Benjamin Shwadran


Dr. Benjamin Shwadran is an author and professor of Middle Eastern studies. He was born in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Education

Shwadran was one of the first students to enroll in the Institute of Jewish Studies at the new Hebrew University, when it began to offer instruction in 1924. Shwadran went to the US in 1927, and completed his studies at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he received a doctorate in 1945.

Academia

Shwadran first taught Middle Eastern studies at the New School for Social Research in New York, and then as Professor of Middle Eastern studies and Director of the Middle East Institute at Dropsie College and Yeshiva University. Shwadran then taught as a Professor of political science at Hofstra University. Shwadran spent the 1968–69 academic year as a visiting research associate at the Shiloah Center. In 1973, he retired to Jerusalem, and continued to teach as a Professor of Modern Middle East History at Tel Aviv University and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Publications

His major books include The Middle East, Oil, and the Great Powers, Jordan, A State of Tension, The Power Struggle in Iraq, and Middle East Oil Crises since 1973.

Shawdran Collection

The Moshe Dayan Center is home to the Shwadran Collection, a collection of press clippings and documents first assembled by Shwadran in his capacity as head of the research department of the American Zionist Emergency Council, a coordinating body of American Zionist organizations, associated with Cleveland rabbi Abba Hillel Silver. The AZEC later created a spin-off, the Council for Middle Eastern Affairs, which sponsored a monthly journal, Middle Eastern Affairs. Shwadran was Editor of the journal and of the Council for Middle Eastern Affairs Press from January 1950 until December 1963. The collection covers the entire Middle East, but is strongest for mandatory Palestine, the first decade of Israeli independence, Arab-Jewish and Arab-Israeli relations, and American Zionism.