Alexander (Alex) Ryvchin (born 18 July 1983) is an Australian author, advocate, media commentator, and lawyer.

Biography

He was born in Kiev, Ukraine and migrated to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

as a

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

. He practised law at

Mallesons Stephen Jaques King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) is the largest global law firm in Asia. It has 30 offices and more than 3,500 legal professionals in Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East. Its predecessor firms include ''SJ Berwin'' of the United Kingdom's ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

and

Herbert Smith Herbert Smith LLP was a multinational law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The firm was founded in the City of London in 1882 by Norman Herbert Smith and merged with the Australian law firm Freehills on 1 October 2012, forming Herber ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

before serving as a spokesman for the Zionist Federation UK and being awarded an Israel Research Fellowship. His writing on the

Arab–Israeli conflict The Arab–Israeli conflict is an ongoing intercommunal phenomenon involving political tension, military conflicts, and other disputes between Arab countries and Israel, which escalated during the 20th century, but had mostly faded out by the ...

and Jewish history has been published in numerous international newspapers, including ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

'', ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', The ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

'', and ''

The Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Jerusalem Post''. In 2004, the paper w ...

''. Ryvchin is a regular columnist for ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

''.

Author

Ryvchin is the author of two books on Israel. His debut book, ''The Anti-Israel Agenda - inside the political war on the Jewish State'' (

Gefen Publishing House Gefen Publishing House (הוצאת גפן) is an English language publishing firm located in Jerusalem, which also has a department in New York City. History Gefen was founded in 1981 by Murray and Hana Greenfield. Its CEO is Ilan Greenfield, so ...

, 2017), is a collaborative work with other prominent thinkers on the Israel-Palestinian conflict including Alan Dershowitz, Colonel

Richard Kemp Colonel Richard Justin Kemp (born 14 April 1959) is a retired British Army officer who served from 1977 to 2006. Kemp was an infantry battalion commanding officer. Among his assignments were the command of Operation Fingal in Afghanistan from ...

Hillel Neuer Hillel C. Neuer (born 1969/1970) is a Canadian-born international lawyer, writer, and the executive director of UN Watch, a human rights NGO and UN watchdog group based in Geneva, Switzerland. Neuer is the founding chairman of Geneva Summit fo ...

and Professor Alan Johnson. It was lauded by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee as "the most important book on Israel since Alan Dershowitz's "The Case for Israel". In May 2019, Ryvchin announced the upcoming release of his second book, titled "Zionism - The Concise History".

Critic

Ryvchin is an outspoken critic of the anti-Israel movement referring to its activists as "self-righteous westerners" with "pretensions to heroism" who seek "redemption" by "slaying the Zionist beast". He has been a staunch critic of Palestinian terrorism, corruption and rejection of a negotiated end to the conflict with Israel. He has spoken publicly of his love for Australia and his support for

multiculturalism The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "Pluralism (political theory), ethnic pluralism", with the tw ...

and integration which Ryvchin argues requires that "we accept the duty to uphold the freedoms granted to us and to protect the values underpinning our society – values such as democracy, tolerance, mutual respect."

Television guest

He is a frequent guest on US, Israeli and Australia media. In May 2013, Ryvchin was appointed Director of Public Affairs at the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and was promoted to co-Chief Executive Officer in 2018, becoming one of the youngest professional leaders in the Jewish world.

Personal life

He currently resides in Sydney with his wife and daughters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryvchin, Alexander 1983 births Australian Jews Australian journalists Living people Ukrainian emigrants to Australia Australian people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent