Ephraim Isaac

Last updated

Ephraim Isaac
Born (1936-05-29) 29 May 1936 (age 88)
Ethiopia
Nationality Ethiopian
Alma mater Concordia College
Harvard University
Occupation Professor

Ephraim Isaac (born 29 May 1936) is an Ethiopian scholar of ancient Ethiopian Semitic languages and of African and Ethiopian civilizations. He founded the Institute of Semitic Studies, which he directs from his home in Princeton, NJ, [1] and is the chair of his Ethiopian Peace and Development Center. [2]

Contents

He was the first professor of Afro-American studies at Harvard University. [3] In recognition of his merits, the Ephraim Isaac Prize for Excellence in African Languages is given annually to the Harvard graduate who writes the best essay in African studies. [4]

Early life

Isaac was born to an Ethiopian Jewish mother and a Yemeni Jewish father in Wallaga, Nejo, Ethiopia, in 1936. His actual date of birth is unknown. In high school, he randomly chose 29 May as his nominal birthday. [5] He received his early education in Ethiopia.

Career

Isaac has been a professor at various universities and has published scholarly articles and books. He was the first faculty appointment in Harvard University's Department of African and Afro-American Studies in 1969, and he played an important role in the early history of the department. Committed to this emerging field of scholarship, Isaac continued as a faculty member until 1977 and taught almost half of the students enrolled in the program. [6]

Isaac has also lectured at:

His subjects range from those mentioned above to Biblical Hebrew, rabbinic literature, Ethiopian history, the concept and history of slavery and ancient African civilizations. He was a fellow at the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute for Advanced Studies. He has been a fellow at Harvard University's W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute (1985–1986) and at the Center of Theological Inquiry at Princeton (1989–1992).

Isaac had a long-running dispute with the president of Harvard regarding the denial of his strong nomination for tenure by the then Department of African American Studies. [7] [8] After several appeals by the president of Harvard to drop the charges, Isaac won a major victory when the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston ruled in his favor by that rejected the president's appeal, after which the president proposed to settle the case out of court, offering Isaac a fellowship position and paying all legal fees. [9]

In November 2021, Canadian author Jeff Pearce leaked a video that appeared to show Isaac in a virtual meeting with Eleni Gabre-Madhin and several Western diplomats working to topple Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government to create a transitional government in favor of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) during the Tigray War. Despite both being able to refute the allegations, they were barred from traveling to Ethiopia, and a wide range of condemnation came from within Ethiopia and its diaspora. [10] [11]

Peace contributions and activities

Contributions

Isaac in a breakfast meeting (seated with hat) with Haile Gebrselassie (second from right) Haile Gebreselassie 2010 Interview.1.JPG
Isaac in a breakfast meeting (seated with hat) with Haile Gebrselassie (second from right)

As a peace activist, Isaac has made important contributions to peace and reconciliation. He founded an ad hoc Peace Committee at a critical stage in 1989. The committee – a dozen Ethiopian elders – facilitated bilateral negotiations between the government and conflicting parties at home and abroad. This created a forum for a peaceful resolution to the violence and bloody conflict. The committee accelerated the July 1991 end of the 30-year civil war in the Horn of Africa. The committee also helped raise funds to defray the cost of the Addis Ababa Conference for a Peaceful and Democratic Transition at the end of the war. A transitional government of Ethiopia was formed, and the Transitional Council later became the Parliament of Ethiopia. He participated in the conference as an observer, and gave one of the three concluding addresses. In 1992, he organized, with the help of fellow elders, Dr. Haile Sellasie Belay and Dr. Tilahun Beyene, an international teleconference of religious reconciliation – with eight conflicting Ethiopian archbishops and several other religious leaders. It resulted in the resolution of serious religious disputes that arose among the archbishops of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church regarding church administration and appointment of a patriarch.

Between 1998 and 2000, he led an Ethio-Eritrean peace delegation to Ethiopia and Eritrea during the tragic war between the two. This delegation was the only group from the region that both sides found acceptable or welcome. Since 2007, he has promoted reconciliation and repatriation of several Ethiopian and Somali liberation front movements in exile. In 2007, he negotiated the release of 30 Ethiopian political leaders and members of parliament. Isaac has also negotiated the release of about 35,000 prisoners and has helped organize inter-political party dialogues, an election board, national police chiefs and justices seminars. This was done in cooperation with the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and other experts, and an interfaith symposium to promote the value of democratic and human rights to strengthen peace and reconciliation efforts. In 2009, he was actively engaged behind the scenes in the Ethiopian government treaty with a major branch of the Ogaden National Liberation Front. In 2012, he was involved with the release of two kidnapped Germans and in 2013, the release of two Swedish journalists. He continues his peace and reconciliation work.

Activities

Isaac is currently the international chair of the Horn of Africa Board of Peace and Development Organization (Addis Ababa, Asmara) and the former president of the Yemenite Jewish Federation of America. He founded (1960), and was chair of the Committee for Ethiopian Literacy, the first African/Ethiopian federal tax-exempt organization: the National Literacy Campaign of Ethiopia (NCLO), for which he was executive director from 1967 to 1974, which made millions literate in the late 1960s. [12] [13] [14] In 1959, he organized the founding meeting of the Ethiopian Students Association in North America (ESANA) in Chicago, becoming the first president of the organization.

He is on editorial boards of two international scholarly journals: Journal of Afroasiatic Languages [15] and Second Temple Jewish Literature. Isaac is a member of the board or advisory council of several interfaith and intercultural groups and organizations, nationally and internationally. These include the Temple of Understanding, the Institute of Religion and Public Policy, Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, Princeton Fellowship in Prayer, Institute for Jewish Community Research, and the Oxford Forum in England. In this capacity, Isaac has contributed to numerous peace and reconciliation dialogues in the Middle East, Africa and Ireland.

In the 1980s he was an active member of the Harvard-Radcliffe Alumni Association against Apartheid. He was nominated twice to the Harvard University Board of Overseers on an Anti-apartheid slate along with fifteen other distinguished Harvard alumni, including those who struggled against South African Apartheid and Archbishop Tutu. In 1993 (Chicago, IL) he was a signatory to the groundbreaking Document Toward a Global Ethic along with the Dalai Lama, the late Joseph Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago, and others, as a Jewish delegate to the Parliament of World's Religions and a member of the about 150 Assembly of Religious and Spiritual Leaders. He was the first to propose in October 1993 to the Parliament the idea of a "united nations" of world religions (UR) to promote world peace and prosperity. Between 1994 and 2005 (New York, NY), he was an active member of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy at the height of their involvement with the Northern Ireland peace process. In 2004 (Amman, Jordan) he contributed to peace meetings as a member of the peace delegation of Peacemakers in Action of the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, sponsored by Prince Hassan Ibn Talal with the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding. In 2005 (Amman, Jordan) Isaac also contributed to other peace-building symposia among the three followers of the Religion of Abraham who have roots in Arabic culture (Arab Jews, Christians, and Muslim) as President of the Yemenite Federation of America, sponsored by the Government of Jordan and the Interfaith Council of Jordan.

In 2005 (Brussels, Belgium) and 2006 (Seville, Spain) he served twice as a delegate to the two major peace-building symposia of Imams and Rabbis sponsored by the Kings of Morocco, Belgium, and Spain, and the French organization Hommes de Parole. In June 2006 (Oslo, Norway) Isaac gave a keynote talk to the international congress of conflict resolution experts sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway and Geneva Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue. In 2007 (Sarajevo, Bosnia) he participated and contributed to a peace-building symposium among followers of the three Abrahamic Religions in Bosnia Herzegovina, as a member of the peace delegation of Peacemakers in Action of the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding. In 2009, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, was a member of the peace delegation of distinguished jurists, diplomats, scholars, and religious leaders led by Cardinal McCarrick and Ambassador Tony Hall to Israel and Palestinian Authority. In 2010 (Princeton, NJ) Isaac co-sponsored with Princeton University, a dialogue on Yemen: Jews & Moslems - The Shared Cultural Heritage, with the hope of continuing to promote the peace dialogue between Jews and Moslems. And in 2010 (Basle, Switzerland) Isaac gave a talk on traditional peace activism, and Judaism as a member of a peace delegation at a meeting of Jews, Christians, and Iranian Ayatollahs, sponsored by PRIA Norwegian peace institute and the Catholic University of America.

Publications

In media

His work has been featured in several front-page stories, including three in The New York Times , three in the Trenton Times and The Record,[ dubious – discuss ] and one editorial in the Washington Post . Other stories about his work have also appeared in the Boston Globe , the Chicago Tribune , The Christian Science Monitor , The Jerusalem Post , Shalom-European Jewish Times,[ dubious – discuss ] The Jewish Week (New York), the Baltimore Jewish Times , numerous Ethiopian radio, television, and newspaper reports, and many other local and national papers throughout the United States of America, and the BBC. [16] [17] [18] [19]

Recognition and awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interfaith dialogue</span> Positive interaction of different religious people

Interfaith dialogue, also known as interreligious dialogue, refers to cooperative, constructive, and positive interaction between people of different religious traditions and/or spiritual or humanistic beliefs, at both the individual and institutional levels.

Ethio-Semitic is a family of languages spoken in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Sudan. They form the western branch of the South Semitic languages, itself a sub-branch of Semitic, part of the Afroasiatic language family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of Ethiopia</span>

The languages of Ethiopia include the official languages of Ethiopia, its national and regional languages, and a large number of minority languages, as well as foreign languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Rosen (rabbi)</span> English-Israeli rabbi

David Shlomo Rosen KSG CBE is an English-Israeli rabbi and interfaith peacemaker. He was Chief Rabbi of Ireland (1979–1985) before relocating permanently to Israel in 1985. He has taken leave from his position as AJC’s International Director of Interreligious Affairs in order to serve as Special Advisor to the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi. From 2005 until 2009 he headed the International Jewish Committee for Inter-religious Consultations (IJCIC), the broad-based coalition of Jewish organizations and denominations that represents World Jewry in its relations with other world religions.

The Foundation for Self Sufficiency in Central America (FSSCA) is a non-profit organization headquartered in Austin, Texas that works in partnership and solidarity with low-income communities in Central America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yehuda Stolov</span>

Yehuda Stolov, an Israeli, is a founder and the executive director of the Interfaith Encounter Association (IEA). He currently resides in Jerusalem with his wife, Lia and his three kids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marc H. Tanenbaum</span> American activist and rabbi

Marc H. Tanenbaum (1925–1992) was a human rights and social justice activist and rabbi. He was known for building bridges with other faith communities to advance mutual understanding and co-operation and to eliminate entrenched stereotypes, particularly ones rooted in religious teachings.

The Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize is a biannual, $50,000 award to "an individual or an organisation in recognition of propagating Guru Nanak’s philosophy of discovering oneness of humanity by exploring the differences that separate people". The prize is administered by Hofstra University, New York as part of its efforts in the advancement of religious study, and is supported by the Sardarni Kuljit Kaur Bindra Foundation, funded by a gift from the family of Ishar Singh Bindra.

Mohammed Abu-Nimer is an American expert on conflict resolution and dialogue for peace. He is a full professor at the American University School of International Service in International Peace and Conflict Resolution in Washington, DC, the largest school of international relations in the United States.

Alon Goshen-Gottstein is a scholar of Jewish studies and a theoretician and activist in the domain of interfaith dialogue. He is founder and director of the Elijah Interfaith Institute since 1997. He specializes in bridging the theological and academic dimension with a variety of practical initiatives, especially involving world religious leadership.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of early Tunisia</span>

Human habitation in the North African region began over one million years ago. Remains of Homo erectus during the Middle Pleistocene period, has been found in North Africa. The Berbers, who generally antedate by many millennia the Phoenicians and the establishment of Carthage, are understood to have arisen out of social events shaped by the confluence of several earlier peoples, i.e., the Capsian culture, events which eventually constituted their ethnogenesis. Thereafter Berbers lived as an independent people in North Africa, including the Tunisian region.

James Wuye is a Pastor of the General Council of the Assemblies of God Nigeria and co-director with Imam Muhammad Ashafa of the Interfaith Mediation Center of the Muslim-Christian Dialogue in Kaduna, Kaduna State, Northern Nigeria.

Imam Muhammad Ashafa is co-director with Pastor James Wuye of the Interfaith Mediation Center of the Muslim-Christian Dialogue in Kaduna, Kaduna State, Northern Nigeria.

The Institute of Semitic Studies (ISS) is a nonprofit independent research institution based in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, dedicated to the academic study of Semitic languages and cultures. Its work seeks especially to highlight the contribution of Afroasiatic peoples to world civilization, in general, and Western culture, in particular. It was founded in Princeton in 1984 and then incorporated in 1985, and is currently directed by Ephraim Isaac a Harvard-trained scholar and peace activist. The Institute also releases a bi-annual linguistically focused international scholarly journal entitled the Journal of Afroasiatic Languages (JAAL) published by the Red Sea Press. In addition to its academic journal, the ISS also recently launched an academic monograph series called Afroasiatic Studies in collaboration with the Red Sea Press. The Institute of Semitic Studies is the first independent research institute that focuses on Semitic and Afroasiatic studies within the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hizkias Assefa</span> Ethiopian consultant

Hizkias Assefa is a conflict mediator known widely in Africa for his non-aligned work as a consultant who has mediated in most major conflict situations in sub-Saharan Africa in the past 20 years, as well as in a dozen countries elsewhere. He is also a professor of conflict studies. Of Ethiopian origin, he is based in Nairobi, Kenya. He was one of the founding faculty members in 1994 of the Conflict Transformation Program at Eastern Mennonite University.

The Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel (ICCI) was founded in 1991 to further understanding and communication between members of different faith communities and to build foundations for lasting fellowship.

"Our mission is to harness the teachings and values of the three Abrahamic faiths and transform religion's role from a force of division and extremism into a source of reconciliation, coexistence and understanding for the leaders and followers of these religions in Israel and in our region."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jamila Afghani</span> Afghan womens rights activist

Jamila Afghani is a feminist and an activist for women's rights and education in Afghanistan. She is the founder and executive director of the Noor Educational and Capacity Development Organization (NECDO). She is also an executive member of the umbrella organization Afghan Women's Network (AWN). In 2022, Jamila Afghani was awarded the seventh annual Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity.

Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding is a secular non-profit organization that works to promote mutual respect and understanding and fight religious prejudice in workplaces, schools, health care settings and conflict zones. Headquartered in New York, New York, Tanenbaum was founded in 1992 by Georgette Bennett in memory of her late husband, Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum. Tanenbaum's activity revolves around five programs: religion and diversity in the workplace, religion in education, religion and healthcare, religion and conflict resolution, and the religious roots of prejudice and interreligious affairs.

Hind Aboud Kabawat is a Syrian-Canadian international counsel, Director of Interfaith Peacebuilding at George Mason University's Center for World Religions, Diplomacy, and Conflict Resolution and deputy head of the Syrian Negotiation Commission's Geneva Office.

References

[3] [14] [16] [17] [18] [19] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44]

  1. ↑ "Institute of Semitic Studies". Archived from the original on 13 July 2013. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
  2. ↑ Campbell, Colin. "About Education; Semitic Scholarship". The New York Times, 2 December 1986
  3. 1 2 "Education: Black Studies: A Painful Birth". Time . 26 January 1970.
  4. ↑ https://aaas.fas.harvard.edu/prizes-awards
  5. ↑ Brackman, Harold (16 May 2013). "Black-Jewish relations at a crossroads". The Jerusalem Post .
  6. ↑ "Ephraim Isaac Prize for Excellence in African Studies". Harvard University Department of Afro-American Studies. Archived from the original on 18 May 2013. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
  7. ↑ "Scholar Still Fighting Harvard Tenure Denial". The New York Times. 27 September 1981.
  8. ↑ "Ephraim Isaac, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. Harvard University, Defendant, Appellee, 769 F.2d 817 (1st Cir. 1985)".
  9. ↑ "African Studies Survives Rocky Years of Early Eighties". The Harvard Crimson . 4 June 2007.
  10. ↑ "Leaked: West's Diplomats Meet in Secret to Decide How to Help the TPLF". Borkena Ethiopian News. 25 November 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  11. ↑ Zeybe, Addis (26 November 2021). "Eleni Gebre-Madhin denies the blame on 'secret meeting' conspiracy". Addis Zeybe. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
  12. ↑ Getachew, Indrias, "Ethiopia: Professor Ephraim Isaac- Scholar and Peace-Making Elder". AllAfrica.com, 5 February 1999,
  13. ↑ Egziabher, Sebhat G., Ethiopian Literary Magazine April 2000
  14. 1 2 Ethiopian Herald , 2 January 1972
  15. ↑ "Journal of Afroasiatic Languages". Archived from the original on 28 April 2013. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
  16. 1 2 Lifestyles Magazine, Winter 1994, vol. 24, no. 133
  17. 1 2 Harvard Divinity School Bulletin, Spring 1989, vol. XIX/1
  18. 1 2 Princeton University Weekly Bulletin, 30 April 1984
  19. 1 2 The Christian Science Monitor , 19 September 1964
  20. ↑ "Tanenbaum Peacemaker awarded Royal Order of Polar Star - Tanenbaum.org". 18 December 2013.
  21. ↑ "Congratulations, award winners". Monitor on Psychology. 44 (8). American Psychological Association: 66. September 2013. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  22. ↑ "Prize Descriptions § Prize Office". Archived from the original on 19 June 2017.
  23. ↑ Shalom: The European Jewish Times: Geneva, Switzerland (Born in Ethiopia where he received his early education, from the French and German edition), Pesah, 1997
  24. ↑ Ha'aretz, 21 April 1997
  25. ↑ The Ethiopian Herald, December 1995
  26. ↑ Keynote Talk Evaluation, Eighth National Conference On Race and Ethnicity in American Higher Education, 6 June 1995
  27. ↑ Metro West Jewish News, 29 September 1994
  28. ↑ The New York Times, Sunday 24 October 1993
  29. ↑ The Princeton Packet, 2 July 1993
  30. ↑ Town Topics, Princeton, NJ, 9 June 1993
  31. ↑ The Jewish Forward, 3 July 1992
  32. ↑ United Federation of Teachers Bulletin (NY) 18 February 1992
  33. ↑ Ethiopian Review, Cover Story, October 1991
  34. ↑ The Washington Post, Editorial, 20 November 1989
  35. ↑ Princeton Packet, 22 July 1988
  36. ↑ London Times Higher Education Supplement, 21 October 1983
  37. ↑ The Boston Globe Magazine , 9 December 1979
  38. ↑ Boston Herald Tribune, 7 March 1976
  39. ↑ The Harvard Crimson, 8 February 1975
  40. ↑ Jerusalem Post, 26 May 1974
  41. ↑ The Ethiopian Herald, 25 January 1970
  42. ↑ The Christian Science Monitor, 10 September 1968
  43. ↑ The Ethiopian Herald, 26 February 1967
  44. ↑ The Ethiopian Herald, 1 January 1967
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.