includes all philosophy carried out by Jews or in relation to the religion of Judaism. Until the modern ''Haskalah'' (Jewish Enlightenment) and Jewish emancipation, Jewish philosophy was preoccupied with attempts to reconc ...

from 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. ...

. In 1984 he obtained a diploma in

pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political, and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

and in 1989 a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in contemporary

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

from the Hebrew University. In 1995, he completed his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

in contemporary Judaism at Hebrew University.

Professional career

In 1985-1990, Lozowick worked as a class educator and history teacher and at Himmelfarb high school for boys in Jerusalem. In 1986-1989, he taught modern

Jewish history Jewish history is the history of the Jews, their Jewish peoplehood, nation, Judaism, religion, and Jewish culture, culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions and cultures. Jews originated from the Israelites and H ...

World Union of Jewish Students The World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS ) (; ; ; ) is the international, pluralistic, non-partisan umbrella organisation of independent Jewish student groups in 38 countries. The World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS) aims to connect, represent, ...

Academy. He worked as a researcher at Yad Vashem from 1982, and served as director of Seminars for Educators from Abroad from 1989 to 1993. At the suggestion of Austrian political scientist

Andreas Maislinger Andreas Maislinger (born 26 February 1955 in Sankt Georgen bei Salzburg, St. Georgen near Salzburg, Austria) is an Austrian political scientist and wiktionary:Founder, founder and former chairman of the Austrian Service Abroad. He also is the fou ...

, he organized the first German-language Seminars for Educators from Abroad. From 1993 until 2007 he served as the director of the Archives at Yad Vashem. Lozowick's 2003 book '' Right to Exist: a Moral Defense of Israel's Wars'' is an attempt to apply

Just War The just war theory () is a doctrine, also referred to as a tradition, of military ethics that aims to ensure that a war is morally justifiable through a series of criteria, all of which must be met for a war to be considered just. It has bee ...

theory to Israel's wars. Lozowick was described by

Contemporary Sociology ''Contemporary Sociology'' is a bi-monthly peer-reviewed academic journal of sociology published by SAGE Publications in association with the American Sociological Association since 1972. Each issue of the journal publishes many in-depth as well as ...

as a "long time leftist and peace activist."Politicide Revisited, by Chad Alan Goldberg, Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 34, No. 3 (May, 2005), pp. 229-232 Lozowick was Israel's chief archivist at the

from 2011 to 2018. Lozowick was a leader in the efforts to digitize the national archives, the role of which he describes is "to transfer the documentation of the government to the possession of the governed". He has explains that "since much of the content is both fascinating and relevant to most aspects of society's life, enabling the citizens to have free and easy access to their documentation—within the obvious constraints—will enrich the public discourse and strengthen Israeli democracy." As part of this process Lozowick maintains an English language blog highlighting material made available online by the archive. In 2017, Lozowick published a report strongly critical of the procedures for releasing files and especially of new changes. The report summarized the situation thus: : Israel does not deal with its archival material as befits a democratic state. The vast majority of archival material is closed and will never be opened. The minority that will be opened will have unreasonable restrictions. There is no public accountability or transparency in the release of records.

Published works

* ''Hitler's Bureaucrats: The Nazi Security Police and the Banality of Evil'', Continuum, London and New York, 2002, * '' Right to Exist: a Moral Defense of Israel's Wars'',

Anchor Books Vintage Books is a trade paperback publishing imprint of Penguin Random House originally established by Alfred A. Knopf in 1954. The company was acquired by Random House in April 1960, and a British division was set up in 1990. After Random Ho ...

, 2004,
''Serious Scholarship, Lightweight Polemics''
review of Mark Mazower's book ''Hitler's Empire: Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe'', 2010.

References

External links

Yad Vashem

The English-language blog of the Israel State Archives (ISA)

Lozowicks Blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lozowick, Yaacov 1957 births Living people German historians of the Holocaust Israeli people of German-Jewish descent People from Bad Kreuznach 21st-century Israeli historians Yad Vashem people