Subject: Sad News

I regret to have to announce to those of you who may not be aware, the passing of one of the Yale Club of Israel's most renowned members, Ehud Sprinzak. He will certainly be missed by all who knew him or knew of him.

The Yale Club of Israel sends its heartfelt condolences to Ehud's wife Ricki, four children, two grandchildren, and his mother.

Carice Witte
Yale Club of Israel

Nov. 9, 2002
Ehud Sprinzak, expert on terror, dead at 62
By THE JERUSALEM POST STAFF

Prof. Ehud Sprinzak, a counterterrorism expert and adviser to the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, died Friday afternoon of cancer at Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer. He was 62.

Sprinzak was recognized around the world as an authority on terrorism, extremist politics, and the radical Right in Israel. He served as founding dean of the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy, and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. Previously, he had for many years been a senior lecturer in political science at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

For the past several years, Sprinzak devoted himself to the new school at the Interdisciplinary Center, seeking, in his words, "to encourage and prepare a new leadership of excellence for Israeli society." According to Dr. Boaz Ganor, the executive director of the International Policy Institute of Counterterrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center, "he combined two things... [he was] a bright lecturer who was greatly loved by his students, and an excellent researcher."

At a memorial service for Rabin three weeks ago, Eitan Haber, director-general of Rabin's Prime Minister's Office, noted that Sprinzak was for Rabin "a partner to important and fateful decisions." He was one of the few experts on Israel's ultra-Right who had told Rabin that he might face an assassination attempt, said Galia Golan, a colleague.

Although Sprinzak researched their activities, he was respected and liked by Israeli right-wingers, who considered him a professional who did not allow his political opinions to influence his research, Ganor noted.

Uriel Reichman, president of the Interdisciplinary Center, said Saturday: "Prof. Sprinzak was a dear friend and an academic leader. Within two years, he established the Lauder School of Government, which is unique in Israeli academia. His students loved him and accompanied him on educational and communal missions throughout the country. "His enthusiasm infected us all. Ehud was totally devoted to the task of preparing future leadership, and to Israeli society."

The author of five books, Sprinzak was often interviewed by the foreign media, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and Die Welt. His latest book, Brother Against Brother (Free Press), surveyed violence and extremism in Israel from the Altalena to Rabin's assassination.

Sprinzak received a Ph.D. in political science from Yale University in 1972 on the subject of student protests of the sixties in the US and France. He was a visiting professor at American University in Washington, Georgetown University, and Princeton University, and a senior fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Institute.

He is survived by his wife Ricki, four children, two grandchildren, and his mother.

The funeral will take place Sunday at 3 p.m. in the Kfar Nahman Cemetery in Ra'anana. The coffin will be available for final respects from 1:30 p.m. at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya.