Israel Charny | |
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ישראל צ'רני | |
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| Born | 1931 (1931) Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Died | (aged 93) Jerusalem, Israel |
| Occupation(s) | Psychologist, genocide scholar |
Israel W. Charny (Hebrew:ישראל צ'רני; 1931 – 14 December 2024) was an Israeli psychologist andgenocide scholar.[1] He is the editor of two-volumeEncyclopedia of Genocide,[2] and executive director of theInstitute on the Holocaust and Genocide inJerusalem.[3][4]
Israel Charny received hisA.B. in Psychology with Distinction fromTemple University in 1952, and hisPh.D. in clinical psychology from theUniversity of Rochester in 1957. He established and directed the first group psychological practice in thePhiladelphia area (1958–1973), where he was also the first Professor of Psychology at the newly foundedReconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia.
An affiliate of the Institute for the Study of Genocide, theInternational Association of Genocide Scholars was founded in 1994 by Israel Charny,[5]Helen Fein,Robert Melson and Roger Smith. From 2005 to 2007, he was Vice President and then President of the organization.
Charny was devoted to the study of theHolocaust andgenocide since the mid-1960s. His first publication on the subject which appeared in Jewish Education in 1968 was "Teaching the Violence of the Holocaust: A Challenge to Educating Potential Future Oppressors and Victims for Nonviolence." He once wrote, "...Genocide in the generic sense means the mass killing of substantial numbers of human beings, when not in the course of military action against the military forces of an avowed enemy, under conditions of the essential defencelessness of the victim..."
Charny, a clinical psychologist and practicing psychotherapist, was Professor of Psychology and Family Therapy at theHebrew University of Jerusalem, where he was the Founder and first Director of the Program for Advanced Studies in Integrative Psychotherapy (Family, Couples, Individual and Group Therapy) of theMartin Buber Center and Department of Psychology.[6] He was the founding and first president of the Israel Association of Family Therapy and later a president of the International Family Therapy Association.
He is best known for his active stance againstdenial of theArmenian genocide, and has written articles[7] and given lectures on the subjects ofgenocide andgenocide denial. He is most noted for his comparison ofArmenian genocide denial toHolocaust denial,[8] citing that they both have similar techniques and psychological motivation.
Charny died in Jerusalem on 14 December 2024, at the age of 93.[9]
During theIsraeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, Charney said: "Israel [should] offer to cease all fighting following return of all Israeli hostages. At the same time, Israel should underscore its readiness to return to massive destruction of Gaza in response to any further bombings or invasions by Hamas."[10][11]
Israel's Failed Response to the Armenian Genocide Denial, State Deception, Truth versus Politicization of History. Academic Studies Press. Boston, 2021.
