Howard Morley Sachar (February 10, 1928 – April 18, 2018) was an American historian. He was Professor Emeritus of History and International Affairs at the George Washington UniversityinWashington, D.C., and the author of 16 books,[1] as well as numerous articles in scholarly journals, on the subjects of Middle Eastern and Modern European history. His writings, which have been published in six languages,[2] are widely regarded as solid reference works.[3][4][5][6]
Howard Morley Sachar was born to historian and academic administrator Abram L. Sachar and his wife, Thelma Horwitz,[7] during his father's tenure as a professor of history at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.[1][8] He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and raised in Champaign, Illinois. He was the eldest of three brothers; his brother Edward J. Sachar became a pioneering biological psychiatrist and David B. Sachar became a gastroenterologist.
Sachar completed his undergraduate education at Swarthmore College and earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history at Harvard University.[2][9]
He married Eliana Steimatzky and had three children: Sharon, Michele and Daniel.
Sachar was a full-time faculty member of the Department of History and the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University for 40 years.[1] He was also a visiting professor at Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University, and a guest lecturer at nearly 150 other universities in North America, Europe, South Africa and Egypt.[2] In 1996 he was awarded an honorary degreeofDoctor of Humane Letters from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. He also received the National Jewish Book Award on two separate occasions.[2] In 1977, for A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time and in 1982 for Egypt and Israel.[10]
In 1961 Sachar founded Brandeis University's Jacob Hiatt Institute in Jerusalem,[2] one of the first study-abroad programs in Israel,[1] and served as its director until 1964.[2] Through his connections with the United States Foreign Service, where he worked as a consultant and lecturer on Middle Eastern Affairs,[2] he was able to obtain funding for the Jacob Hiatt Institute from the U.S. State Department in 1965.[1]
He was a member of the American Historical Association as well as one dozen editorial boards and commissions. In addition to his books, he was editor-in-chief of the 39-volume The Rise of Israel: A documentary history.[2]
Howard Sachar died at his home in Kensington, Maryland, on April 18, 2018, aged 90.[11]
Sachar was a member of the advisory council of the pro-peace lobbying organization J Street and an advocate of the two-state solution for the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.[12]
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