Gustavo Daniel Perednik ( he, גוסטבו דניאל פרדניק; born 1956) is an Argentinian-born Israeli author and educator.
Perednik graduated from the Universities of
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
and Jerusalem (
cum laude), has a PhD in education (
Universidad ORT Uruguay) and completed doctoral studies in Philosophy in New York. He took courses at the
Sorbonne
Sorbonne may refer to:
* Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities.
*the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970)
*one of its components or linked institution, ...
(France),
San Marcos (Peru), and
Uppsala
Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019.
Located north of the c ...
(Sweden). He was distinguished as an outstanding lecturer at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he ran the four-year, preparatory, and freshman programs. In
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
, he was also Director of the Institute for Jewish Leaders from Abroad and the Sephardic Educational Centre. He ran the ''Ai Tian Program for Jewish Understanding'' in China, and the Program for Education on the Jewish Role in Civilization. He resides with his family on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
An expert on
Antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
, or Judeophobia, Perednik was guest lecturer at more than 100 cities in 50 countries, and has published 15 books and more than 1,000 articles on
Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in t ...
and modernity.
He lectures on philosophy and on the History of Zionism in the Rimonim Program of
Herzog College
Herzog College ( he, מכללת הרצוג, ''Mikhlelet Herzog'') is an Israeli teachers' college with campuses in Jerusalem, Alon Shvut and Migdal Oz.
History
Herzog College is named for Jacob Herzog, Yaakov Herzog, an Israeli diplomat, scholar ...
, Israel.
Biography
Perednik was born in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
,
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
, on October 21, 1956, the only child of Marta (1925–2001) and Samuel (1923–1994), first-generation Argentines born to Jewish
immigrants from Ukraine. He studied at the Buenos Aires English High School, and the
Escuela Superior de Comercio Carlos Pellegrini.
Community work
He taught in a number of Jewish institutions throughout Latin America, and founded the ''Centro Hebreo Yonah'' of Argentina, which he developed into a youth movement of 2,000 members. A member of th
Sino-Judaic Institute in 2001 he established in China the Ai Tian Program of Jewish Understanding through which he lectured in many Chinese universities and high schools. His published several essays on the relation between the Jews and the Chinese. In June 2006, after a lecturing tour in several towns of
Galicia, Spain, he founded the Association of Gallegan Friends of Israel
AGAI.
First books
In 1980, his novella ''There at the Santanders'' was awarded the ''Victoria Ocampo Literary Prize'', and it was published in English in the ''Stories'' magazine of Boston in 1985. In 1982, he obtained a ''Jerusalem Fellows Scholarship'' to study in Jerusalem for a three-year period, during which he completed his MA in education at the Hebrew University (''cum laude'') and his doctoral studies at
The Jewish Theological Seminary
The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) is a Conservative Judaism, Conservative Jewish education organization in New York City, New York (state), New York. It is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism and a major center fo ...
of New York. Perednik pursued Talmudic studies first under Rabbi Theodore Friedmann, and then at the
Dvar Yerushalayim Yeshiva. He was married in 1985 to
Ruth Kestenbaum, an educational psychologist from London, with whom he has five children.
Perednik's novel ''Achitophel'', a fantasy on suicide, was published in 1988, and it received the ''Literary International Prize Fernando Jeno'' of Mexico. That year he was invited to lecture for one month in Los Angeles by the Sephardic Educational Center, and since then he has lectured in 100 cities in more than 50 countries.
In 1989, his two-volume book ''I am a Hebrew'' was published. The following year. the Hebrew University appointed him as head of the Four-Year, Freshman and Preparatory Programs, where he lectured for many years. During the 1990s, he was director of the ''Institute Youth Leaders from Abroad''.
His essay on Judaism and Ecology was published in 1990, and received the ''Keren Kayemet Prize'', and in 1992 his novel ''Lemech'' was published in Tel Aviv, a fictional history of WWII with
Freud,
Bertha Pappenheim, and
Eduard Hanslick as main protagonists.
Judeophobia and other books
At the Institute for Youth Leaders Perednik created a course on
Judeophobia, which he taught in several languages and was published as a book in many editions. He taught a full course on Judeophobia at several universities in Israel, Spain, and Latin America.
In 2004 he published in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
''Spain Derailed'', with a prologue by
Pilar Rahola, about Islamic terrorism and the inadequate response of the West. Since 2004, Perednik has given courses at the ORT Uruguay University on the Jewish contribution to civilization, about which he published three books. In 2008, Perednik created an exhibition on the subject, which was presented in main venues in Argentina.
His novel ''Darwin’s Silence'' was published in 2007, and it was analyzed in a doctoral thesis for the
University of Stockholm
Stockholm University ( sv, Stockholms universitet) is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, soci ...
, Sweden. In 2009, his book ''To Kill Without a Trace'' was published, about the Iranian terror attacks in Argentina. The book was presented in a number of cities in Israel, Argentina, and Latin America. That year, Pablo Besaron publishe
''La conspiración'' on Argentine literature, which includes a chapter on Perednik's novels. In 2010, a course on Perednik's novels was given at the Asociacion Argentina de Cultura Inglesa.
Work
*There at the Santanders (1980)
*I am a Hebrew (1989)
*Protection of Four Thousand Years – Judaism and Ecology (1990)
*Lemech (1992)
*
ttp://www.ort.edu.uy/sobreort/pdf/libroperednik.pdf Great Thinkers (2005)br>
Darwin’s Silence (2006)*Outstanding Thinkers (2006)
*Famous Thinkers (2007)
The innovator and his environmentProgram for Jewish Education*To Kill Without a Trace (2009)
*The Motherland was a Book (2010) on the influence of the Hebrew Bible in Western Civilization
*Mankind and Chess (2012)
*Kafkania (2012)
*An Autopsy of Socialism (2013), coauthored with economist
Alberto Benegas Lynch
*Sabra (2014), coauthored with
Marcos Aguinis
*To Die for Argentina (2017) about the assassination of his friend
Alberto Nisman
Natalio Alberto Nisman (5 December 1963 – 18 January 2015) was an Argentine lawyer who worked as a federal prosecutor, noted for being the chief investigator of the 1994 car bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people, t ...
Essays in Anthologies:
* ''Naïve Spanish Judeophobia'', in the ''Jewish Political Studies Review'' 15:3–4, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Fall 2003, pages 87–110.
* ''L’Espagne'' en ''Les habits neufs de l’antisemitisme en Europe, Collection Dissidence'', Éditions Café Noir, Paris, 2004, pages 133–53.
* ''The Chinese of Jewish Descent at Kaifeng'', in'' Alternative Orientalisms'', Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK, 2007
References
External links
Dr.Manfred Gerstenfeld interviews Gustavo Perednikan
(in Spanish)
Audio: Entrevista al Dr. Gustavo Perednik y R. Roni Gurwicz-
IsraelNationalNews.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perednik, Gustavo
Israeli philosophers
Israeli people of Argentine-Jewish descent
Israeli people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
Argentine people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
Argentine emigrants to Israel
Jewish Argentine writers
1956 births
Israeli writers
Israeli Jews
University of Paris alumni
Hebrew University of Jerusalem faculty
Universidad ORT Uruguay faculty
Living people