Kenneth W. SteinProfessor Emeritus
Kenneth W. Stein, Professor Emeritus of Contemporary Middle Eastern History, Political Science, and Israeli Studies, B.A Franklin and Marshall College, M.A Michigan (History), M.A Michigan (Near Eastern Literatures and Languages), Ph.D, Michigan taught at Emory from January 1977 to December 2022. He taught 5826 students, mostly undergraduates, on a variety of Middle Eastern and Jewish History topics that included, Islamic, Ottoman, Arab and Jewish history, origins of Modern Israel, the Arab/Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, inter-Arab politics, Arab-Israeli diplomacy, and American foreign policy to the Middle East. He held a joint appointment in the Political Science Department and was a founding member of the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies. He was a visiting Professor of Political Science at Brown University in Spring 2006.
Stein is the Founding President and Chief Content Officer for the Atlanta-based (CIE) Center for Israel Education, with 1.9 million visitors to its website in 2021. Using source content and original documents, CIE educates broadly across the world in multiple languages through digital, written, and presentation platforms.
At Emory, he originated and centrally contributed to the development of university wide institutions. He was founding director (1979) of the International Studies Center, which evolved into the College’s broad involvement in Russian and Latin American Studies program through program and faculty salaries; he was the first permanent director (1983-1985) of the Carter Center and the Middle East Fellow of the Carter Center (1983-2006); Founding Director and Director Emeritus of ISMI, the Emory Institute for the Study of Modern Israel (1998 – present) which was responsible for raising all the funds and bringing to Emory College, 16 visiting Israeli scholars, teaching 43 courses and 760 students. At ISMI and at the Carter Center, Stein was the mentor for 150 student interns who deepened their knowledge of the Middle East through carefully directed research projects. Emory recognized Stein’s contributions in the classroom and across the university with the Emory Williams Teaching Award (1997), as the first recipient of the Marion Creekmore Award for Internationalizing the curriculum (2002), and with the George P. Cuttino Award (2009) for distinguished life-long mentorship to students. Over four decades at Emory he raised more than $3 million dollars in grants and donations to Emory programs for international, Middle Eastern, and Israeli studies programs.
As a public intellectual, Stein has presented hundreds of commentaries and analyses on the Middle East beginning with the Atlanta based WGST in 1977. He evolved, directed and moderated a Georgia Public Television program, “World in Review,” which twice a month from 1980-1983. He was a regular seminar leader for the Atlanta based Southern Center for International Studies. During its founding decade in the 1980s, Stein became regular visiting analyst for CNN and for Atlanta radio and television outlets covering the Gulf War, the Oslo negotiating process, Rabin’s assassination, the Arab world after 9/11 and the Arab spring (2011). He wrote more than 200 articles that appeared in the Southern Israelite/Atlanta Jewish Times.
Stein’s scholarly research and publications continue to focus primarily on the socio-economic history of Zionist and Palestinian communal identities in the first half of the 20th century, the Arab-Israeli conflict and the negotiating process. Publications include six books, dozens of scholarly articles, and more than 300 OPED and analytical pieces for media outlets around the world. His publications have included, The Land Question in Palestine, 1917-1939 (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1984, 1985, and 2003); Making Peace Among Arabs and Israelis: Lessons from Fifty Years of Negotiating Experience (Washington, DC: United States Institute for Peace, 1991); Heroic Diplomacy: Sadat, Kissinger, Carter, Begin, and the Quest for Arab-Israeli Peace (New York: Routledge, 1999); its Hebrew edition Mediniut Amitza (2003); E-book publications include History Politics and Diplomacy of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, A Documentary Source Compilation (Center for Israel Education, 2017 - Third edition), The June 1967 War: How it Changed Jewish, Israeli and Middle Eastern History (Center for Israel Education, 2017), Egyptian-Israeli Negotiations’ Documentary Reader: 1973-1979 (Center for Israel Education, 2019). Other authored publications through CIE include Zionism and Israel to 1948, (with Richard Walter), Sephardi Jewry and the Land of Israel (with Yaron Ayalon), and Israel National Security and Civil Liberties (with Roni Eshel).
A select list of major scholarly publications in edited volumes and journals include “The Arab-Israeli War of 1948, Center for Israel Education, 2020, "Zionist Land Acquisition: A Core Element in Establishing Israel,” in Michael J Cohen (ed.) The British Mandate in Palestine A Centenary Volume, 1920-1948, Routledge, 2020, pp. 189-204; "Forming a Nucleus for the Jewish State: 1882-1947," Center for Israel Education, August 2019, (33pp), Also available in Spanish and Hebrew; “The US-Israel Relationship,” The Oxford History of Israel, 2018; “What If the Palestinian Arab Elite Had Chosen Compromise Instead of Boycott in Confronting Zionism?” What Ifs of Jewish History, Cambridge University Press, 2016, pp. 215-237; “A Concise History of Israel,” with Cary Nelson and Rachel S. Harris, in Cary Nelson and Gabriel Noah Brahm (eds.) The Case Against Academic Boycotts of Israel, Chicago: MLA Members for Scholars Rights, 2015, pp. 384-440; ”Evolving A Diplomatic Legacy from the October War: the US, Egyptian, and Israeli Triangle." in Asaf Siniver (ed.) The October 1973 War: Politics, Diplomacy, and Legacy (London: Hurst and Company, 2013). pp. 209-229; “The U.S. Role in Palestinian Self-Determination,” inFocus Quarterly, Fall 2011, “My Problem with Jimmy Carter's Book." Middle East Quarterly, XIV, Spring 2007, no. 2. pp. 3-15.
“Consequences of Mass Arab Immigration to Europe,” Tel Aviv Notes, No. 45, July 25, 2002; “The Talks at Kilometer 101,” in Richard B. Parker, The October War: A Retrospective (University Press of Florida, 2001), pp. 361-373; and five chapters on the Arab-Israeli Peace Process in Middle East Contemporary Survey, Westview Press, 1996-2000. A more complete list of his publications may be found at the ISMI website. Stein writes a monthly blog for the Center for Israel Education. He may be reached at kenstein@israeled.org or kstein@emory.edu.
Institute for the Study of Modern Israel, www.ismi.emory.edu
Center for Israel Education, www.israeled.org
Education
- BA, Franklin and Marshall College, 1968.
- MA, University of Michigan, 1969.
- MA, University of Michigan, 1971.
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem (doctoral research), 1971-1973.
- PhD, University of Michigan, 1976.
Interests
- American Foreign Policy toward the Middle East
- Modern Arab world
- Modern Israel
- Arab-Israeli Negotiations
Awards
- Emory Williams Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (1995)
- Marion V. Creekmore Award for Internationalizing the Emory Curriculum (2001)
- Ross Award for intellectual integrity - Israel on Campus Coalition and ADL (2007)
- Cuttino Medal for Lifelong Mentorship to Emory Undergraduates (2009)
- Etz Chaim Award for Service, Jewish National Fund (2012)
