Chair, IIJG Executive Committee from April 2013. Born Scotland, 1938. Doctorate in Modern History from Oxford, 1965 (thesis published in book form by University of California Press, 1976, entitled The Arabs and Zionism before World War I). British Foreign Office, 1965-71. Israeli Foreign Ministry, 1973-2003 – served inter alia as Ambassador, Vatican (2000-03); Ambassador, United Nations, Geneva (1994-98); Liaison Officer to US Congress, DC (1985-89); Diplomatic Representative, Beirut (1982). Seasoned Jewish genealogist, active since 1978. Current research focus: “Village Jews in 19th Century Minsk Gubernya – their life and times”. Research experience: three in-depth visits to various archives in Belarus (1998, 2001, 2004), plus work in many other national and private archives in Israel, UK and US. Several articles published in AVOTAYNU. Specialized studies, archival inventories and translations (from Yiddish) posted on Belarus and Lyakhovichi SIG’s. Research languages: English, Hebrew, Yiddish, French, Italian, German, Arabic.

Retired as IIJG Director in December 2012 and in April 2013 elected Chairman of the Institute’s Executive Committee. In August 2013, at the the 33^rd IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy (Boston), received the IAJGS Lifetime Achievement Award for his vision in establishing the Institute and success in directing it from 2006-2012.

Click here for IIJG Press Release regarding this award.

Click here for an article about the award by Douglas Bloomfield from Jewish Week (10.8.2013).

* Deceased in Feb. 2022.