Joshua Rubenstein
BornNew Britain, Connecticut
OccupationWriter, activist
EducationColumbia University (BA)
Notable awardsNational Jewish Book Award (2002)
Website
Joshua Rubenstein

Joshua Rubenstein is an American activist, writer and scholar of literature, dissent, and politics in the former Soviet Union. He won a National Jewish Book Award in Eastern European studies in 2002 for his book Stalin’s Secret Pogrom.[1][2]

Biography

Rubenstein is a native of New Britain, Connecticut. He received his B.A. from Columbia University in 1971, graduating Phi Beta Kappa.[3] At Columbia, he was a student of Lionel Trilling.[3] He also took part in the Columbia University protests of 1968 as a freshman.[4] During college, Rubenstein took a six-week language tour of the Soviet Union and met William Brui, an artist in Leningrad whom he would eventually profile in ARTnews, resulting in his hiring by the Boston Phoenix.[3]

He joined Amnesty International in 1975 and served as its Northeast Regional Director for 37 years. He worked with Soviet dissidents and on behalf of prisoners of conscience, and organized campaigns to free activists in Pakistan, the former Rhodesia, and Ecuador.[5] He is also critical of Israel and its human rights abuses and is an advocate against death penalty.[4][6]

As a writer, Rubenstein has published eight books covering Soviet dissidents,[7][8][9] Joseph Stalin's purges on Jewish intellectual leaders,[10] and biographies of Ilya Ehrenburg and Leon Trotsky.[11][12][13]

He is currently Associate Director for Major Gifts at Harvard Law School and was a longtime associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b "Joshua Rubenstein". Davis Center. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  2. ^ "Winners of 52nd National Jewish Book Awards". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 2002-10-17. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  3. ^ a b c "Columbia College Today". www.college.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  4. ^ a b Correspondent, J. (1997-01-07). "Jewish activist criticizes Israels human-rights abuses". J. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  5. ^ "Joshua Rubenstein: New England's heroic human rights defender - The Boston Globe". Boston Globe. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
  6. ^ Deady, Monica. "30 years of making a difference". Wicked Local. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  7. ^ Raksin, Alex (November 24, 1985). "Soviet Dissidents: Their Struggle for Human Rights,..." Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  8. ^ "Did Stalin's Death Save Soviet Jews?". Jewish Currents. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  9. ^ Sharlet, Robert (1980). "Growing Soviet Dissidence". Current History. 79 (459): 96–100. doi:10.1525/curh.1980.79.459.96. ISSN 0011-3530. JSTOR 45314871. S2CID 249073839.
  10. ^ Bernstein, Richard (2001-05-30). "BOOKS OF THE TIMES; As Ordered, the Execution of Soviet Jews and Patriots". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  11. ^ "Joshua Rubenstein discusses his book Tangled Loyalties: The Life and Times of Ilya Ehrenburg". The WFMT Studs Terkel Radio Archive. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  12. ^ "The Last Days of Stalin by Joshua Rubenstein review – an historic opportunity missed". The Guardian. 2016-08-18. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  13. ^ Madigan, Patrick (May 2015). "Leon Trotsky: a Revolutionary Life. By JoshuaRubenstein. Pp. x, 225, New Haven/London, Yale University Press, 2013, £10.99". The Heythrop Journal. 56 (3): 536–537. doi:10.1111/heyj.12249_72.
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